Comparative Puffers 101

I've been told that going shopping with me is like attending a tasting event with Goldilocks. On first glance I love/hate everything in the store, on a second look I hate/love everything, and then I start the serious archaeology, followed by a grudging visit to the try-on room. Grudging because that's the last place to be cleaned and vacuumed and I always exit sneezing, grudging because I once turned around to see an over-enthusiastic (or desperate) shopper trying on my coat -- the one I'd worn into the store!

So anyway, I had a 2- or 3- year old black puffer from Lands End, and I was very happy with it, at least until this past November when it began to sprout feathers. Obviously the time had come to replace it, but LE didn't have a very long puffer any more, and I don't need a puff-jacket. So what follows is an analysis of how this year's J.Crew Wintress (who thinks these names up? Does the creative talent think Wintress is the female of Winter? As in Old Man Winter?) stacks up against this year's long, that is, above-the-knee ("long" - well, no impolite remarks about why the copywriters think they know what long means) Lands End. Lands End doesn't change its styles all that much, so I think this is OK.

The coats:

the J.Crew Wintress Puffer

the Lands End Essential Down Coat

Fashion note: both coats were available in several colors. The JC coat came in black, dark grey, not-so-dark grey and dark green. The LE coat came in black, dark brown, turquoise, ivory, deep purple and red. I have never seen the point of a pale colored winter coat, especially one meant to be worn in bad weather, so I consider the ivory a non-choice. So 5 to 4 for LE on color choice, although 2 shades of grey gets a point for imagination. For both coats, I seem to remember a navy colorway available early in the season but I may be hallucinating. You go stare at puffers and puffer descriptions for an hour and see what you remember.

The Lands End Coat is said to provide:

















The Wintress is described as

So now point for point: the hood on the Lands End coat that I bought 2 or 3 years ago did not close. I made a little hole at each end of its - well, where a collar band would be if it had had one, and threaded a carefully coordinated black shoelace through so I could draw the hood closed. This seems to have been addressed in this year's model. The JC coat has a bungee-like hood closure. Both hoods are removable.

I actually like the self belt on the JC coat better than I thought I would - my first thought was "A sash! How silly!" However, for the purpose, it actually works better than the inside adjustment on my LE coat did.

Both coats, the JC and the LE in this year's catalog, are shorter than I would like. Surprisingly, however, the JC coat is a little longer than the description would indicate, so I'm fine with that. We have biting winter winds in NYC, the wind has to be funneled through narrow streets and around corners, so it fights back. A long looooong coat is really a good thing to have, fashionable or not.

The LE coat has interior zip pockets and the JC coat doesn't. A win for LE on pockets. Both have 2-way zippers.

Another surprise: I like the thumbholes on the JC cuffs. I always have problems with sleeves riding up, or feeling stuffy, and while I wouldn't bother with the thumbholes most days, I like having them available. Win for JC on thumbholes.

I kept the JC coat, but for none of the above reasons. I kept it because it's green, so I can tell which is mine in a herd of black and dark grey coats on a rack. Also because the cut is slightly nicer-looking on me.