Letters
Life with Wool: Bundle Up with Style and Substance
Growing up in Arizona, we made fun of snowbirds in their lumbering Winnebagos driving for miles with their right blinkers on. I should’ve known this would seal my fate as a snowbird myself. To be fair, just about everyone I know in Maine finds an excuse to escape for a few days in the winter.
Which explains why I’m writing you not from my window overlooking a snowy field in Maine, and not from a hammock on a white sandy beach either, but from a table in a distinctly Gen Z coffee shop in Paris.
One of the true joys of being in Paris during the winter—a winter whose grayness even has its own word, la grisaille—is to be with people who still wear beautiful wool coats. The wool coat is an art form, fabric on parade, a feast for the eyes.
If Maine had a state coat, it’d be the trusty LL Bean Ultralight goose down puffer jacket. I was certainly loyal to mine until I heard that the outdoor retailer Icebreaker was filling their puffer jackets with wool batting instead of plastic or down. Wool filler? Sign me up!
In the time that it took me to fall in love with this insulation—far lighter than down, just as warm, and much more breathable—Icebreaker decided that people didn’t love this form of insulation enough and began cutting back. Icebreaker still has one wool puffer in their line-up. Ibex does too, though it’s lighter in weight and with more limited sizing. Duckworth also offers a wool-filled jacket sourced and manufactured in the United States.
Restless for adventure? Consider the Icelandic company Icewear, whose Icelandic wool batting is blended with a biodegradable 20% bio-polyester. But beware, if it doesn’t fit, you have to pay a $35 service fee and cover the cost of shipping it back to Iceland. Far more practical to simply travel to Iceland, try on all the coats, pet all the sheep, eat all the chocolate, dip in all the hot springs, and come home happy.
However, all of these jackets are still wrapped in a nylon exterior.
The French have certainly embraced the puffer jacket—or doudoune as they call it—a solid percentage of the population still engages in the theater of the wool coat. They wrap and tie and swoop and saunter and strut. They trot with a tightly cinched waist, or they slink with the flowing drama of a caped crusader. Atop it all, they swirl dollops of woolen soft-serve scarves. Some are average, some slender, and some so big, they could double as a curtain.
Knowing this, I left my wool-filled puffer at home and brought a beautiful black wool coat that spends most of its time forlornly sealed off from the world (and moths) in our hall closet. It’s not a coat one would wear on a walk through the woods. It’d bristle at being seen by a gas pump.
But in Paris, my coat has blossomed. It’s been living its best life. It admires itself in shop windows and gives knowing nods to the other wool coats we pass. Yesterday it asked me if I’d leave it here, and is still sulking from my definitive “no.”
Our environment and climate dictate what we need to wear. But I wonder, could wool coats make a comeback in the United States, beyond, say, Manhattan? Have we been so inured to the casual convenience of inexpensive elasticized athleisurewear that all forms of wool coating have been banished from the continent? Is there room for the style and drama of tailored, flowing wool fabric as part of everyday life?
And where would we get these wool coats, anyway?
The more elegant offerings usually contain only a fraction of wool, while the sturdier 100% wool ones tend to fall on the clunky side—which, to be fair, would make them far more suitable for the Blue Hill Hannaford. And all of them are made overseas through a supply chain that is opaque at best.
But we do have choices. The Chicago-based brand The Checkroom creates high-end, made-to-order coats that use American wool sourced from Shaniko Wool Company, are woven into fabric at American Woolen Company. in Connecticut, and are then cut and sewn into the finished garment in Chicago.
Our Canadian friends have more options—but a new favorite of mine is Ste. Marg Scot, which also ships to the U.S., makes a handful of thoughtfully designed, gender-inclusive wool coats with zero plastics or metals, and in joyful colors, all from Canada. Even the toggles are hand-turned in Toronto using remnant maple that’s been seasoned with hemp oil from a local farm.
You’ll pay for this level of thoughtful domestic sourcing and end up with a coat that will last you the rest of your life. A well-made wool coat holds its value in a way that would make any puffer jacket tremble in its shoes. Moreover, a thriving secondhand market keeps these coats accessible to those who can’t afford the retail price.
Can we bring back the wool coat? Fight against the rise of plastic? Dare to be different, and stand up for others who do the same? I probably won’t be wearing my swooping wool coat on walks in the woods any time soon, but maybe I’ll dare to pull it out for occasional forays into the wilds of my Maine grocery store.
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I live in a temperate rain forest where winter temperatures don’t spend a lot of time below freezing except at night. When it rains, it pours. So at this place and time of my life, my most important requirement is real waterproof not water resistant. I love wool coats and have spent many years of my life wearing them but not now. I do think that within living memory, perhaps the past 10 years, it has been possible to buy wool coats from some retailers such as Lands End. But I suspect that has changed significantly over the past few years. Also I don’t think outdoorsy young Americans style themselves that way. But those Parisian girls look great. Upward and onward with the wool coat. Come back good tailoring.
Thanks for this. I’ve been looking for a wool coat all winter, no luck. I have decided to consistently cruise the aisles at Sal’s Boutique. Eventually one will pop up. We used to wear Loden coats. They came in different color combos, and all the cool kids at my NH high school had one. The Ste. Marg Scott coats are beautiful, way beyond my price range at almost $1000, but a treat to see. Happy travels home from Paris. https://di2ponv0v5otw.cloudfront.net/posts/2023/03/13/640fc9c8bd06293c7ddb0f0f/m_wp_640fca17a0e6c625d696c5e5.webp
My mom recently gave me her wool coat that my grandmother (a German master tailor) made for mom’s first winter in America in the 1950s. It’s a beautiful navy blue with a seal fur collar rescued from a previous coat (so over 100 years old). While I’m not a fan of fur attire, it seems a shame to abandon this coat with such an old collar and a long family history. The coat is very warm, probably because of the wool and the love sewn into it.
P.S. I live in the upper midwest in a very small town, so maybe I can get the trend going here.
Any boiled wool fans out there? I love boiled wool for its lightness and form-fitting warmth. I have 2 unlined coats for cooler days (not cold) and I feel very Parisian when wearing!
Boiled wool is the best! And unlike other wool coats which may snag, it is excellent for winter woods tromping. Impervious to thorns, snow, and wind.
I love this! I recently donated my full length black wool coat to a charity coat drive (ok, it had 1980’s shoulder pads and styling) but I will never part with my car-coat length cashmere camel jacket with a dreamy jacquard lining! Last December, on the way into a holiday party in the area, several of us simultaneously noticed that we had all broken out our “adult” (mind you we are senior citizens) wool coats which allow a glittery Snowflake or Christmas Tree pin on the lapel. We all felt much more elegant.
You make me want to pull out the bright red wool coat I inherited from my mother! I do look at it from time to time and wonder if I’ll ever wear it. You have given me the impetus! As an aside, I have an old (at least 25 years) L. L. Bean parka, with waxed fabric on the outside (from a British Millerain company as the label proudly pronounces) but it has a plaid wool lining. The cuffs on this coat are frayed and I have had the exterior re-waxed, but with the wool lining, it is my go-to winter coat.
I’ve just spent the last 30 minutes visiting all websites of the companies that you mentioned. Thought I’d take a short break to thank you for all the information! I really feel that being a part of the MDK community has helped me begin to appreciate and become more curious about the diversity of yarn that I use. Recently subscribing to the Wool Channel has really opened my eyes to a lot of issues and educated me in so many ways! So thank you for that as well!
Last fall, my 5 year-old grandson asked me why I thanked the sheep we visited at the fair in the fall. I told him it was because they’d give us the coat off their back and we need to appreciate and support that! Now back to shopping ( I had been putting off buying a new winter parka!)
I still wear a snuggly London Fog 100% wool coat that I bought in to mid 80s. Had it altered to remove the huge should pads. Much warmer than any tech coat.
I bought a MaxMara wool coat back in 1998, a long flowing thing of beauty. It cost me £400, a large sum in those days. I still have it. I wore it a lot – as teacher I had playground duty which in the UK winter is not fun. It kept me warm and stylish. I did try a down filled stadium coat from Landsend but it let the wind whistle through. All I have had to do is make a small repair on the top button hole as I would often only do that button up. I am now in Australia and it might get cool enough in the winter to wear where we live, at least that is what I am hoping. Long live the wool coat.
Allow me to add 1 more offering to the list of Canadian wool!
Wave Fibre Mill is located near Parry Sound (pop on up for a delightful getaway any time of year on Georgian Bay… but NOT this weekend with Snowmageddon due tonight!). They are die-hard local fibre shed adherents and source ALL of their wool fleece from regional small farmers. They are a 1 stop shop fleece-to-fashion business (and so offer GREATLY reduced carbon footprint). They process fleece, spin yarns, weave their own fabrics and then design and make their clothing!
Here is Wave’s web link to their retail offerings.
https://wavefibremill.com/retail/
Please do understand that a readjustment of thinking is needed. You will pay more for their products, but you are investing in inheritance worthy items. If you compare to the cost of all the products you buy, wear out, replace, wear out, repeatedly you really ARE saving in the long run. AND… you’re saving more than just money in the long run!
Maybe, if you buy ASAP from the USA, you can beat the ridiculous, illegal, self-mutilating tariffs soon to be applied. If you cannot beat the tariffs, you have an excuse to save up for the investment yet to come!
This year, to find a wool coat that fit me (having lost a lot of weight in the two years before) I went to a large thrift shop. There were lots of choices there, probably because many people were cleaning their closets and thinking they would never wear a wool coat again. I have been thinking that next Fall I will go back there and look for a jacket. I live in MN, our coat season is quite long and the effort is worth it.
What a fun article to read on this sunny cold (-17c/1f) morning. As a Canadian and neighbour of Maine, I have a classic wool coat, interlined with wool and a chamois sewn in the back for wind proofing.
But I also have a wardrobe of down parkas in a matrix of:
Good to -5c/23f
Good to -30c/-22f
Good to wear to town
Good to work in the yarn and shovel snow
Best of all, beneath all, my underwear is wool from Icebreaker!
It’s not itchy, and I wash and dry it by machine (in a lingerie bag). And being wool it’s just as comfortable on hot summer days. And there are fun colours, too.
I have a long wool coat that I bought at the grand opening of a Cabela’s store. I love it and am so glad I bought it then because I have never seen another at any Cabela’s store since. Nor have I seen anything similar for near the price I paid. I got lucky and didn’t even know it at the time.
I found a wool coat with a down lining from Woolrich- it is a more elegant version of the puffer and is sooo warm, i need to carefully plan when and where i wear it.
although, i must say that the wool is fraying on the wrists so will need to bind it beautifully….
Yes! Yes! Yes! Everyone should have a fine wool coat. 3 or 4 years back I bit the bullet and bought a British-made duffel coat on Amazon. I had one of these coats when I was in junior high school and have wanted another ever since. This coat is a beauty! It has the horn toggles and is made of double-faced wool with no other lining. I use it mostly as a car coat and I must say it is far warmer and less cumbersome than my Land’s End down coat. If you you can take the plunge financially, treat yourself. You will definitely not be sorry.
Thank you Clara for the informative article. I have been looking for a true grey wool coat for the past 3 years with no success. You have given me inspiration to check out other sources. Love wool coats!! Again, you have given WOOL the respect it deserves!!