Don't Forget The Staple: Trench Coats

When people start to find out that you are a fashion design student the first things they ask are " Can you make me something? " and " What is in style?". Seriously, stop asking that. Fashion design students work for 48 hours straight in crappy conditions a lot of the time so if you think we're going to make your a pair of pants for free after draping and sewing for days on end you can go stick your head in the freezer. Oh...yeah... sorry,  back to what I was talking about, the one thing I always tell women when they are thinking of building a great wardrobe is to start with staples. What are staples? They are pieces of clothing that never ever go out of style no matter what decade or season it is. Building a wardrobe around these key items will keep you in style all year round.

Today's staple is the trench coat. The history of the trench coat is long so i'll give you the Cliff's Notes on it. Trench coats date back as early as the first World War and were actually French and British military coats. Why are they called Trench Coats? Because they wore them going through the trenches. The little shoulder flap you see on trench coats is where soldiers used to place their rifle.  Since then the trench has evolved and survived almost a 100 years and is now a fashion "must have"  in any fashion worthy person's wardrobe.

Trench Coats come in so many different styles, colors, and price points now that it would be impossible for me to cover them all but what I can do is give you some beautiful trenches I have found online shopping. Trench coats traditionally are double and single breasted. One thing you want to remember is if you are um....healthy up top, a single breasted coat will be the most flattering for you. Also, you can never go wrong with the classic khaki colored, knee length trench, but if you're a daring kind of gal go for it and play with different colors and lengths.  Just avoid getting a full length, black leather one, you really don't want to walk around looking like an extra from the Matrix.