Woman in an oversized rust wool trench coat with black leather panels over a black dress in a glass-roofed station

Outerwear · Autumn · Winter

Rust wool trench coat with leather panels over a black dress

An oversized rust wool trench with black leather panels down the lapel and sleeve, tied at the waist over a plain black scoop-neck dress.

A trench coat in rust wool, cut oversized with a wide storm collar and lapels that fold back almost to the shoulder. Black leather is inset where the coat takes the most wear: down the right lapel, along the inside of the sleeve, in a flap pocket at the hip. The sleeves are gathered and pushed up so the wool bunches above the wrist, and the whole thing is held with a self-belt tied, not buckled, at the natural waist. The hem falls to mid-calf.

Under it, a black scoop-neck dress in a matte jersey, long and plain, which is all a coat like this wants. Autumn and winter, a station concourse with a glass roof, the kind of trip where the coat is the luggage. A flat boot for walking, a pointed one for arriving. No bag in shot; the pockets are leather for a reason.

I always look up at departure boards. I never read them. The coat decides where I am going.