Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Sam Hockley-Smith writes about the Cockpit Benjamin Shawl Jacket.
A couple years ago it dawned on me that I am really, really bad at dressing for the in-between months before it gets stick-to-your-couch hot and after it's too warm to wear 465 thousand layers and still complain about how it's freezing out. For whatever reason (laziness, not knowing what to do or how to fix it, regrettable fashion experiments, getting weirded out by trenchcoats) I never did anything about it. Enter the Cockpit Benjamin Shawl jacket.
I tried it on wearing standard button-down shirts, wearing t-shirts and wearing no shirt at all (felt pretty smooth). All three looked good, which is a testament to the versatility needed for a coat that can carry me through post-February, pre-June purgatory (um, also known as Spring?). I needed something light, but still warm. Nice, but not so over-the-top that I wasn't all worried about it if I put it on the bench semi-crumpled at a bar or whatever. I essentially needed something for every day that I could grab off the coat rack on my way out the door.
I'm not going to lie and say that this'll go with everything. It won't. It's the risk you run when wearing coats with patterns, but that's all right, since it passed all the most important tests: comfort, warmth and—for the most part—universal wearability. Come March, I will no longer be just a little bit too sweaty on the train or shivering when I decide it's warm enough to go up on the roof and drink beers even though it's only like 50 degrees out and about to rain.