Non-technical Coats in a Ski Town? YES!
If superwoman lived in a ski town, I think her cape would be a wool coat.
I got my friend hooked to fashion substacks. And like all cravings, it was good until it wasn’t.
“I don’t know what my style is anymore”, she said to me last week as I bemoaned my own fashion insecurities back to her. There’s so much content out there telling you how to dress, and it can be hard to figure out what you want to wear.
“Style or taste is knowing who you are and knowing what you like, and then being able to look outside of yourself, see the world around you, and then pick out the one thing from around you that does resonate with you, that makes you feel like you are who you are or that you can incorporate into your mindset and worldview.
I mean, it’s a process of collection, almost. Like you’re grabbing on to the little voices and artists and touchstones that make you who you are and give you your sense of self. You’re drawn to something without knowing why.” Kyle Chayka on the Ezra Klein podcast
I’ve been thinking about that idea of style. What it is, and how we find it. How TOGS fits into that. The origins of this idea came from the feeling that the accepted or normalized uniforms of dressing for the outdoors or outdoor towns was too narrow. And if it felt too narrow for me, it must feel that way for others too (enter Kellyn!).
“I think taste almost can move in two directions. There is that internal sense of what am I feeling when I experience a work of art? What is happening in my own brain, in my soul when I listen to this music?
And then there’s this external idea of it, which is being super self-conscious about what other people are consuming, how they’re consuming it, how they might judge you for your tastes. We don’t want to be seen as having bad taste. And that consciousness of how other people’s taste works occludes our own experience of that internal pleasure or aesthetic joy.” Kyle Chayka on Ezra Klein podcast
The lightbulb moment came after the conversation I had with my friend. TOGS is about widening the lense not narrowing it. Clothing is of course about keeping you protected from the elements, but it’s other, and I’d argue just as important use is for us to express our insides with what we put on the outside. And that expression results in a billion different ways to dress whether you’re out skiing or just going to get coffee.
So when it comes to TOGS, I’ve made a promise to myself to keep to my own inner style, which of course will change, but hopefully never by force. TOGS is about showing a range of styles and it’s up to the reader to decide if it’s a heck yeah or a heck no.
*and on that note, we loved seeing the way people were inspired by TOGS and their own outfits on instagram (and hopefully soon in the chatroom). Keep them coming!!!
MY STYLE STAPLE
One element that’s become a staple for me is a wool coat (step aside down and gore). For me a wool coat screams I’ve got my sh*t together and I’m on my way somewhere. It lets me keep everything underneath simple but still says I’m feeling cool or chic or mysterious or smart. I like wearing them around Jackson and Chamonix, keeping the fact that I’m a professional skier who used to jump off sixty foot cliffs under wraps, literally. A coat to me feels like the equivalent of superwoman’s cape. It feels like this armor-but instead of metal made of the softest wool.
It took me moving to Europe to feel like I could wear them, and now I don’t travel without them. I definitely get some comments when I do, but they are a staple of my own style, a staple that I love. Maybe you do or will start to too?
So let’s get into the coats…
Coat 1: Grandma’s chocolate caramel heaven
This is the coat that started it all. I inherited three of my grandmothers coats and this one is the most wearable. I could wax on and on about the quality. I swear the thing could probably stand up on it’s own. Has this beautiful chocolate stripe. Huge zipper ring. The silkiest of silk liners. If I had a guess it came from the fifties or sixties and is still in great condition. I’m not sure you could find anything on the market today but would make for a great vintage scavenger hunt. The brand is aptly named Cuddle Coat New York, whose history can be found here. The owner/designer was eventually hired by Yves Saint Laurent, and I can tell why just by this number below.
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