I Run Cold, So I Lived In My Puffer From October To April. Then A Woman Who Sold Coats For 25 Years Told Me I Was Solving The Wrong Problem.

Everyone Has Advice For The Cold One

I'm Susan. I'm 49, I'm an accountant at a law firm in Chicago, and I'm the one asking the waiter to turn the heat up.

If you run cold too, you've heard all of it. Wear more layers. Buy a warmer puffer. Accept that you're just a cold person. I heard it so often it stopped meaning anything.

"I Basically Just Live In My Long Puffer"

That's what I told people, and it was true. From October to April I wore the same long black puffer, five winters in a row. It went over my good sweaters, my work trousers, the dress I wore to my niece's wedding. Nobody saw any of it.

I stopped thinking about it. But every morning, in the hallway mirror on the way out, something looked wrong, and I couldn't have told you what.

Then Gloria Said Something I Didn't Want To Hear

Gloria is in my Thursday-night book club at the neighborhood library. She's 55, she sold coats at a department store for 25 years, and now she manages a store.

She runs even colder than I do. And she looks put together every single winter.

One night last February, walking out to the parking lot, she looked at my puffer and said:

"You're solving the wrong problem."

Here's what she meant. If you run cold, you wear your coat more than anyone. And a coat you wear every day from October to April isn't an accessory. Its shape decides your whole winter.

The puffer was warm. Gloria never argued with that. But it was puffy, it had no shape, and it covered every outfit I'd chosen. Buying a more expensive puffer would just buy me the same shape again.

Three Things Gloria Told Me To Look For

1. How high the collar closes. If it closes to your chin, you don't need a scarf, and the wind can't find the gap at your neck.
2. How long it is. Past the knee, the coat becomes one straight line, and your legs are covered.
3. Room for a sweater, in your usual size. Warm only counts if the sweater fits underneath.

The collar. The length. The room.

"Is There One That Does All Three?"

I asked her that, half joking. Gloria laughed and pointed at her own coat. The Morgan Funnel Neck Coat, from Avielora.

100% wool. A funnel collar that fastens right up to the chin. It falls to mid-calf. Hidden buttons, no logo, a tie belt. And it fits in my usual size with a real sweater underneath.

It's $149. The kind of coat that usually costs over six hundred dollars.

What Happened Next

I'm Not Going To Pretend

A coat won't stop you running cold. I'm still the one asking to turn the heat up. But I stopped choosing between being warm and looking like myself.

If You're On The Fence Like I Was

It's 100% wool, it closes to the chin and it covers your legs, which is where the cold gets in. On the coldest days, wear it over a real sweater.

Take your usual size; the size chart is measured on the coat itself. You get 30 days to return it and a 100-Day Quality Guarantee.

Each Morgan is made after you order it, so it takes a few extra days to arrive. Order before the first snow, not after.