20 Comments

Finding myself irrationally angry about that chore coat article. The author sounds like a petulant child with a platform, which gives me complete confidence to ignore every word he says and go on with my life wearing what I like whenever I feel it is appropriate.

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I agree with this take. The chore coat story is clearly just click bait and the solutions Johnson offers up are absurd.

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Fashion industry a few years ago, “Get a timeless chore coat. Never go out of style, built to last.” Fashion industry today, “Ewwww get rid of your chore coat!” lol.

I think chore coats reached critical mass, but I still think they look good and the pockets rock!

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Well as David Coggins might say, the chore coat is really about the person who is wearing it and their personal style. It became trendy and a bunch of guys bought it without knowing how to style it. So now the zeitgeist has flipped and said guys should get rid of them. Very much like how pleated pants keep going back and forth from "hot" to "horrible" every decade.

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Agree completely. I don't think we need to abandon the chore coat. The fashion people will move on soon and things will be normal again.

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Kind of feels like the article was written for people that don’t like chore coats anyway. I suspect if you are wearing it primarily because of what you think you might look like in it rather than as the utility clothing it is then the point of it might well be missed. I tend to wear my Asket version when I’m working in the garden or at home rather than when I go out. For that it is perfect. As are most of their clothes.

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I wasn't exactly holding my breath that J.Crew was going to get things figured out. They looked like a victim of early aught's excess and hedge fund hell. "Against all odds, J.CREW has recaptured our attention. Only time will tell if they deserve it.”

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We sort of spoke about this on Central Division today, but J.Crew bringing back a catalog is a sad attempt at relevancy. I agree with your thoughts and think I might need to do a full ACL post on this.

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Unsolicited suggestion, you should reach out to Matt Stoller regarding how leveraged buyouts forced J.Crew to modify their product line to try and make unsustainable debt payments. Really ties into your focus on American brands that get corrupted.

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Dammit. And here I just bought two this year from Paynter 😉😂

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Same, and I'm so happy with it. It's a great coat.

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Please don't let that story change how you feel about those jackets.

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lol never. I love Paynter and their

Model and love supporting them. Also their jackets are amazing

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Love all things Paynter (may have dove in hard within the last year)

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Same. I picked up two of their chore coats and one of their waxed jackets this year. All excellent. Very cool business model...I admire them for sticking to it (so far) after that NYT article.

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I love the waxed jacket, can’t wait to wear that this fall/winter

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I’m awaiting my wool cashmere chore coat 😍

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Of course the GQ take is bad, he’s got the entire order of things flipped:

“If you’re like me and you feel the need to have nearly as many coats and jackets as you have shirts and pants, that’s fine, too.”

You should have more outerwear than pants and shirts!

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I finally scored a Paynter jacket in French Blue and I’ll be dammed if I’m not going to wear the hell out of it.

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Having finally read the GQ piece this morning I can confidently say that’s one that Noah should have written, read and then binned. I don’t know what chore coat hurt him or if “big denim” slid some dough his way to write a hit piece on their nemesis, but this was a nonsense story that was so clearly written after the clickbait headline was thought up. Now he’s published another piece with a self-contradicting rant about how he can officially be the first menswear writer to declare “Vans are back” but also Vans “never stopped looking cool and feeling good to wear, they just needed a break.” What?

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