The Jackets with the Fur

When I'm in Italy, I try to check out what people are wearing to find out what Americans will be wearing next year. Italians are soooo stylish and, to me, not afraid to experiment with new looks. I had never been to Europe during winter and was looking forward to increasing my sartorial repertoire.

News flash: au courant outerwear in Italy this year is the down parka with fur collar circa GAP 2001. My little brother (LB) pointed out, "that's just new enough to look out of style but not quite old enough to look cool." I insisted that if he wanted to be a trendsetter at school he should adopt this look. He said he would hold out for the full on fur coat after his successful career as a financier (good one).

At first I felt out of the loop. Was this simply an Italian winter staple? I asked an expert, my Italian BF.

He gave me a look of disgust and rolled his eyes. He wouldn't be caught dead in that jacket. He told me that clothing trends spread virally in Italy. He had never noticed it before because they are usually more subtle than a marshmallow coat with a fur collar. Now that it was in his face he determined that everyone was just a huge copy cat. During our tour of Rome we delighted in counting the number of fur collars packed into restaurants and coffee bars.

I took series of photos (a few are in the collage above) inspired by Scott Schuman, The Sartorialist and Bill Cunningham of the 'On The Street' feature in The New York Times. I used my ghetto digital camera so the photos aren't the best quality, but you get the picture.

When I got back to the states I dug out my ivory down parka with fur collar (which I believe was purchased at the GAP in 2001). I put on my favorite jeans, cute flats, and slipped on the parka. I was temporarily excited that I hadn't gotten rid of it.

One look in the mirror horrified me. Beach ball on stilts came to mind. My inner Tim Gunn was fighting it. I sighed at yet another example why Italians mystify me. They manage to turn everything into chic, even something as unflattering as a down parka.

Americans are cool again?

This can't be. For the past three years, I have had to prepare myself mentally for the anti-americanism before traveling to Europe. I had heard about it after Bush was elected but it's something you have to experience to understand.

People hated us... I mean realllllly hated us. 

I would try to be on my best behavior. I tried to convince myself that I was a mini ambassador and that my actions would have an effect one person at a time. I tried different approaches to change people's disgust. I would say "but I didn't vote for him!" or "we actually do have different types of cuisine in America!" but people wouldn't budge. It's not like I could actually prove anything.

When our soccer team was playing in the world cup in 2006, various Dublin pubs would have the flags of the teams participating hung on the walls. I never saw an American one. The fact that they didn't want to hang or even see our flag says a lot. England's flag was hanging up and Irish people hate the English more than anyone!

The Europeans drank the Kool Aid. Before my three week Christmas trip this past December I packed clothes that didn't look too "American." I gave myself pep talks to get ready for the haters. The only problem was that from the moment I arrived, people were excited to ask me questions about Obama. They wanted to know if I voted, where I was from, if I had ever been to Washington, when the inauguration would be, etc. I wasn't ready for this. 

It was actually kind of cool and a relief. I didn't have to pretend I was Canadian or Italian anymore. It's not like I started wearing flag pins but I didn't try to hide when the news started talking about the US or keep my passport hidden in the airports to avoid glares.

The salesmen at Harrods even said he was thinking about visiting New York and had asked me what city I liked better, Washington DC or London (obvi I picked London).

All I can say is that I hope our government doesn't do anything stupid. People's views about us in the world really have changed (well, at least the Italians' and British views). 

I'll try not to get arrogant about it but it was kind of fun to travel and swap food, geographic and cultural information with Europeans. I had never experienced it at such a widespread level before and I feel like people opened up to me more than in the past.