Should we follow trends?

Yesterday lunch time, after the Church service, I was putting my overcoat back on in the Church vestibule to begin my journey home. One of the congregation complimented me on my coat. I was somewhat surprised, as I think I bought this coat 7 years ago. It is certainly not the latest in any form of style. Rather, it is a full length Crombie style light brown overcoat, single breasted with 4 buttons, with a length just below my knee. I looked around the other members of the congregation who were putting on their coats and noticed among the younger members that my overcoat seemed to be at least 12 inches longer than everybody else's! This caused me to undertake some research.

Image M&S - My current length of coat

Too short for me! Image M&S

A trawl around my favourite style websites, and online clothing stores, showed that indeed my overcoat is somewhat longer than current coats. In fact many overcoats seem to be barely longer than a suit jacket! In the past 32 years I have only owned 3 overcoats. The first one was a dark blue Crombie, but I bought that when I was 20 years old, well before I understood the concept of quality, and as a result it didn't last very long!






In my mid-thirties I purchased a loden green coat, from an Italian clothing store in Eindhoven, whilst I was living in Holland. It was a beautiful coat, but its length, which appeared to be fashionable at the time, came halfway down my shin.

The same style as my loden coat - image sartorialist

I donated the coat to a charity clothing store when I replaced it with my current overcoat 7 years ago. At the time, in my mid-40s, I felt that the length of my green coat was significantly longer than everybody else was wearing. So I parted company with it. Now I regret that decision. Which leads me to the question whether or not we should slavishly follow trends?

If we are, certainly in the case of overcoats, then I should replace my current overcoat with a much shorter one. However, I like my overcoat, with its length just below my knee, and it does attract a number of complimentary remarks from people. It is a great fit, and also very warm. So why should I feel that I am not 'trendy', if my overcoat is longer than current trends? In fact why did I ever get rid of my green overcoat and not stay with the extra length?

If we are to follow trends and look at the current fashion season of shows we would be rushing out and buying military style aviation coats, capes, and looking to shorten our suit jackets and casual jackets even further than last year. But why bother? I'm beginning to think that jackets and overcoats are rather like women's skirt lengths. They get shorter, and then they get longer, and then they get shorter again, and then they get longer again.

I suggest the solution to the problem is to buy clothes that do not veer to any extreme in colour, style, or length (in other words a classic look). Then, if they are tailored to fit properly, I believe it is the fit of the clothes rather than the trend that makes you look stylish.

I know personally I dress to firstly please myself, but I know from my research since starting this blog that showing pride in my own appearance is also perceived as showing respect for the people that I meet and interact with. So I'm going to start a trend of not following trends!