Oh! How shall I wear my coat?

The start of London Fashion Week is my cue to think about coats. It’s historically when the weather turns from mild to treacherous, and of course, when the fashion set gets layered up for their street style close-up. The question is not which coat to wear, but how to wear it. I predict we’ll be seeing one of the big three:

The purposeful pocket plunge

A loose, slouchy coat with deep pockets = the perfect opportunity to look moody, intense and purposeful. Topshop Unique’s boyfriend coats, Chloe’s tweeds (above) and Phillip Lim’s city coats offer optimum pocket plunging opportunities. I confess I’m a big pocket plunger and hate coats with fake pockets

The shrug

Still going strong, a structured, mannish coat shrugged over the shoulders is the fashion editor’s favourite way to wear a coat. Look and learn from the always elegant Hamish Bowles

The clutch

That Raf Simons! Such an innovator! Not only giving us the most impeccable couture shapes of coatage to covet, but also a great new way to wear them. Even if a coat has buttons, it looks far more ‘editorial’ to clutch it dramatically at the throat, perhaps while running across a busy Parisian street in spiky Manolos as if fleeing Tommy, Scott and Yvan…

How will you wear yours?

[Image credits: Style.com/Le 21eme/Getty/GQ/Style.com]

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