More proof that well-made coats last.
A committed coat-lover on a tight budget, I had to make some tough choices when I started EdNerat. Amongst the toughest were the decisions I had to make about my existing coats. What point was there in keeping my much-loved coats, when I could now wear my own and needed money to invest in the business?
A family piece my Harris coat couldn't go, and didn't go – though it now rarely gets an outing.
Another sticker was my going-away coat. Sourced from a vintage shop in Paris, this 1950s Dior has seen some (sacrilegious, I know) alterations for comfort. It has transitioned from weddings to workwear and back again, and travelled almost as extensively as the Harris. It has given speeches, visited US Congress, countless galleries and more. And it will go on – my daughter quite rightly put her foot down!
Here it is on its first outing at our wedding ...
And here it is again twelve years later at a conference in Sydney.
My daughter didn't have such luck with my one and only Chanel coat. Again sourced in a vintage shop, this coat was purchased in a well-judged bout of self-generosity and subsequently worn to if not to death, at least to distraction. Packing like a dream it went around the world a time or two and was the envy of many.
Shot here (terribly) at Dartmouth House (visit, if you haven't), it was wonderfully useful and, yes, versatile. But when the time came to raise EdNerat funds it had to go. eBay duly delivered and I was able to recoup the investment with wear ... and sell the coat for the very same price I had bought it for more than a decade earlier.
Proof indeed that coats are nothing if not good investments.
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