Coats, jackets, fleeces, what to choose
By Grace Moore
A pinterest board of cute fur coats (Grace Moore/ Radio 1190)
First and foremost, we need to talk about the “Arc-pocalypse.” As a poor person and someone who doesn’t ski (which is also known as being a poor person), I am offended by Arc’teryx in every way. I think that even if you’re an average, swagged-out white boy in Boulder with a millionaire father, you should also be offended by Arc’teryx. I think it’s a human right actually.
If you’re lucky enough to be unaware of what Arc’teryx is, I’ll explain. It’s a winter clothing store that’s mostly for skiing, and it’s so overpriced.
There’s plenty of reasons to hate them, so let me just name a few for starters.First of all, they separate the parts of a jacket. If you go on their website, you can see that they have both shell jackets and insulated jackets. The shells are pretty much a thin outer layer while the insulated ones are equally thin puffers. Last time I checked, those were two required pieces of a jacket that made one winter coat. This is worse than when they started selling the top and bottom of bikinis separately. But at least this time men are affected too.
How much do each of these parts cost, you might ask? Well, as of Jan. 23, while I’m writing this, the price of the Beta Jacket Women’s, which is a shell jacket, is $400. And that’s the low end. Meanwhile, the insulated Cerium Jacket Women’s is $380. I don’t care who you are, this is the most insane price I’ve ever heard for a winter coat. That’s $780 for a jacket that doesn’t even come preassembled! This is a recession indicator, people!
One thing I think is important about a winter coat is that it doesn’t show your personality at all and means basically nothing to you. Winter’s wrath doesn’t care that you lost ten pounds and want to show it off, it doesn’t care that you just put concealer all over your chin acne and it especially doesn’t care if your outfit is just soooo cute.
If you want your winter coat to represent you in any way you are not going to be warm, that’s just the truth. Those nice leather bomber jackets aren’t warm, fur lined ones aren’t warm and any jacket that is “like so cute” but it’s from Princess Polly or something, it’s also not going to keep you warm.
This is because the requirements for a good winter coat are ugly. It has to be long, or your butt is going to freeze and if your butt’s cold, your whole body is cold. It has to be black because it has to go with any pair of pants, any purse and any backpack. It has to zip, it cannot button. If it buttons the wind will get in, you don’t have a choice. In the same vein, it has to have sleeves that cuff to your wrist so the air doesn’t get in and it has to have a hood. All of those things combined make for an ugly, ugly coat. The hard truth is that you just don’t have a choice.
All this being said, as more data centers go up and more amazon packages get delivered an ugly winter coat is no longer needed, especially in Colorado. So my fashion prediction is that what is in for 2026 are coats that end at the waist and maybe have buttons, or are fur lined. My crystal ball says no hoods and sleeves that don’t go in at the wrist. All of the above, I’d say. If you have always sacrificed style for warmth, now is your time to buy a jacket that expresses you. How beautiful! We all get to wear clothes that reveal our true self, and the only price we have to pay for it is the state of Florida sinking into the Atlantic.