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The Outfit Making Coat

I’m calling it now. Winter of 2020/2021 will be the year of the coat.

With most dining and other social activities happening outside, our coats may be all anyone sees once the weather turns cold, so I’m looking to level up my outerwear game this year.

Thus, I present to you… The Outfit Making Coat.

The second I laid eyes on this belted blanket wrap coat, I knew it needed a permanent place in my closet. It’s fully lined with a shawl collar, and it’s lightweight enough to keep it on if it’s really cold out.

I really like the stripes as opposed to the more common plaid. It’s pretty much like wrapping up in a cozy blanket, while keeping you chic and stylish.

If you want to leave it open, you can belt it in the back, like this. But more often that not, I will probably wrap it around and tie it for extra warmth. It’s true to size; I’m wearing the small.

This coat looks great over casual sweaters and jeans, but for this post, I wanted to show it as more of a work wear or dinner out look.

I styled it with a grey turtleneck, my Spanx perfect black pants, and suede pumps in a gorgeous shade of oxblood.

The pumps are old, but I found a few sizes left at Amazon. L.K.Bennett is a luxury British fashion brand made popular by the Duchess of Cambridge, but they’re getting harder and harder to find at American retailers. Mine came from Zappo’s a few years back.

I really like how the burgundy suede coordinates with the coat. I hunted around and found this pair, which looks similar, but there aren’t a lot of burgundy suede pumps around right now!

I also want to mention this bag. It’s such a nice classic camera bag in a butter soft pebbled leather, and I love how it has slip pockets on the outside to hold your phone.

I feel like Michael Kors gets overlooked a lot these days, but he makes a good quality bag, and you can usually find good sales on them. This one is currently $126 at Macy’s.

I added a pair of gold geometric hoops as my only accessory, but you could certainly do a mid-length or long necklace if you like.

As I plan content for the rest of the fall and look ahead to winter, I’m definitely going to be featuring more coats. In fact, I have a bunch upstairs right now that I plan to try on and compare.

What types and styles of coats will you be looking to add to your wardrobe this season?

Shop the Post:

belted wrap coat // similar turtleneck // black pants // similar pumps // black crossbody // earrings

Shop More Outfit Making Coats

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photos: Alison Cornell

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24 Responses

  1. Great outfit! Can you tell us a little more about the grey sweater? Does it run true to size? How is the quality of the cashmere? Length? Thanks

  2. Love it! Not sure it gets cold enough here for that beautiful coat. 🙁 It does seem like a classic that I could keep for years.

  3. No coats for me. I have more than I need right now. What I “need” are cotton sweaters and other thin sweaters that I can wear in our more temperate climate. Our weather guy was all excited last night that it might get to 100 on Sunday and make it, “the latest date for triple digits” um, I can live without that! How about some highs in the 70s instead?

  4. It’s really interesting how the different colleges are handling this covid situation. My daughter’s college has been in person all semester. They will come home at Thanksgiving and not go back until late January. They will also not have a spring break next spring.

    1. I wish that’s how WCU was handling it. I truly believe the risks of shutting down like this outweigh the risks of covid, but I’m sure that’s a controversial opinion that I should probably keep to myself.

  5. What a beautiful outfit!  The coat makes it.  My chocolate brown below knee length Lands End puffer coat continues to meet my needs, so I won’t be adding any other coats to my closet.  I am glad that your momma heart feels better today.  I hate that David doesn’t get to fully experience college life, but protecting everyone’s long term health is more important.  Make it a great day!

  6. This is beautiful — that coat, those shoes, the whole look! I had not enjoying shopping in YEARS until I found your blog 5 months ago when I was revamping my wardrobe post babies. Seriously, thank you for this service you provide us — I almost exclusively buy what you style and I can find something to wear now without having a near breakdown and spend my time attending to other things! Thank you, thank you!

  7. Such a cute coat and it looks so great on you. Have you read Cyndi’s post today? You guys both are thinking coats. I’m so sorry about your sons notice of not going back to campus anytime this year. I can’t imagine having kids in HS and college during these times….. mine are grown married and just having kids of  their own. 🙂 You need a moment to reflect and let the tears flow. So much has changed and I have to remind myself that the ONE in charge….. God, never changes and we can look to HIM through this and He will help us navigate through this time. I’m happy you still have your HS daughter getting to start some “in school” days and her marching band. Hope your older daughter finds the right fit college for her and like you said things are more normal for her college experience. You had mentioned before she wasn’t sure if she was going to go her first year, so you never know maybe she will still be home with you and Becca. 🙂 She’s so use to online school she’d do great doing college from home. :). One day at a time I say. None of us are promised tomorrow, so why waste today worrying and stealing joy from our day right?  Anyway that got long. Thanks again for your blog. It really is fun to have a nice distraction in all this. Gives some normalcy. Us ladies like our fashion. :). Bless you. 

  8. Love this outfit! You look nice and cozy warm while still being stylish. Are those pumps as comfortable as they claim? 
    We get more rain here than snow on the west coast. Our temps never get too low. I like waterproof/water resistant with a hood. 

  9. Very cute coat! I would absolutely freeze in those shoes though! So I could see wearing a burgandy/wine colored ankle boot with it. Love this look!!

  10. Great post, Jo-Lynne! I love coats and jackets because i get cold so easily. This look is so chic! I love this coat because you can wear it dressy like you’ve styled it, but i can also see it styled with jeans and booties. I like that it can be tied back so if you get a little bit warm, but not quite warm enough to remove it. I wholeheartedly agree that this is going to be the year of the coat. I have several styles of jackets, but i only have one actual coat. So, I’d appreciate seeing more coats, as i agree that we’re going to be outside a lot this fall and winter. 
    Thank you for sharing the New York tee from J. Crew.  I was so pleased to see that they brought it back into stock, and after seeing you style it last year, i had to order it. 

    Lastly ( know this is a very long comment) but motherhood can be very emotion filled! As I tell my young adult children, “You’re adults now, but you’ll always be my child.”  I so enjoy your expertise  on fashion, but also your writing on motherhood. 

  11. I do sympathize w/ you as far as the kids & the college stuff. My daughter’s dreams & plans took a quite a turn before her freshman year, though not as bad as the Covid thing. This situation today really is a major upheaval. But I can say that in spite of our anguish at the change of plan, it worked out ultimately. Things do work out, most of the time. I anticipate that for you & your children. In years to come, you’ll have memories, & the difficulties will  pale over time. Thanks for sharing your thoughts w/ us!

  12. I love the coat, and you look beautiful in it. I’ve put far more consideration into my jackets and coats this year than I have in the past for the same reasons you’ve mentioned. This year I’ve purchased three coats: 1) a plaid wool coat for dressier occasions; 2) a streamlined parka for errands and casual days; and 3) a faux fur-lined black motto jacket for date nights and nights out with friends.

    I would love more posts on jackets, coats, and ways to style them with all the other cold weather accessories like scarves, mittens, gloves, hats, and boots.

    I am so sorry to hear about your son’s college. My son graduated from high school last spring and is now a college freshman who is having to take all of his classes online because his college has deemed it unsafe for students to attend in person. And I have a strong feeling that this will continue for the remainder of this school year. Most of the time I try to keep up a stiff upper lip about everything he’s missing out on, but I do have moments where I just let the grief, frustration, and anger wash over me. At least to me, your opinion on colleges not reopening is not controversial at all. I don’t believe nearly enough attention is being paid to the extremely detrimental effects of prolonged shutdowns and forced isolaton on people’s health. With that being said, your children are blessed to have a mom with a heart like yours. I feel certain that they know they are loved and that they always have someone they can talk to about how to process all the craziness that’s going on in the world right now. And, because we really can’t control anything else, that’s the best thing we can do for them. There will be brighter days ahead.

  13. Love the coat. Despite what my husband says, I may have to sneak this one into the closet. 😂

    My oldest daughter is in college here in Mississippi. All of her classes have been remote, except her sign language class, that was in person (obviously). She said last week the head of the department decided that it was too risky to have in person the remainder of the semester and it too has gone to virtual. She said don’t look for a great grade in that one because learning sign language virtually is difficult. She doesn’t live on campus, so she isn’t missing out on that life. She sees lots of friends and classmates though as she works at the Chick-Fil-A near the campus, so she is content with that. This week all state colleges cancelled spring break. The one advantage to her school is they are the only state school as a COVID testing site for students and faculty. She said she doesn’t mind the distance learning, though she would prefer in person because learning things is easier, but working at the store she is exposed to enough people. My younger daughter goes to college in Iowa and they have no restrictions regarding classes, they don’t even have to wear face masks (though I tell her to wear one – not sure how well that goes over). My son is in 3rd grade and since he goes to a very small private Christian school face coverings are optional, but he does get his temp checked as he walks in the door. I work for a large company here and I have to get my temp checked any time I walk in the door and face masks are mandatory any time I walk out of my office, same with my husbands work (much to his dismay). I have worked remote twice this year, March 16 – May 11 and again July 10-September 21, my husband just went back to the office full-time this week after being remote since March 23. As my dad used to say, “This too shall blow over”, maybe just not as soon as we would like.

  14. Our school district offers what they call DSISC University lectures for the parents. Last night we had one called Care for the Caregiver, but they gave us lots of ideas about how to help the kids process anxiety etc. One of the things they did was have us think about a pipe-cleaner. We can make a pipe-cleaner into a triangle or circle if we want. Then they had us imagine a rock. No mater what we do (short of tools) we can’t make that rock a different shape. So focus on the pipe-cleaners, things we can change and let the rocks go.
    My addition is that it’s also okay to grieve about the rock for a time (your tears) but then it’s time to let that go and get back to those pipe-cleaners.
    I love the analogy, and since I’m collector of things, I always have a rock or two on my desk to remind me to not try to shape them.
    It’s a tough time. We all have to have grace for ourselves and others.

  15. I really appreciate how you break an outfit down and explain why something works and what you look for. That helps my fashion-challenged mind so much! I can obviously see when I like something on someone else, but when I look for myself I’m not sure of the details that I need to pay attention to. You help me know what to focus on. I especially enjoyed your post of updating old looks. Thank you!

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