winter coat Archives - Suzanne Carillo

Have you seen the movie Atomic Blond? If not, you need to watch it. Not necessarily for the plot which I found a bit weak and hard to follow at times but for the super badass Chalize Theron kicking everyone’s butt while dressed like a rock star. Oh…and the soundtrack is pretty sweet too.

Charlize wears eleven different coats in that movie. I’m featuring five of them here.

The film takes place in 1989 and I’ll be honest, I don’t remember 1989 looking that good. In fact you could wear every single outfit from that film today and be right on trend. Thus is the power of vintage.

1. The first coat we see in the film left a huge impression on me.

It was this white custom-made vinyl raincoat by John Galliano.

This photo doesn’t do it justice. It is so far beyond any raincoat I’ve ever seen. I became ~~slightly~~ totally obsessed with that coat. (More on that later.)

Next we move onto a classic trench.

2. A traditional yet oh-so-damn-cool trench coat and those vintage glasses that are trending again right now.

Another tried and true classic winter coat.

3. A vintage 1980s extra long wool double breasted coat. Check out the over-the-knee boots! They are everywhere right now. What goes around comes around folks.

Timeless with a totally impractical twist.

4. This shot is from one of the many fantastic fight scenes in the movie all performed while wearing a classic white wool coat. I’m sure they had many duplicates of this coat as it would have been very messed up by the end of the scene.

How about some designer vintage?

5. We don’t see much colour in the film up until the end where Charlize dons a vintage Dior coat in red. Talk about eye popping vintage fashion porn. This woman really knows how to wear clothes.

From the moment I saw the movie I was on a mission to find some of the same pieces while thrifting and add them to my Etsy shop.

I spotted quite a few in the long wool coat category.

Long double breasted blazer style menswear inspired winter coat in taupe. Size small/medium.

Another wool coat 1950s 60s this time belted in bright orange/tomato. Size S/M

A gorgeous 1950s 60s teal wool coat that is quite simply divine. Size M/L.

You need to see the back of this coat to truly appreciate the craftsmanship.

I haven’t had a chance to photograph myself wearing it. Good thing because I’d probably want to keep it.

This is a classic London Fog trench coat but in a bold pink statement colour. Just the way I like it!

Size S/M.

I’ve got quite the personal collection of leather trench coats as I’m crazy about them.

This one below in burgundy with tweed trim is too small for me. Size XS.

Yes, those are tears falling on my keyboard.

This coat is a classic blazer cut with a single row of buttons. It is of course the gorgeous multicoloured plaid that really caught my eye. Size XS/S, thus why I’m not able to keep it. Otherwise this coat is a beauty!

If you’re into those big furry coats from the 90s that Melanie is always makes look so great I have one of those too. Size S/M.

I’ve got quite a few more coats listed that you can see in my vintage Etsy store here.

Remember how I said I’d get back to my obsession with the vinyl trench coat?

I had no luck at all trying to thrift anything remotely like it. I did however find an Etsy seller Ruslana Roman based in Russia that makes vinyl rain coats. I know! Can you believe it? They are made to order so I was able to choose the colour I wanted. After much debate I narrowed it down to either blue or purple and finally chose the blue.

Here she is in all her glory!

Can I just say how crazy I am about this coat? It is stunning! Every time I’ve worn it I get loads of compliments.

This coat does make me feel like I could kick some butt.

This is the first time I’ve had anything custom made since I was in my late teens.

Back then I hired a girlfriend to make a dress for me for New Year’s Eve. She was supposed to be a talented seamstress. I wanted the dress to be “all that” to show an ex what he was missing out on. It was a sheath dress in teal with spaghetti straps whose sole mission was to make me look like Marilyn Monroe. It was “none of that”. The fit was off. It was baggy where it should have fit like a glove. I wore it nonetheless because I felt at the time that I’d dropped some big cash on it however I never wore it again afterwards and considered it to be a waste of money.

Did I get the man back? Ha ha! Of course! But that is another story entirely my friends.

This experience of having a custom piece made was so much better!

There was quite a bit of delay receiving the coat due to my choice of colour as he had to order in the blue. When it finally arrived though I was more than pleased. It fits perfectly, has a gorgeous lining and a very unique beautifully designed cut. I love it!

I took more photos of some of my favourite coats and will have another posts coming soon featuring them. In the meantime you may want to see some of my other vintage leather pieces I have in my collection.

Have you ever had something custom made? Did it turn out as you expected?

Linking up with the lovely Patti over at Visible Monday.

Cougar Style & Why You Need It

I know quite a few well experienced women avoid wearing animal prints. Heck, we’re being told women over 30! (seriously?) should avoid it.

Why?

It looks fabulous on older women!

In fact, I didn’t wear animal prints until after I turned 40.

My favourite example of a gorgeous woman wearing animals prints is the incredible Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate.

mrs robinson leopard coat — image source

She wore animal prints in every scene. She was in fact, the first female “cougar” pre-dating the term commonly used today, describing a woman that prefers dating younger men. Her character in the film is predatory in nature and supremely confident. She knows what she wants and she isn’t afraid to go after it, regardless of her age.

She has amazing cougar style.

While researching the term “cougars” for this post I stumbled across this on WikiHow, “How to Know if a Woman is a Cougar”

“Pay attention to her self-confidence. In general, the older a woman gets, the better she knows herself and what she likes, and the more confident she becomes.

Some signs that she is confident:
Good posture: whether sitting or standing, a person with good self-confidence will likely have a straight back and a head that is well-balanced on the neck, with the chin pointed neither too high nor too low.
Relaxed: a person with good self-confidence will likely seem relaxed in most situations, perhaps looking around the room with an easy smile, or just seeming generally calm and at peace with herself. She won’t be very fidgety.
Eye contact: confident people make eye contact and maintain it in social interactions. That said, there’s a difference between maintaining eye contact and staring intimidatingly at someone: looking someone in the eye roughly 60% of the time you are talking to them is a good rule of thumb.”

I quite like the fact that a cougar is described as a very confident woman. Nothing wrong with that.

I have been searching for a Mrs. Robinson – cougar style coat for years now. I stumbled across this one while thrifting a few weeks back and have been wearing it often. A swing coat with an undefined waist isn’t normally my style, but I’m loving the added warmth and freedom of a larger coat.

And yeah, I feel pretty damn confident when I wear it.

The fringe boots were also thrifted the same week.

I’m still trying to decide if they are keepers. They might be 1″ too high for my sensitive feet.

A shame though since they are seriously fierce.

When I tried them on at Talize two women came up to me and told me I had to buy them. Funny how that always seems to influence me.

I don’t even need to have my enabling friends around!

I manage to find complete strangers that are enablers.

#truestory

#pugspotting

Zoë always wants to get in on the action.

This coat is vintage, made in Montreal. I think it is 1960’s-1970’s. I moved the buttons on the coat about seven inches over so it fit better when closed. It is lined in a glorious burnt orange colour, very close to the colour of my hair.

#madeforme