Hello one and all, and thanks for looking at this thread, im sure it will get moved soon, but i thought i would post it in here, because i mainly activly chat in this forum section.
Anyway, im currently doing a piece of art work on obssession, and im obssessing about a coat.
What i wanted to do was ask for any accounts, information, ideas, or knowledge from anyone willing to give it. I want personal account of stories with coats, your favourite coat, and why ?, impressions on fashion, is it important, why? so i have a few questions you can answer, or just give me your ideas if thats ok.
whats your favourite coat? or what was.... what happened to it, why is it your favourite?
what does a coat mean to you?
what do you carry in your coat?
how often do you wash a coat if ever?
how many coats do you have?
do you own them for practicallity or fashion?
is money an issue when you buy one?
do you have an memories associated with a coat of your own or of a family member/friend?
what do you think we would ware if we didnt have coats?

some ideas i have had to inspire you are, coats remind me of autumn, older people, and i carry lots of junk and crap in my coats, i always forgett that tissue is in there when i wash them and it comnes out all nasty and ruins my washing....
there are always bits of change and money in the bottom of my pocket,
my nans coat was always somthing very dear to me, i saw it as her protection from elements,her hideaway, shed carry it everywhere,all year round, no matter what.

anyway thanks for your time and effort, any information will be used only to encourage artistic ideas nothing else...... thanks guys :-)

OMG I totally LOVE coats! They transform an outfit! Think about jeans and a jumper - put on a smart tweedy trench and it's smart, put on a cropped bomber jacket with a fur hood and it's chav... (I have the cropped bomber jacket BECAUSE of the warm furry hood!!!)

I have quite a lot of coats! I have a short peacoat, a knee length tweedy double breasted trech, a knee length red coat with a huge collar, a short suede jacket with a fur collar from the 70s, motorcycle jackets, sporty nylon jackets, a yellow jacket BECAUSE it's yellow! A lightweight pink trench coat, a denim jacket, a denim tailored style jacket and a knee-length black wool coat with HUGE furry cuffs and a furry collar that I went clubbing in once and they didn't give me my cloackroom ticket I had to argue for hours to get it back!

I remember a really nice childhood coat I had which was white nylon with lots of tiny black cats all over it in a pattern. I really loved that coat and was sad when I grew out of it!

I think my favourite coat was probably a long black trench like Moulder & Scully. I shrank out of that one and now my mum wears it!!! I must buy a replacement!

Coats on other people, I remember my mum had 2 duffle coats, one was multi coloured and the other one was probably purple, she used to wear them with a huge square scarf folded into a triangle underneath. I was really happy when I grew into them and could wear those coats too!

Oh I had a school coat, it looked a bit like a Barbour jacket, but it was nylon rather than waxed cotton and I used to wear it when I wasn't at school. I loved that coat! I think it lasted me about 7 years and my DAD now wears it when he wants to look like a yorkshire farmer! It's a multi-tasking multi-person coat!!!

I try not to carry anything in my coat pockets now - it spoils the "line" of them. If I'm wearing a tailored coat then I'll carry a handbag, if I'm wearing my chav coat and jeans I put my phone, keys and wallet in random pockets, but I don't carry much stuff around with me.

Oh and another thing about coats - mittens on string!!!! I used to love them! My Grandma knitted me some gorgeous cream mittens on elastic, one pair had a mint pattern on and the other pair had a red pattern on the back of the hand. I was gutted when I grew out of them too!!! I bought some mittens in New Look that were on a string!!! I love them but they're a PITA to wear with my chav coat since the elasticated cuffs get in the way!

Oh and I had a great parker once that was knee-length and had a huge furry hood, that was really nice for using as a pillow on trains, planes, buses etc and i remember having a really bad cold on the plane on the way to Berlin and snuggling up inside my coat while DH chatted to the person next to him! Oh yeah and that parka had a hole in the pocket, so any time I put any loose change in there it would roll around in the bottom of the coat between the lining! That was funny! I used to jingle when I walked!

Oh and I never wash my coats!

what does a coat mean to you? warm, cover, protection, statement of self

what do you carry in your coat? mitts, a spare battery for my mp3, tissue, old receipts, wallet, bank card

how often do you wash a coat if ever? winter coat? twice a season or when it's dirty. jean jacket, windbreaker ... whenever I need to

how many coats do you have? three and several fleece jackets

do you own them for practicallity or fashion? I buy fairly plain so that I can wear different scarves etc

is money an issue when you buy one? yes

do you have an memories associated with a coat of your own or of a family member/friend? I remember grabbing an all-weather coat in the grocery store only to find it wasn't my mom ... just a lady in a coat like hers.

what do you think we would wear if we didnt have coats? ... capes, ponchos, blankets

My current coat is a mens chore coat from Carhartt. It's dark brown canvas. I love dark brown! No other woman I know has one like it. It's perfectly plain with jeans. Cute as a button with a short skirt. And I like scarves ... pink ones, baby blue ones ... I'm thinking of getting a frightening orange one too.

I'll do my best!

whats your favourite coat? or what was.... what happened to it, why is it your favourite? I've got two current favourite coats. I still have them both. One is an ankle length fake fur coat which DH bought me as a pressie about 10 Christmases ago - I only wear it a couple of times a year but I always feel very elegant and special in it which is unusual for me! The other one is my pink Helly Hanson waterproof jacket that I wear when I walk the dogs. Its pale pink, hooded and has zippers and pockets everywhere - its cosy warm and I even bought pale pink hiking boots to match.

what does a coat mean to you? Depends on the coat - my faux fur one means I'm going somewhere special and gives me the confidence to deal with anything unexpected. The pink walking jacket means I'll be having a lovely walk with my dogs and will come back feeling healthy and happy.

what do you carry in your coat? Nothing in the posh one but in the pink jacket I carry: keys, spare dog lead, dog treats/rewards, stretchy bands for tying back my hair, MP3 player, portable digital radio, spare batteries for both, mobile phone, sugar free butterscotch sweeties, tissues, dog wipes, dog whistle.

how often do you wash a coat if ever? Posh coat - never its specialist clean only. Pink jacket - it gets a wipe when it gets muddy and a wash about every month. Other coats get clean/washed as they need it.

how many coats do you have? About a dozen.

do you own them for practicallity or fashion? Some of both.

is money an issue when you buy one? Hmmm - hard one this. It obviously wasn't with DH when he bought me the faux fur one. The pink jacket was a bit more complicated. It was bought after having bought and thrown away a whole bunch of very useless 'showerproof' jackets which leaked like a sieve in the first downpour of Yorkshire rain. So with the pink jacket it was more important that it was completely waterproof and warm in case I got lost on the Moor in the rain or cold - which could be life threatening - and when you risk your life then cost has to come second (or stop walking on the Moor!) But for normal every day kind of coats then certainly price is an issue and I usually get 'good' ones at a local designer retail outlet.

do you have an memories associated with a coat of your own or of a family member/friend? My leather motorcycle jacket has lots of memories associated with it.

what do you think we would ware if we didnt have coats? We'd probably wrap ourselves in duvet type shawls.

Funny - as soon as I read Frus's phrase about coats on other people I had a cold shiver as I got a strong memory of my Mother going to parents' evening at my school with her fur coat on. *shudder*

Eeew! I saw a lady on the tube the other day with a real fur coat on. ICK! I gave her hacky looks all the way home!!!

They make me feel quite ill. My Mother once bought my daughter a fur coat when she was about 2 and got greatly offended when she found out years later that it had been thrown away unworn. Like I'm going to dress my daughter up in a dead animal just for her gratification.... not!

Hmmmmmm, coats, I have a few. My favourite at the moment is my newest one, it's light choccolate brown with a baby pink warm soft terry towling lining with a hood. I mostly wear it for walking the dogs and it's very waterproof as I found last week, walking in torrential rain

I have a lovely black wool coat too, CG gave it to me, as it was too big for her, it's really warm and can be dressed up or down. It hass a lttle hole in one of the pockets but I never get around to fixing it...

Pockets, usually nothing unless I'm walking the dogs, and then I have my cell phone, unless I remember to put that in my little cell phone holder thingy that goes over my shoulder chest part. And paper towels to pick up pooh, a plastic bag to put the said pooh in which I then carry, and my front door key on my Union jack key fob.

Coats can be a statement to who or what you are, I've always hankered after a long straight camel coloured wool coat, wearing it with a lovely outfit underneath and high boots, but every time I try one on, I look horrible, fat, huge, and undignified.

Mostly I see them as comfort and to keep away the elements. I have a grey down filled coat I got while living in NJ, it's lovely and warm, I'll be getting plenty of use for it here, it has a removable hood... I don't wear the hoods up, prefer a wooly hat, as I can't stand not being able to hear properly by having the hood up.

My Mum had a 'blanket' coat for years, it was like Josephs Technicoloured dream coat with all sorts of colours in lines, she always looked fantastic in it and she still says it was the best coat she's ever owned.

Cost...not expensive, not over 100 bucks....

Hope this helps with your project FTT

deffinetly got some good stuff, its weird peoples responses to fur coats, i suppose they do represent wealth, but alot of people hate them....

There are lots of ways of displaying wealth that don't involve murdering animals just for their fur. I don't know why, but I haven't got such a problem with leather - maybe its because its a by-product of the food industry.

also leather can protect us, it proves more usefull then fur, ok, fur back in history was used to keep us warm, but leather is hard material to replace.

I'm going to have to go the other way here - I really don't like coats at all and have got to say that I don't think I've worn one this year. I do have a couple of jackets but still don't wear them, I tend to buy them when I'm going away and then never wear them again - funnily enough I bought one yesterday in Evans because I'm going to Amsterdam on Friday and when I went last year it was really wet and cold ... but it's pretty highly unlikely that I'll wear it again when I come back. I always feel that I'm suffocating when I'm wearing one, don't know why that is though, I've always been the same, the only jacket I ever really loved was a blue leather jacket I had when I was about 16 that I thought was wonderful, apart from that I can't think of anything nice about coats.