2024 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

Oh @Cherryfudge - that's just how ours was this morning!! The shoerack inside the front door was stacked with a huge slithering heap of stuff just put down there since, er, umm... well, my cold-winter gilet thingummy was in there and that hasn't been worn in well over six months! I've been bemoaning my lack of my string bags, several of which were in there... all kinds of stuff! Things to be thrown out, things to take to recycling, all mixed up- an open small bag of Mr E's ex-wife's old prescriptions to go back to a chemist, all loose and down the back of the shoe-rack... 

Mr E just paused for his lunch-break, WFH, so I got him to check through his shoes and jackets and so on, so that I only put back what he wants kept  

PollyWollyDoodle

It’s funny isn’t it - when I was growing up, I had A Coat.  Suitable for school wear, big enough to fit a jumper underneath. Obviously it changed every so often as I outgrew it, usually replaced by one handed down from an older sibling. 

Now I have a smart winter coat, a mac for smart and wet-but-not-cold, a waterproof-type jacket for everyday winter wear, a lighter waterproof for the traditional British summer, a denim jacket, a gilet and who knows what else - the two waterproofs get the most wear as I don’t often go anywhere smart.  I’m usually driving, not having to wait at bus stops or on platforms.  Do I really need all these, I wonder?  

Most of them were bought second hand of course, in keeping with my principles.  It seems a lot but I’m guessing these days hardly anybody just has A Coat. 

Cherryfudge

I'm sure I have too many coats (blush) - like you @PollyWollyDoodle, they have different purposes. However, I do remember reading on these forums about a young mum who was getting cold doing the school run because she couldn't afford a coat and was having to pretend her jumper was enough. I remember someone offered her one. We are such a divided nation.

I think Laura has thrown out a challenge for our shoe racks and coat hooks though. Whose coat hooks hold most? Who can find the strangest thing? What items are retrieved that we hadn't even missed? I must have a look through mine when I'm feeling bold!

Laura_Elsewhere

@PollyWollyDoodle - I only have A Coat! Well, A Jacket... Dad bought himself a really really good Harris Tweed jacket form Jenners, many many years ago and said I could have it when it wore out... literally more than twenty years later...!!! 
When I acquired it, the lining had shredded in both sleeves, but I acquired some "vintage curtains, cotton" on eBay for £4, which turned out to be a beautiful shimmering heavy silk-twill in copper and dark-verdigris-green that went perfectly...

The only problem is that a Harris tweed jacket lined in heavy silk is actually just too warm for most circs, so I carry it a lot in cooler weather!  

Mostly I wear jumpers or shawls to keep the weather off and keep me warm... 

Cherryfudge

Confession time: without checking, I know there's my 'duvet coat', my 'fur' lined hoodie, a pink coat that I never wear that's supposed to be sold some year, a lovely maroon mack that I was going to sell as my hair gets caught on a button detail, a black coat for funerals and job interviews, a useful packable waterproof, two or three properly very waterproofs that got left at our house and no one admits to owning them (so we use them)...

...and after checking, I can add two denim jackets that are waiting for me to get back to a small 12. That's not counting the inherited coats from Mum that I don't wear and won't get rid of. (Fond memories of me as a four year old in a winter park with my baby sister and Mum, who was wearing what I was lead to believe was astrakhan: a photographer took a snap and the picture appeared in the local paper). On inheriting the coat, I found it's just a convincing pretend, but it still holds memories. Must be from around 1967.

CapricornLass

Guilty as charged, my lud.. - two rather worn coats that I used at the MOD, which I will get rid of, I think, as I inherited two beautiful German coats from my mother, a padded raincoat, long length, and a navy long-length loden coat, which is really smart and ideal for funerals.  I also have a bright red light mac (present from son), a weird fish jacket for summer, my denim jacket, and a very light padded cotton summer jacket in blue, again really good for smarter occasions.  Then there is a thigh-length waterproof, a shorter length waterproof that younger son took to Africa, it doesn't fit him but does me and at £200  ((2004 price) I'm d*****d  well not getting rid of it, and a yellow and blue sailing waterproof that I bought a very long time ago, is coming apart at the linings which I keep for things such as dump runs.  Also a Jack Wolfskin winter coat (hand me down from Mum) a Berghaus winter coat (mine - I've had it for years), a short leather coat and a sheepskin (waiting for me to get small enough to fit in it again.  Also three wraps  that I use for warmer weather.  I don't anticipate ever buying another coat again.

Then there are the fleece jackets, a brown one, a lavender one, and a blue one that belonged to my grandmother, who died in 1988, which I wore a lot, but which is now demoted to gardening.

No wonder I don't have any wardrobe space!

CapricornLass

Oh, and there's a short hot pink coat as well and the nylon fur jacket that my grandmother wore to my mother's wedding in 1956.....  

maryb

OOH where to start ?
Well probably in the early 90s when I bought a navy blue Loden coat which still comes out when it's snowing as it is sooo warm.  But oh! those shoulders - anyone who says Loden coats are totally classic hasn't got a 30 year old coat!!

Then there's the smart black three quarterlength coat which was for the office and is now kept for funerals (sadly more frequent as my cohort ages). 

The Berghaus walking fleece and waterproof. 

The Musto sailing jacket (which is now surplus to requirements as we no longer sail). 

The green Barbour which does me for most of the cooler weather with a fleece underneath. 

And a lightweight waterproof for the summer

But in my defence m'lud I don't think I'll need any more coats ever!

diminua

Three coats here - one green raincoat (the trenchcoat I just bought), one brown winter full length gloverall coat (child's size 13, which saved coupons and cash and means it actually fits) and one grey rain jacket which I sewed purple buttons on to match the lining when I lost some of the metal buttons - I've had that years and like many of my clothes it's too wide in the shoulders and slides off, but it's light and easy to cart about or tie round my waist when I'm warm, and I haven't seen anything similar that I prefer. 

Edit - and I have an aran cardigan I sometimes wear as a coat. 

PollyWollyDoodle

I'm impressed with the people who only have a couple of coats - @Laura_Elsewhere your tweed jacket sounds fabulous!

I was going to put up a coat rack when I moved here - I even bought one - and then I reflected that the current coat could hang inside the hall cupboard (houses vacuum, mop, water softener and various bits of gibble, it's going to be shelved and turned into a proper pantry one day soon), and the off-season and smart coats could go in the cupboard upstairs.  On the rare occasion that I have more than a couple of visitors, any coats can hang on the newel post/be put on the bed upstairs or something. It leaves the hall nice and clear.

I'm pretty sure that if I had a coat stand or rack, it would be full of things I've lost or forgotten about!