Sad coat update

I have sad news. Sad and rather mortifying news. My much-loved green coat, the same one I proudly blogged about only a month ago, may need to be discarded. It seems my confidence in my repairs was rather misplaced. I wore it in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago and two things happened. One, I got completely soaked through. Two, the zip went again. Trying to climb out of a sodden waxed jacket which has all the flexibility of a rusted suit of armour is no easy task, especially for someone as, erm, lithe as me. I needed external help. It was easy enough to fix the zip again once I was back home, but it has since happened again and I am now getting a bit fed up with it. I could send it off to have a new zip fitted, and I expect the holes could be sewn up and the whole thing rewaxed at the same time, but that would likely cost a fair bit. It does not seem sensible to spend money on a ripped and distinctly leaky coat from the early nineties. In other words maybe it has had its day and it is time for a new coat? Thirty years is a pretty distinguished age for a piece of clothing and perhaps I shouldn't feel so bad about wastage. Money that I might spend on repairs could go towards a new coat - if I could find a new one with the same quality of manufacturing to last another thirty years (is this even possible in 2020?) it might see me out! I could pass it down to the next generation like a nice watch!

On the other hand I could forgo repairs and expense and just persist with it despite the obvious flaws, namely that it won't protect me from wet weather and if its cold I can't do it up without risking getting stuck in it. I suppose if it is dry and mild I could just wear it without the zip, leaving it open or just using the poppers, but there would be plenty of days where that just wouldn't be viable. In other words I'd still be without a functional piece of outerwear that I could turn to no matter the conditions. And that bothers me enough to seriously consider whether now is actually the time to finally throw in the towel and invest in a new wax jacket for the next few decades.

I don't want a new Barbour. Everyone has one of those and from what I've read the new ones simply don't last very long. £250 on a coat that might be in shreds in five years doesn't seem to me to be a great investment. Alternatively I could buy a second hand one for much less, but that risks having the same issues as my current one and might also come with the additional bonus of strong dog aromas. I've found an alternative brand called Belstaff which seems a step up from Barbour but they all look rather military or biker, neither of which is a look I'm that keen on cultivating. Other than these two companies there just doesn't seem to be much else out there in a reasonable price bracket. Maybe I need to start looking in the unreasonable bracket? I've seen a few that look very nice indeed but with prices to make a grown man weep. Then again when you divide by thirty....