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Ok, I live in Arkansas, and it’s generally mild in the winter. I’ve lived through Thanksgiving where it snowed and Thanksgivings where it’s 75+ F outside. The same goes for Christmas, and other notable cool weather holidays.
I own a lot of occasion specific coats such as hunting coats even though I don’t hunt anything anymore so I have a couple of very expensive all weather, camouflage coats. I have a Carhartt work coat that I’ve worn maybe twice. I have a variety of fleece jackets ranging from Columbia to The North Face to Eddie Bauer. I have a leather jacket that I haven’t worn since 2008 that’s in remarkably good condition. I have a supply of field or barn jackets, a plethora of wind breakers and hoodies, and even a tactical-foo jacket or two.
The problem is I don’t have a single coat to wear with business casual to dress clothes. I know the jacket/coat question pops up on here from time to time, and I often yawn at the trivial nature of it. However, I now see the problem. Although I am still in Arkansas I now live about five hours driving time farther north and in the mountains, and it’s noticeably cooler here. True, this is an unusually cold year as it dropped to 19 F last night – a rarity. The push is that I’m now a true professional wearing “nice clothes” and dress clothes most of the time, but I have nothing to wear with a suit, slacks, or even business casual as noted above.
I suppose this thread is more of a lamentation, and even after scouring the forums and a variety of my favorite man sites such as The Art of Manliness, et al., I’m left with nothing. My wife and I disagree on what I should purchase, but I concede that she’s correct in that I have nothing socially appropriate for business, plays, social networking with other affluent types, and I really would like to be warm. Perhaps it’s age now, but I find that I’m colder than I use to be. The preliminary answer is wool, but I’m an anal retentive fellow, and the concept of lint, fuzziness, and other issues connected to wool coats beleaguers me. I think my old leather jacket looks nice with business casual attire. Leather is heavy though, and I don’t think I want to wear it at this juncture. It’s so peculiar that I live in a not so cold region, but I own a surprising number of outer garments all of which would be grossly unbefitting one living in North Dakota, as an example. I think my warmest jackets are my waterproof, camo hunting jackets, but I don’t think they’d go over well with charcoal trousers and leather soled shoes. I invested in some sweaters last year, but even those aren’t quite sufficient lately.
Fortunately, there’s always weekends where I can don the fantasy 5.11 tactical pants and Merrell Moabs or Danner size-zips or even just some Levi’s and Irish Setters. The jacket options are simpler on the weekends, and jackets are paradoxically cool because they give me lots of pockets, look neat, and make me feel cozy. I don’t really expect anyone to read all of this or much less reply, but the wife is away for a week, and I’ve grown bored conversing with our dog. She’s a good listener, but her interests are quite limited.
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