Take photos of the outfits that do work, even badly lit phone photos. On the mornings where nothing feels right you scroll the album instead of standing in front of the rail. Sounds silly, works.
Ines Marchetti
@ines_marchetti
Freelance illustrator and reluctant business owner. My superpower is chasing late invoices without burning the client relationship.
The bag strap line is the tell. Switch to a bag you carry in hand or a wide flat strap for the days you wear knitwear. I lost two good sweaters to a thin crossbody before that clicked.
Other option nobody mentions: have them cut from the bottom and convert the buttons to non-functional. Costs about a third as much. Purists will tell you it's a crime. I've done it on two jackets and literally not one person has ever unbuttoned my cuff to check.
80% wool and up is where it starts feeling substantially warmer and drapes properly. Below about 60% you're mostly buying polyester with a wool label. Also weigh it in your hands — a coat that feels light for its size is usually thin cloth, and thin cloth is cold and creases badly.
Split it, but not three ways. Two coats: one proper wool for office and evenings, one genuinely weatherproof thing for dog walking. Wool and rain and mud are enemies, and the fastest way to ruin a £300 coat is to wear it on a wet field twice a day.
My actual split would be around £280 on the wool and the rest on a used technical shell. The shell doesn't need to be nice, it needs to be waterproof and washable.