Barn Coats and Field Jackets

My Field Jackets

I once had a barn coat. It was from Lands' End when that brand was newer and hotter before Sears bought them and made it much less relevant.  It was a putty color cotton canvas coat with big pockets and with dark green forest corduroy cuffs and color.  I bought it very reasonably at the Lands' End outlet in Vernon Hills, IL.  It must have been in the mid 1990s.  I do not think I paid much form the coat.  The figure of $20 or $25 is in my head.  

I loved the coat and wore it casually for many years.  It kind of fit my Wilton, CT fall and mild winter weekend style.  I no longer have that coat and am not sure if it wore out or if I donated it to good will because it no longer fit me during an extreme of my weight loss and gain yo-yo. In pondering what happened to this coat,I concluded three things.  First, I am pretty sure that I did not wear it out.  Secondly, I no longer have the coat and have no clue what I did with it. Lastly, I miss that coat and casual look and feel of it.

I have always wanted another barn coat..  That urge become more intense a few weeks ago when I got an email from Hansen's Clothing where I have made purchases before.  I clicked on the linked and went to their outlet site as I am a bottom feeder.  I browsed around looking for deals on Bill's Khakis and other products.  I noticed they carried Royal Robbins a line of casual chic outdoorsy wilderness wear that appeals to the weekend urbane me.  I browsed there and found a similar jacket they called the Billy Goat Bedford Jacket.  It was about $60 and it came in two colors Light Olive and Turkish Coffee.  For some reason, the Turkish Coffee resonated with me.

But, it did not want to spend $60.

I did decide to search more.  So, I googled "barn jacket" and a lot of alternatives came up.  It seems what I have been calling a barn coat is passé.  Field coat seems to be the category these days.  These kinds of jackets are available from Eddie Bauer, REI, J. Crew, and LL Bean to name a few.  They are in a variety of price ranges from $40 to $400 with no collar and cuff trim, corduroy trim, and leather trim. 

Nothing I saw excited me. I kept going back to the Royal Robbins jacket but I still did not want to pay $60 for it.  Since, I liked that jacket, I googled "royal robbins billy goat bedford jacket."  I found several on line sources, one of them being amazon.com.  The amazon.com price was $20.  So, I bought it.  A few days later it showed up and I love it.

A week later, my mother in-law called to say she had a lot of jackets that belonged to my father in-law.  They were all larges and as that is my current size, she wondered if I wanted to stop by and see what she had and if I may want any or all of them.  So, I stopped by and looked that several jackets.  There was a light olive LL Bean jacket of the same style. It was not quite a barn coat but definitely a field jacket.

Now I have two.  I prefer to price average them at $10 each and feeling even better about them.  Heading into fall, I like both of these jackets that are right on the edge business casual and knocking around.  Both of them are nicer than the Lands' End barn coat I have been missing.