Fight the cold: cashmere overcoat

Snow’s coming down might hard here in Chicago, so I figured now was as good a time as any to post this overcoat I got off of Etsy a while back. It needed quite a bit of work done.

I had my tailor lengthen the cuffs, narrow the sleeves, narrow the sides and he also recut the shoulder and the back. It took quite a while to get it done and some decent money. Here’s what it looked like beforehand (the person modeling it isn’t me, but the seller):

As you can see, the shoulders were huge. I actually had the tailor remove the massive amount of shoulder padding in the jacket, because it made me look like a linebacker for the Bears, with my shoulders being a perfectly straight line without any sloping.

So, why all this effort to recut a jacket? Well, first off, it was super cheap — about $65 shipped, whereas the tailoring was $120. Secondly, the jacket is 100-percent cashmere. Third, because it was handmade on Saville Row:

I don’t know how much a handmade, cashmere jacket goes for these days on Saville Row, but I’m fairly certain the total $185 I paid for this was a steal. It’s super warm, heavy and looks great over my sportcoats and suits.

My tailor thought it was pretty ridiculous for how cheap I got the jacket. I couldn’t agree more.