It is so cold in New York that I simply cannot bear to wear anything outside aside from my huge, fluffy, puffy Land’s End down coat. This coat is massive. It basically doubles my body size, but I love it because it is ultimately the warmest coat I have ever owned. While all snuggly and bundly in my unfashionable coat, I cannot help but feel dumpy when I pass a woman in a fabulous winter coat on the street (and let me assure you that there are hundreds of women in fabulous coats on the streets of NYC.) I was walking home from work today and was instantly attracted to this amazing turquoise plaid coat on the street. It was streamed with shots of pink, orange, and yellow in the plaid, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Its owner, equally fabulous, was clearly European, my guess was Italian. Also, she was wearing jeans and sneakers, hip sneakers, but sneakers nonetheless. It was so obvious that she just knew her coat did the job of creating the perfect winter outfit. She didn’t even have to try to be ultra fashionable beneath it. I resigned myself to pull a chic-er coat out of the depths of my closet and try a bit harder to be fabulous tomorrow.