Shop: J. Crew Stadium Trench

If you are familiar with Montreal you know that our winters, albeit charming, are long and bone chilling cold. When I was younger I thought of winter wear as a necessary evil. I never participated in winter sports so I had no need for outdoorsy apparel and I was loath to spend money on 'ugly' winter supplies. I wore the same black trench coat year after year and bought the cheapest boots, scarves, and hats I could find. I somehow thought no one would notice what I had on anyway so it didn't need to be stylish or high quality. It's no wonder why I froze my tail off all those years, the things I bought were not fit for purpose. Not to mention shabby. If you think about it, winter in Montreal lingers from November (sometimes even October) to April, so it makes sense to invest in some decent apparel. Showing up at a job in a ratty winter coat or dirty salt covered boots doesn't look good, regardless of how nice the clothes are underneath it.

Based on that rationale, I had been scouring eBay over the last couple of months in the hopes of finding the J. Crew Tipped Pea Coat for a decent price. As you may know, I found it and subsequently bought it. I am still anxiously awaiting it's arrival. But, while researching J. Crew coats, I happened upon a gorgeous wool trench coat in a beautiful colour that I simply could not resist. Now I know that I just bought a new pea coat but the way I see it, that coat is for a completely different temperature range (see how I rationalize this?). This one would be wonderful for colder weather, not to mention the fact it is so pretty and so cheap at 200$ off retail. So, yadda, yadda, yadda...I bought a second coat. You can see why I failed my my no shopping challenge.The trench that I ended up buying was from a previous year's collection and I really like the cut/style. J. Crew has since revamped the J. Crew Stadium Trench Coat and I'm not a big fan of the redesigned raglan sleeves (as I tend to have a hard time fitting my back/arms in clothes that fit my chest/waist) and the bulky detail on the pockets. Here's both versions for comparison. It arrived yesterday and I have no regrets. I am in love with the colour and material. It's a tad big on me (the dangers of online shopping) but I chose a size 6 over my usual size 4 because I wanted something that could fit easily over multiple layers of clothes on -30C days. I detest when my sweater ends up bunched up around my bicep because the coat is too fitted for the clothes to lay comfortably underneath.

J. Crew Stadium Trench (Older Model)

J. Crew Stadium Trench (Current)