How to Style
One Coat, Five Ways to Wear It
A camel coat is not a neutral. Treated like one, it becomes wallpaper. Treated like the loudest thing you're wearing, it does considerably more work.
Most of us wear a good coat exactly one way — thrown over whatever we already have on, buttoned against the wind, forgotten. Which is a waste, because outerwear is the piece other people see the most and the piece we style the least.
Here are five ways to wear the same camel coat, arranged from the most casual to the most considered. Same coat throughout. Nothing borrowed from anyone else's closet.
Open, over denim and a cream knit
The version you'll wear most. A cream or oatmeal knit, straight-leg dark denim, and the coat left unbuttoned so it falls in two clean vertical lines on either side of the body. That vertical is doing quiet work — it's why an open coat is more flattering than a closed one on almost everyone.
Finish with a flat leather boot or a white sneaker. Keep the knit tucked at the front only. A full tuck is too tidy for this one.
The detail that mattersPush the sleeves up an inch or two. It stops the coat reading as borrowed.
Belted at the waist, over a black midi dress
Ignore the belt the coat came with and use a slim leather one instead. Cinched at the natural waist over a black midi dress, the coat stops behaving like outerwear and starts behaving like a layer of the outfit.
This is the fastest way to give a straight-cut coat a shape, and it works particularly well when the dress underneath is fluid rather than fitted. Pair with an ankle boot in the same black as the dress so the leg reads as one long line.
Open, over a white shirt and tailored trousers
Crisp white shirt, trousers with a proper crease, coat left open. The contrast between the soft camel wool and the sharp white cotton is the entire point — one is warm and unstructured, the other is precise, and they flatter each other.
Leave the shirt's top two buttons undone and the cuffs slightly loose. Structured tailoring wants one element that looks unfussed, or the whole thing tips into costume.
A coat worn five ways is not five coats. It's one coat you finally know how to use.
Over the shoulders, arms out of the sleeves
Worn as a cape over a blazer or a heavy knit. It looks effortless and takes about four seconds, but it does require a coat with enough weight to stay put — a lighter wool will slide off within a block.
Best for a short walk between a car and a table, not for a commute. That's not a flaw. Some ways of wearing a thing are for standing still.
Worth knowingSquare the shoulders slightly and let the collar sit high. A coat that's slipped backward looks like an accident.
Buttoned, over something you can't see
The most quietly confident of the five. Coat fully buttoned, a heel underneath, and whatever's beneath it left entirely to the imagination — a slip dress, a sequin skirt, black on black.
The camel becomes the whole silhouette from the outside, which means everything else can be as bold as you like. Add one piece of jewelry at the ear and nothing at the neck. The coat's collar is already doing that job.
The same coat, all winter
None of these require a second purchase. They require you to stop treating outerwear as an afterthought you put on at the door — and start treating it as the first decision, with the outfit built underneath.
Try two of the five this week. The other three will follow on their own.
Maria & David New York