Take Your Outerwear Up A Notch, Courtesy Of Lafayette 148’s Covetable Coats
The cult New York label’s cozy, comfortable and, crucially, chic coats are guaranteed to leave you (impatiently) waiting for a cold snap…
If there’s one city that demands sartorial prowess from its populace, particularly when it comes to battling the elements, it’s New York. The summers are long, hot and humid, while the winters often see the skyline covered in a blanket of snow. Meaning New York natives possess an unparalleled ability to look polished, no matter the weather. It should come as no surprise to learn, then, that if you’re looking to upgrade your outerwear arsenal, your first port of call should be homegrown label Lafayette 148. The cult brand, named after the iconic address where it was founded in 1996, is loved by fashion insiders, thanks to its understated separates and luxe takes on key pieces, not least its covetable coats.
This season, creative director Emily Smith – who cut her teeth working alongside design legend Bill Blass before joining the team at Lafayette 148 in 2002 and working her way up to the top spot – was inspired by the natural world and a desire to pause and reconnect with ourselves. After 18 months of global lockdowns, social distancing and generally being confined to our homes, this desire to reconnect with nature and letting it reinvigorate our minds and imaginations is one that will resonate with women worldwide.
For Lafayette 148’s FW21 collection – which marks the label’s 25th anniversary – this took the form of conscious design that prioritized the use of sustainable materials, ranging from natural yarns and undyed noble fibers to fabrics spun from regenerated filaments. Despite the undeniable beauty and impeccable quality of each and every piece in this momentous collection, what really captured the attention of brand fans and arbiters of taste alike was the array of utterly covetable coats and jackets.
“Winter might seem like a difficult season to master, style-wise, but you can turn its challenges into opportunities by looking at them in a brand-new way
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Take the label’s sumptuous wool and cashmere-blend blanket coat. Effortless yet elegant, this refined piece can be worn with everything from blue jeans to oversized tailoring and luxe sweatpants. Better yet, it’s also reversible, which means it offers even more style milage. Whether you opt for the neutral side or dove grey, it promises to add instant polish to any look.
Elsewhere, the label tapped into one of this season’s biggest trends by debuting a sumptuous leather ‘shacket’. Undeniably one of FW21’s cult items, consider it the throw-on-and-go piece par excellence. Cut from butter-soft leather and cast in a rich green hue, this ‘shacket’ strikes the perfect balance between staple and statement. It promises to turn heads while also slotting into your existing closet. Of course, it would be remiss to reduce clothing, and well-designed coats in particular, to mere aesthetics. This piece will come into its own during those tricky trans-seasonal months: when the weather is unpredictable, you’re guaranteed to have it on heavy rotation.
If it’s the depts of winter you’re most concerned about – admittedly, the time of year when it’s easiest to let your sartorial standards slip – look no further than Lafayette 148’s teddy-bear coat, the ultimate in outerwear. This trophy piece is equal parts chic and cozy. Winter might seem like a difficult season to master, style-wise, but you can turn its challenges into opportunities by looking at them in a brand-new way. Ultimately, a jaw-dropping coat can hide a multitude of sartorial sins; it’s the key to mastering cold-weather dressing, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more desirable design than this three-quarter-length mohair teddy-bear coat.