Women's outwear has also improved from the days it was called "coats" and "better coats." Even though three out of four late fall and winter days are wet and windy, the fashion industry used to offer women cloth coats which resembled wet dogs after a day in the elements. Nor did the coats have hoods forcing a hat and muffler combo which looked self-conscious and was way thermally inferior. Hats and mufflers looked even lamer on fur coats which made women look fat, heartless and culturally exiled. (Why, when thousands are losing their homes and no one has a job, are they still selling furs? Is cruelty recession proof?)
Today the fashion industry offers us nylon zip-up coats with hoods (nee parkas) that are sleek and satiny, warm, rain and sleet-proof, ethical if down-free, lightweight, inexpensive and don't show the dirt as Mom used to advise. We also finally have plastic or rubber boots that don't leak like the leather boots the fashion industry passed off as "water resistant" for years (right) which only added to our already damp pantyhosed feet.
Of course it's tempting to accuse designers of slighting women since nylon has existed on the ski slopes for years but only became standard outerwear 15 years ago. But men are the ones who should have fashion complaints.
Even though they are now permitted to carry formerly taboo messenger bags (once too purse-like), freeing their briefcase hand for their cell, their outerwear is still 1980. They're still wearing the cloth coats we jettisoned years ago -- that resemble wet dogs after a day in the elements -- and their heads and feet are left out of the fashion equation altogether.
In fact it is said whoever designs winter headgear for businessmen that covers the ears and stays put unlike newsboy caps and fedoras but doesn't look Elmer Fuddy like earflap and trapper hats, will earn a fortune. Like Lohan will probably do with leggings.
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