Day in the Life

Forget burning bras, if you are a modern woman, you will be wearing a puffy coat this winter. In another prolonged and arctic winter season in the northeast, the fashion conscious women of New York City are donning the silhouette of penguins instead of the figure slimming outline of a wool pea coat. Forget looking cute and sexy and embrace the always dependable feeling of warmth in a spacious puffy coat.

When I bought my puffy coat last year, it was at the behest of my husband who was simply tired of hearing me complain how cold I was while outside. I tried on many, many coats but they all made me look huge. Like I weighed an additional 100 pounds huge. Looking in the dressing room mirror I couldn't shake the image in front of me. To add weight and volume to my figure, and fork over hundreds of dollars to do it, was hard to rationalize. But I did it. I even bought a size larger so I could wear a sweater and scarf underneath comfortably. Now I can commute without fearing frostbite and I can take up more room in the subway and not feel squished. The puffy coat is for women what man spreading is for men. An added bonus is my husband is saved from my whining. I had no idea it could be so simple. A puffy coat.

A colleague of mine, who can be quite the jokester, commented "Now that's some coat" about my puffy coat. I could sense his obvious jealousy disguised as a mild-mannered observation. My response, "Yes it is and I'm never cold." He recovered graciously and I was satisfied when he folded his arms tight across his body as we parted ways on the sidewalk on another blustery frozen night. Was it really 11 degrees out? I slowly walked to the subway station, not feeling the bite of cold.

My fellow commuters share my joy of the puffy coat. The happiness of their daily grind is visible on their rosy faces now that they don't battle frostbite every morning. One commuter friend in particular boasted that she frequently only wears a blouse under her coat. I even overheard a random woman on an elevator today bragging to her companion about how incredible her puffy coat is. That she finally gave up her former scrimpy but cute coat and bought the puffy coat she could never imagine wearing but she was in fact proudly wearing. I could totally relate. She went on the say that she was more than happy to go out in the frigid temps with her new found freedom.

I love my puffy coat so much and talked about it quite frequently that my mother decided to buy a puffy coat and she lives in Texas, where puffy coats are not a common site. She's not cold though. She's not complaining about that. She's not thinking about how cold she's going to be on her errands or outdoor excursions. Now she can think about her career, her local government, her dreams! The puffy coat is quite possibly changing the world one woman at a time.

There probably is some actual science out there to prove that you can function at higher intelligence levels if your body isn't fighting to stay warm, but I'm just going off instinct. Just think of the possibilities a puffy coat can do! As more women see other women wearing puffy coats and see they aren't chattering their teeth looking miserably cold, huge pockets of society will improve, women will be happier and therefore men will be happier and families and neighborhoods and towns and states and on and on!

My enthusiasm for puffy coats cannot be contained. It has changed my winter seasons for the better.