Comfortable, cool and stimulating: how to buy the perfect winter coat

It's a big decision. Huge. How you feel when you leave home, pretty much every time you leave home for the next six months, depends on the choice you make here. I mean, no pressure, but you have to get it right.

A good coat is a game-changer in winter. There is a coat that will not only make a cold day bearable, but will actually make it attractive to wrap up for going out in the cold. There's something very satisfying about being in the elements when you're properly dressed for them. You'll start suggesting a walk before lunch, rather than sneaking out of the room when someone else does.

But warm and dry is simply our base here. The right coat is much more than that. It's quite an atmosphere. Like a spritz of your favorite perfume, it makes you leave the house in a cloud of confidence, your mood lifted and your chin lifted. And the mood of your coat matters, because for most people you meet in the colder months, your coat is your first impression. When you show up at a front desk, open the door to a restaurant, or show up at school for a parent-teacher night, your coat tells people who you are.

< p class="dcr-kpil6a" >So you need to balance practical considerations with a coat that makes you happy. There's absolutely no point in buying a sleek, dry-clean-only white trench coat that makes you look like a movie star if you have a muddy dog ​​or cycle to work. But equally, there's no point spending your hard-earned cash on an easy-care number that kills the style of your outfits and dumbs your shoulders down the moment you put it on. If you do that, you might as well stay home.

Waterproofing matters, of course. If you're the type who walks to work even in the pouring rain, you need a generous hood and water-repellent fabric. If you spend a lot of the day outside, you'll want something along the lines of the Uniqlo coat (top right): thick padding, a high collar to protect you from the cold without a scarf, the extra protection against drafts from a drawstring at the waist.< /p>

But the warmest coat isn't always the most practical. It all depends on the clothes you wear underneath. If your favorite winter outfit is a chunky turtleneck sweater and jeans, open-neck jacket style - something in the style of our pre-loved Acne gorgeous red shearling number (top left) - could be perfect.

On the other hand, if you are most often in a fluid mid-length dress, adding tights and boots as the temperature down, you'll want a coat that's also below the knee or midi length - for neater hemlines and to keep your legs warm. Oh, and two layers of structured shoulders won't work. It looks lumpy and feels stiff and uncomfortable. So if you spend your days in a suit, you need something warm but not stiff: a camel coat – like Mango's (above centre), very close to Max Mara's iconic version – is perfect.< /p>

Color is where you can have fun, so don't automatically play it safe. If you tend to wear black or neutrals, this makes you the perfect candidate for a coat in a pop of bright red or pink. It's not going to clash with your outfit, after all.

And a color that looks too garish and intense to wear all day can work beautifully in a coat . It becomes a burst of energy, a superhero cape for when you need it most - at the start and end of the day - and it can be hung on the back of a door during the hours in between. , so you won't get sick of looking at it.

If a bright color is too much, how about a softer neutral? Camel looks great with black, and even better with a brightly colored scarf and gloves when winter starts to get festive.

Any old coat can keep you warm. But the right coat will also warm you on the inside.