The Spike

While we’re on the subject of AW15, I’ve been looking for ages for a simple navy raincoat and can’t find one.

I bought my husband a perfect black raincoat from Tiger of Sweden for last winter. You wear it on its own for all kinds of weather and then layered over one of Uniqlo’s super light-weight down jackets on freezing days.

But I can’t find a similar one for women. I will not wear a trench coat, because I think they’re just vile, all flappy and stupid, making my shoulders look about six feet wide. And I’ve never suited anything belted.

While we’re on that subject, I find one of the main things about getting older is that you just give up on things that don’t, never have and never will suit you (but which you nevertheless really admire when worn on other women). So things I’ve given up on are:

– trench coats

– lipstick

– ballerina flats

– tea dresses

– skinny jeans (though sometimes these have to be worn out of necessity – i.e. rain)

– skirts generally

– anything with frills or small floral patterns

Anyway so back to this elusive raincoat. The one I really want is made by Mackintosh itself and it’s called the Banton. It’s hugely popular in China (there is an entirely separate part of the Mackintosh website in Chinese) and they cost £725. So I’m not going to get one of these. I think I might secretly really want one because my Dad has the men’s equivalent and Dad is a natty dresser.

It’s the sort of thing that I would expect Boden (don’t shoot!) to stock, though they don’t at the moment. And you can never rely on Boden not to include some sort of devastating detail, like an unwanted toggle, a dog-motif lining or dinner plate-sized “jazzy” buttons.

So I am going to stake out the Uniqlo website, as being the shop most like to cater to the enviable style and practical demands of the pan-Asian population. They already have in stock this, and it’s on sale at £19.99, but it is black so I won’t get it because there’s just no point in not having exactly the thing that you want.