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Debating buying this really fancy coat
(hexbear.net)
It has cute wittle heart buttons. And it's stripey and I love historical reproduction. BUT It will cost about half my disposable income for the rest of the year. I've been saving for a while, and part of the reason I save is so I can get special things like this, but buying special things like this is why I always end up close to paycheck-to-paycheck.
Help me decide! I tend to get hyperfixated on a favorite article of clothing and wear it 3-5x per week until it disintegrates or is really inappropriate for the temperature.
Is this the TCB Carhartt repro chore coat? I can't tell you if it's in your budget or not, but this is probably a pretty nice light coat.
Since you're buying something from Japan and it's a pain in the ass to return, be sure to compare their measurements to jackets you own. I bought an Oni Type 2 jacket recently and I spent months making sure it was the jacket I wanted and that I'd be ordering the right size lol
That's great advice! I was trying to measure myself and getting various results, but I went and measured my two most similar coats and the listed measurements for one of the sizes are right in the middle! Which is perfect because one of them is a little snug and the other is a little roomy.
E: you clocked it haha.
The shoulder and sleeve measurements are the most important thing on a jacket. I think most of TCB's stuff is unsanforized, but washed so you shouldn't expect much shrinking (ie, the measurements provided should be true to size)
I personally like to sit on big purchases - if the one I want sells out, there'll always be something else in the future. That being said, this is a pretty reasonable price (assuming you're buying direct from them) for this kind of heritage work wear. Jackets/coats tend to be more expensive in this space for one reason or another - it's hard to find this kind of stuff under $200 unless you luck out on a sale somewhere.
You mentioned being afraid of messing up a jacket like this in another comment - that should be relatively hard unless you're wearing it for a labor intensive job. This is a reproduction of old worker clothing, so it'll take wear and tear (and most people like the look when it starts to show its age).
Just make sure you wash it when it's dirty, as this can degrade the fibers in the long run (the common cause of crotch "blow out" in jeans). It's indigo dyed, so I'd run it by itself, inside out, in the washing machine on cold with no spin cycle - shake off the excess water and hang dry it.