Daniel RidingOver the past couple of weeks you may begun feeling the chill that has been descending upon us, you’re wrapping yourself up tighter and adding layers as it gets colder. Autumn and Winter seasons will always bring along trends that take inspiration from the idea of insulation and heat retention, fabrics will be thicker, and clothing will consist of more layers. So it comes as no surprise that one of the big trends this season is shearling jackets. There are a few linings for jackets at the moment but one of the most apparent and popular is shearling, mainly down to the fact that is helps to keep you warm and feels amazingly soft and comfortable too.
Shearling for those of you who don’t know is a sheepskin or lambskin pelt that goes through a limited shearing process to maintain a uniform depth of the super soft wool fibres. This ensures the quality of the wool when it is added to your stylish garments such as shoes and in this instance jackets. Shearling coats and jackets have been worn for many years, including ancient Asia and Europe. Clearly they were on to something as this style, now created in many modern different ways has remained popular all around the world. Synthetic shearling has been used more and more as the years go on, it is more affordable and can give pretty much the same look and feel as regular shearling. This will give many contemporary styles of jacket a traditional shearling appearance, which as we mentioned before is very popular right now.
A couple of years ago, Burberry inspired a bit of a shearling movement with the popularity of their bomber inspired shearling jackets creating a trend that had a fusion of pilot styling and shearling genius to create an amazing range of coats and winter wear. This time around the style has evolved into more than just the typical aviator jackets we have seen in past seasons. Shearling is being incorporated into a number of different styles including peacoats, suede jackets, denim jackets, double breasted coats and even parka jackets too. Designers may have included a big fear of the cold when designing these kind of pieces, but we will be ever grateful when the cold comes along with its fierce bite in later months. One thing we will recommend when looking to purchase a shearling lined jacket is even if your budget is a little bit limited, try not but a jacket that is too cheap. This will result in the shearling lining being of a low quality and it will stick to your clothes and make you look like you’ve been rolling around in a pet shop. Invest in a quality piece and it will last you for many seasons to come, shearling jackets are guaranteed to always come back into style.
To fully understand our new found love for the shearling jacket, you need to see the pieces we have been perusing and feeling our wallets open. These pieces are incredible, and won’t judge if you get a little over enthused just like the folks here at MFM have been doing.
Finally
So do you feel warm yet? If not then this is the kind of jacket you need in your life, without it you will feel the chill that is sure to hit hard and quick at any moment. Autumn and Winter are my favourite seasons because of the clothes and trends, and this kind of jacket is top of my list as my next big AW13 purchase; we recommend you make it one of yours.