I received the London Fog Men’s Wool Blend Duffle Coat today. Here are my observations on the coat so far:

• A steady wind will easily get cold air up the front
• The coat is fitted like a suit jacket, so lifting your arms makes the arms of the coat seem too short
• It’s quite comfortable to wear
• The hood is nice
• If there were some way to button the collar together – which sadly there is not – then you could probably never need to wear a scarf
• It was delivered with its own coat hanger. That’s convenient.

The warmth of the coat is okay, but where I live we have an ice storm every year so I am a bit doubtful that this coat can stand up to our climate. A steady wind did easily got up the front of the coat which undermined what would otherwise have been a cozy coat against the cold.

I’m hopeful that this can be fixed in some way, or at least addressed by doing something simple on my own.

The arms of the London Fog Men’s Wool Blend Duffle Coat are sewn exactly how you find the arms on a suit jacket. It’s fancy, but it has its draw backs. When I first put the coat on it felt a little tight in the shoulders, and then I lifted my arms in front of me to see the cuffs of the coat pull several inches behind my wrists.

This is the first time that I’ve had a coat sewn in this manner so it took me by surprise. I showed it to a family member who said that the coat looked like it fit fine and not to worry about the suit jacket style.

I have to admit, it is very comfortable to wear.

The hood of the coat works very nicely. In the past, hoods have always obstructed my vision in some way but that doesn’t happen at all on this London Fog wool duffle coat. If you add a snap to the collar so that you can snap them together then the combination of the hood and the collar will make a very good barrier against the cold. Even if you do not want to add buttons to the coat then a trusty scarf will do the trick nicely.

I just received this coat today so I have yet to wear it for a meaningful amount of time or under typical conditions. I’ll update this post – probably by next weekend – to say how well it kept me warm. That is the main point of a coat, after all.

At the time of writing this post the coat is available for $67 from Overstock.com. A very good price for a coat that is 80% wool. Click here to see the coat on their web site.

Technorati Tags: London Fog Men’s Wool Blend Duffle Coat, Longdon Fog, coat, wool coat

This is Manchu, the Shar-Pei. We don’t know what he’s mixed with but he’s quite the darling.

In this video we were playing around with his bottle when he heard the workers and new neighbors outside. Several seconds of him standing and staring at the door were removed, as was the sound in the video (to reduce file size).

This dog loves bottles. The noisier the toy the better, and the crunching of the bottle is loud enough to drive you mad.

This video was taken with a Fujifilm Finepix J10 camera, purchased new today.

The following is a test of Flickr’s new video option. It’s an identical video: Read the rest of this entry »

First folks, I took this photo more-or-less right out of bed. So this is bed head, unshaven, fugly morning me mmkay?

Here’s a photo of the Giovanni Navarre leather trench coat that I ordered. Would you believe that I got this for like $37 after shipping costs? As long as this thing doesn’t fall apart I’m going to be tickled silly. Oh, and in case you’re wondering where I got it from I ordered it from CKBProducts.

No, this is not a paid post thank you very much. I don’t do that anymore, I just like my new coat and the price that I paid for it.

I really like how the neck of the trench coat lays snuggly against my neck. This may be a bit cold at first, but it should be very effective at keeping the wind off of my neck. That’s a major bonus. Add in a scarf, my Isotoner gloves, a hat, and those Eddie Bauer shirts that I ordered awhile back and we’re talking some nice, comfy warm winter garb.

This thing beats my jacket hands down, no contest. I just hope that it doesn’t fall apart… of course, at this price you can understand why I’m so concerned about it!

Anyway, that is all.
~Steph

Technorati Tags: coats, winter wear, out wear, men’s coats, leather coats, trench coat, leather trench coat