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Public Address
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1654
Up Front: The British Are Coming
I was in Ophthalmology the other day having an armload of blood tests taken by a very nice woman. She seemed pleased to deal with somebody who was at ease with the process. ("See the tiny scar over the vein on my right arm? That's where you go in. We call it the Blood Door.") She was chatty and helpful and good at what she did. ("Your name looks familiar, have you been in before?") She didn't once comment on my novelty cartoon pupils. Then it was time to go back out into a Christchurch winter ("I won't make you wait here while I write all these up, you go."), so I put on my coat.
Karen White
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 40
I get compliments on my coat too. It's vintage, dark purple with a (hopefully) faux fur collar, teamed with my grandmother-in-law's pink diamante & pearl brooch.
Stands out in a sea of black & charcoal grey.
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4400
After reading this I had to scroll back to the top to re-read the title.
Took me a couple of seconds, but I clicked.
Judi Lapsley Miller
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 65
It's not my Perfect Coat. That's a tailored Victorian-style purple frock coat. I didn't buy that because it doesn't exist.
Me too me too! Would trample hoards for such a coat! If we can imagine it, it surely must exist somewhere in this universe?
Helen T
From: Yorkshire (West if you're being picky)
Since: Jun 2009
Posts: 14
**The British Are Coming**
We are? I didn't get the memo. Damnit, people have got to stop leaving me off the mailing list.
It's not my Perfect Coat. That's a tailored Victorian-style purple frock coat. I didn't buy that because it doesn't exist. One day I will be rich, and cause it to exist. Try-hard Goths everywhere will weep with gratitude and use my picture as a screen-saver. In fact, I might well commission my own fashion label, called "Fuck It, It Fits Me". Fuck It will make DD-cup push-up bras, because why the hell wouldn't you? If anyone knows a structural engineer who'll need a job in about 2018, let me know.
You've been reading my sewing notebook again haven't you. Although I think Companies House might have an issue with that label name.
Helen T
From: Yorkshire (West if you're being picky)
Since: Jun 2009
Posts: 14
Me too me too! Would trample hoards for such a coat! If we can imagine it, it surely must exist somewhere in this universe?
My ideal is the same, except in green (goes with the green hair). My mission for this year is to get good enough with a sewing machine to *make* one. If this happens there will be much rejoicing, and probably then whoring out of services.
Heather W.
From: North Shore
Since: Nov 2008
Posts: 152
It's apparently possible to get the pattern for Men's frock coat of Victorian era.
Hadyn Green
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1802
Moderator
I have a long grey 1940s Great Coat, also wool and made in Germany. It's beautiful and warm and gets me a lot of comments, but the damn thing weighs a tonne, so it has to be pretty cold for me to wear it.
Emma Hart
From: Christchurch
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2629
Moderator
Me too me too! Would trample hoards for such a coat! If we can imagine it, it surely must exist somewhere in this universe?
Within minutes of my putting this column up, a friend of mine had produced this. It's crushed velvet, which is a bit... whatever the goth equivalent of twee is, but the colour is good and the cut is almost but not quite right.
I have a long grey 1940s Great Coat
I used to have the use of an Air Force Great Coat. Incredibly warm, slightly too small for me, and yeah, astoundingly heavy.
Helen T
From: Yorkshire (West if you're being picky)
Since: Jun 2009
Posts: 14
Within minutes of my putting this column up, a friend of mine had produced this. It's crushed velvet, which is a bit... whatever the goth equivalent of twee is, but the colour is good and the cut is almost but not quite right.
Emo? *snorts* Okay not the word we're looking for here but I couldn't resist. Also, I've got to say it, who gets winter coat in velvet? I mean, hello, rain. Or snow. Wet velvet is not fun - says the girl who got caught in velvet and lace skirt in a sudden downpour last Whitby...
Deborah
From: Adelaide
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 815
Picture of your coat? Please?
Danielle
From: PAS Women's XV Strategic Headquarters
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2249
This is going to be like the shoes thing, but I have a collection of vintage coats. My favourite is a sixties a-line black wool with this extra fabulous ribbon trim around the collar and pockets ($40, This is Not a Love Shop, 1996). I have a scarlet wool one with GIANT red buttons, same vintage. I also have an aqua 60s coat with clearly *not* faux-fur collar (I'm going with the 'hell, it was already used when I bought it!' justification).
Actually, if I listed all the coats I currently own you would all look at me funny, so, um, yeah. Coats are awesome.
Deborah
From: Adelaide
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 815
My always-complimented coat, far more so than anything else I wear - swing coat, handwoven wool, black with a hot pink fleck (one strand of pink wool for every two strands of black wool). It's about 20 years old now. I got some repair work done and got it relined a couple of years ago, in hot pink. It's a one-off: my cousin was running her own design and sewing business, and she made it for me.
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4400
I have a long grey 1940s Great Coat, also wool and made in Germany. It's beautiful and warm and gets me a lot of comments, but the damn thing weighs a tonne, so it has to be pretty cold for me to wear it.
This indicates that you, like the entire F1 racing industry, supports Hitler. Just to make you aware.
Danielle
From: PAS Women's XV Strategic Headquarters
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2249
We Godwinned a fashion thread? Now I've seen everything.
Josh Addison
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 215
Inital thoughts:
I was in Ophthalmology the other day having an armload...
Intersting start.
...of blood tests
Aw. But then:
She didn't once comment on my novelty cartoon pupils.
Ah...
I have a good coat story too, but it happened to someone else.
B Jones
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 423
I intend to replace my perfectly good but a bit boring black wool coat (ankle length, flared from the waist) with something along the scarlet lines, but it would be even better if someone did a version with a hood. Hoods are so useful and never a pain when you don't need them, but hardly any high-end winter coats or even raincoats have them.
But I saw the coat of awesomeness on the bus the other night. It was a lush jadey green, with a matching green feather boa collar. I've never seen anything like it, and I'd guess it was custom-made.
The problem with DIY coatmaking is not so much the sewing machine action, but all the pressing and interfacing and tailoring you have to do as well. I've tried it and the results were disappointing, and you don't want to be disappointed with large quantities of fabric at $40+ a metre.
Isabel Hitchings
From: Christchurch
Since: Jul 2007
Posts: 335
I assume "fuck it it fits me" will also produce high-waisted jeans with room for actual hip/bottoms?
Emma Hart
From: Christchurch
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2629
Moderator
I assume "fuck it it fits me" will also produce high-waisted jeans with room for actual hip/bottoms?
Indeed. We're big on waistage.
I have a good coat story too, but it happened to someone else.
Don't let that stop you.
This indicates that you, like the entire F1 racing industry, supports Hitler. Just to make you aware.
Pretty much this exact thought went through my head, but I didn't want to say it.
Josh Addison
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 215
Don't let that stop you.
Actually, what was stopping me was that I was too lazy to write it all down. Then I remembered that I already had, in another place, a long time ago.
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4400
Pretty much this exact thought went through my head, but I didn't want to say it.
That's because you didn't want to highlight the fact that your red coat makes you a Man U supporter.
(I'm trying to change the trend from 'all threads revert to the copyright thread', to 'all threads become field theory'.)
JoJo
From: Wellington
Since: Jul 2008
Posts: 50
I am obscenely proud of my winter coat. It's ORANGE (and that is yelled, because it's not some soft girly orange, but fire and rage orange). It's pure wool, with beautiful satiny lining/
I get compliments every time I wear it, and have been stopped by strangers asking where I got it.
And then I have to tell them that I got it for 5 bucks at a charity shop, and they will never ever ever have a coat like mine. (And then I blow raspberries and skip away.)
Andrew Stevenson
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 161
My winter coat is, by several miles of daylight, the most complimented thing I have. If you added together all the aesthetic praise I've received for my cat, my games cabinet and my breasts, it still wouldn't come close
Are you looking for more praise?
Craig Ranapia
From: North Shore, Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 7160
I have a greatcoat I never wear because 1) it's so damn heavy I stoop and dowager's hump doesn't work for me, and, 2) it's so damn thick everything else I'm wearing gets sweat-sticky inside of five minutes. Perhaps I should have thought through the utility of buying a piece of clothing not designed to be worn in a temperate climate...
Emma Hart
From: Christchurch
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2629
Moderator
And then I have to tell them that I got it for 5 bucks at a charity shop, and they will never ever ever have a coat like mine. (And then I blow raspberries and skip away.)
That's the spirit!
Are you looking for more praise?
If I were, I'd have posted pictures of my coat like Deborah asked. (I don't have any pictures of my coat.)
Then I remembered that I already had, in another place, a long time ago.
Wow. Our lot liked trench coats with huge pockets so they could carry their water pistols in them. Though that didn't explain the penchant for jackboots.
Hadyn Green
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1802
Moderator
This indicates that you, like the entire F1 racing industry, supports Hitler. Just to make you aware.
I had hoped folks wouldn't notice that.
We Godwinned a fashion thread? Now I've seen everything.
Nazis: bastards of the highest order but snappy dressers.
giovanni tiso
From: Wellington
Since: Jun 2007
Posts: 4361
Nazis: bastards of the highest order but snappy dressers.
My sister always wanted a Red Army coat but they don't make soldiers that short in Russia (or anywhere else, probably). She did however for a time use a tabard of my grandfather's and that was pretty spesh.
Emma Hart
From: Christchurch
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2629
Moderator
Nazis: bastards of the highest order but snappy dressers.
"Green says Nazis 'Snappy Dressers'"
You know my favourite thing about the Nazis? All their hot blonde chicks.
Sam F
From: Morningside, Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1187
After reading this I had to scroll back to the top to re-read the title.
Took me a couple of seconds, but I clicked.
Ashamed to say that I only just got it myself. Superb.
3410
From: Auckland
Since: Jan 2007
Posts: 1315
Ashamed to say that I only just got it myself.
Don't be too ashamed. I'm sure I'm not the only one still working on it.
Ian Dalziel
From: Christchurch
Since: Dec 2006
Posts: 395
I'll have what she's having...
Thought you might like a tattoo to go with that...
(I am assuming yer not a Butlins gal...)
;- )
yrs
Joseph and His Technicolour Yawn
from the Rank files and Madder Rows
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