A tale of two jackets

Whenever I shop overseas I always have fun in Zara. It is like a treasure-trove for someone who shops there so seldom.

When I walk in the door, I like to do a little reconnaissance before I return to choose the first armload of items to try on. Then if I am not quite satisfied with my haul, I go back for a second look, minutely inspecting the racks in case some sweet morsel had escaped my gimlet eye on the first round. I regret that last time I did not, after all, snaffle that grey silk blouson with little indigo stars all over it. What was I thinking?

I am unfailingly drawn to jackets and I own more than I could reasonably expect to wear in a single season.

However, I did snatch up a chocolate-brown, cropped jacket featuring a large collar and asymmetrical cut. I am unfailingly drawn to jackets and I own more than I could reasonably expect to wear in a single season. I don’t even want to get onto the subject of storage!

I noticed almost immediately that this Zara jacket was like the summer, or ‘lite’ version of a cropped, puffy, Elizabethan-collared jacket I had bought two years earlier in Hong Kong. Even the fabric was the virtually the same, in look if not composition.

Obviously unpopular with the locals, the puffy jacket was jammed on a rack exploding with its duplicates. I was immediately delighted by it and paid about AU$22 for the privilege of walking out the door with it.

Admittedly it is a little eccentric: a strange lovechild born from 80s sportswear and swingy 50s style. I feel like Sean Young’s character Rachael in Blade Runner when I wear it, yet its cropped length and three-quarter sleeves are impractical for winter.

It was a perfect parka, though, for my 12-year-old niece when she and her dad landed on my doorstep one chilly Saturday afternoon. She needed something to wear to the footy; there is a delicious irony in that.

I adore them both however: one is a perfect topper for warmer months; the other never fails to make me laugh with its frivolity.

Special thanks go to Rapunzel for finding the Wall Street Journal article.