How Long Should a Coat Last?

There is a Harris Tweed coat in my wardrobe that is older than I am. It belonged to my grandmother. It came to my mother and then, after considerable negotiation with my sister, to me. It has been relined twice. The buttons have been changed. The collar has been turned. It has survived decades of wear, storage, argument and revival — and it is, to all appearances, good for several more decades yet. My daughter has her eye on it.

When I set up EdNerat, I had to raise capital in the ways that small businesses do. I sold coats — good coats, coats I had loved — and they realised good money on eBay, because good coats hold their value in a way that most clothing does not. I could not bring myself to sell the Harris Tweed. Some things are not for sale.

That coat is the answer to the question of how long a coat should last. Not a season. Not a few years. A generation. Possibly two.

The answer, of course, depends on where you start. A coat made from good cloth, cut well and finished properly, will outlast almost anything else in a wardrobe. The fabric matters — a Harris Tweed, a dense bouclé, a well-woven brocade — these are fabrics that do not give up easily. The making matters equally. A coat that is properly constructed, with good seams and careful finishing, will take years of wear without losing its shape or its integrity. A coat that is cheaply made will look cheaply made within a season, however good the fabric it started with.

Cost per wear is a useful way of thinking about this. A coat that costs £800 and is worn twice a week for ten years has cost less per wear than a coat that costs £150 and is worn twice and forgotten. The expensive coat is, in every meaningful sense, the cheaper one. It is also the one that does not end up in landfill.

Care matters too. A coat needs less dry cleaning and more care. Dry cleaning is a harsh process that shortens the life of most fabrics. A coat hung outside on a dry day, or in a well-ventilated room after wearing, will freshen without chemical intervention. Steaming removes creases and refreshes the fabric without the damage that repeated dry cleaning causes.

Moths are the enemy. Cedar blocks, lavender bags and careful storage in breathable covers will deter them. At EdNerat we make lavender bags from our cutting waste — nothing is thrown away — and they are available in our shop. They are also, we think, the most useful thing we make after the coats themselves.

And when a coat needs more than airing and steaming — when the lining has worn, the buttons need replacing, the collar wants turning — we can help with that too. We reline coats. We replace buttons. We do the repairs that keep a good coat in service rather than consigning it to a bag for the charity shop.

A coat is not for a season. My grandmother's Harris Tweed is more than a hundred years old. You would not know it. Good cloth, good making and a good cut do not date. They simply endure.