Your Guide to Jacket Styles

I am putting together this guide to jacket styles while I’m about to assemble a rack I just bought on Amazon to house…my overflow jackets. Let me explain!

I rarely if not ever get rid of my coats. Coats fit me if i’m having a skinny year or a heftier year. They’re like shoes. They are kind to you no matter where you are in life. When I’m feeling bloated or having a bad day I’m not going to go try on a cocktail dress or shop for jeans. I’m going to head for things that don’t have to button or zip if they don’t want to. Like shoes, accessories, bags and jackets.

Have you ever watched the movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic?” that scene where she is at the sample sale and says I will buy these gloves and these alone! Because it is winter and I have..Hands!

I feel that way about living in Michigan and buying jackets. It’s cold for a long time. Typically under normal circumstances I’m about and about all day so I’m in my jacket all day.

There are so many fun jacket styles to choose from peacoats to peplums. Today I am going to skip over blazers because I have a couple of posts dedicated to my favorite blazers on the internet. What makes a good coat in my opinion is not only the important things like comfort and warmth but also durability, style and uniqueness.
One of my favorite coats hanging in my closet to this day was one I got for Christmas in high school from one of my favorite vintage stores (sadly no longer around) . It was a very heavy aqua and green houndstooth jacket. It was and still is in perfect vintage shape and a great jacket. I even wore it for my senior pictures. See below. You are welcome. Please note the white gogo boots. It was 2005.

I am going to break this guide down into six jacket categories; wrap, double breasted, teddy coat, one button, and unique.

Wrap style jackets. I have two favorite wrap style jackets in my closet. One is this green DVF jacket I found at the Fort Lauderdale DVF outlet for 90% off. Yes, 90% off. I hauled this wool wrap coat all around sunny Florida and back to snowy Michigan it was such a good deal. I prefer wrap style jackets to be a thicker material and preferably wool to avoid looking like a bathrobe. The more texture the better.

Double Breasted Jackets.  Some of my favorite double breasted jackets of all time came from the limited Atlantic Pacific collection for Nordstrom. They were almost ankle length jackets and I wish I would have bought them in more colors. My only rule with double breasted coats is you need to make sure that you are not buying them too small because the buttons pucker easily. Unless I’m planning to only wear the jacket open I will usually size up when it comes to this style.

Teddy Coat – Teddy coats are usually a tighter woven fur like well.. a teddy bear. They can be bomber style, oversized etc. What makes them a teddy style jacket is the material. I can’t pull off bomber style jackets well because of my shorter torso so I tend to gravitate towards the longer styles.

One button and/or Cocoon Style – One of my favorite one button / cocoon style coat is the daphne coat from jCrew as it tends to ebb and flow on sale I have picked up a few colors some at around 80% off! (if you want the inside scoop be sure to join my sale alerts). The orange coat i’m wearing throughout this post is the stadium wool cocoon coat from j.crew (also on sale right now). I like the cocoon style because it’s meant to be a tad oversized and works great over thicker sweaters. It doesn’t have a lot of shape so it’s perfect for heavier layers.

Unique Jackets –  Unique Jackets are my another of my favorite kind jacket styles. They are fun prints, interesting cuts and / or sequin, glittered, leopard, two toned and more. The best part is? They are usually on sale. It is hard to splurge on a unique piece because you might not get as much wear out of it as you would a staple like the wool stadium coat above. I find so many unique jackets on the clearance section of Nordstrom Rack, Poshmark and Sample Sales like Kate Spade or 6pm.com. (ps if you haven’t shopped 6pm by now.. you need to best discount site ever).

There are so many other fun jacket styles to go over but I feel like this is a lot of information for one read. We didn’t even cover dress coats, trenches or peacoats. I am a little obsessed I guess you could say. When I get my closet organized I will do a fun tour of my coat closet but first I have to go get that rack assembled.