Once When I Was

When I saw this pink coat in the window of a vintage shop on Orchard street over 10 years ago I died.  I was just starting to style jobs on my own, I was mostly assisting or still working on films.  I couldn’t afford the ($80!) coat but this was the LES and everyone was super friendly and neighborhoodie.  I talked to the owner Erika and begged her to hold the coat til the end of the week for me.  I think I gave her $20.  So essentially I put this coat on lay away. 

I can’t explain how happy this coat makes me feel.  You would feel it too if you saw it in person.  People cross the street to tell me how much they love it.  Especially in a sea of black that NYC can be in the fall / winter.  This pop of color is a doozy.  For the past few years I haven’t worn it because I let the lining fall apart and I stopped liking the length.  Rather than buying a new pink coat (hello, Tommy Hilfiger two seasons ago!) I invested in what I had and got the lining refreshed and hemmed it about 10 inches.  It’s nice to have rekindled a love affair with this pretty piece that I have had for so long. 

This coat has had quite a life, and that is just with me.  I can only imagine where it went before me.  The tag inside says made exclusively for Marshall Fields in beautiful 1950’s script.  In the past 13 years with me this coat has rung in the new millennium in London, been the color pink on an episode of Sesame Street and helped me garner the nickname Pinky Lee for a brief lived time.

Let’s just say I still have to thank my best friends for arranging a ‘hair intervention’ after the coat was taken home because there is only so much pink your friends can handle.

Vintage Coat with scarf c/o LemLem, jeans c/o Agave and wedges c/o Puma.   Cardigan by G-Star, bag c/o O’neill, shirt c/o Leyendecker and a vintage necklace.