Got A Problem With That?

January is not the time I want to be day-dreaming or even reading about coats. But that is exactly when the book pictured above is scheduled to be published. In the heart of winter. Right when the roads are slick, tempers are short, the nights are longer than the moonshine, right? By that frigid time of year I'm thinking of longer days, hot evenings, bathing suits and kicky sundresses! But if the photographs in this book are pretty enough (Peter Lindbergh and Richard Avedon took some photos, presumably not with a Brownie camera), I suppose I could make room for it on my nightstand. That's only when I'm snugger than a lightening bug in my blanket.
Now is the time I'm thinking about coats. It's brisk, but not unbearably cold just yet. A coat feels festively flirty. Halloween is two weeks away. Coats and Halloween costumes! Yes! This is the stuff of good conversation this week, along perhaps with who's going to win on Project Runway come Wednesday.
That's why I figured this as a good time as any time to unleash the results of yet another survey. It'll give you something to yak about. This time I asked what kind of statement do you make with your coats. Forty eight of you responded. (Thank you!) Here's what you all told me: nearly forty-six percent of you responded to choice no. 1: "What are you talking about? I'm just trying to stay warm." Another 29.2 percent of you checked off ''I'm a fashionista and I know how to stay warm on a budget." God bless you both. Just stay clear of each other, ok? We don't need coat parts flying all over the road; somehow I picture the Scarecrow of The Wizard of Oz not only losing his shirt, straw, but his coat. Not a pretty sight.
A good-sized bunch of you wrote in the "other" field on my poll. Here are some answers I loved:

• I feel so confined in a traditional coat, especially when driving. I guess my statement would be "let me be free!"
• warmth and weirdness
  
• I'm a freak, I love stylish coats and I have about 6-7 big coats. I love the 60s movies where the women had matching coats, hats, etc.
  
• Isn't it a bit simpler than all that? I need to stay warm, and I want to look relatively nice. It's not that I don't care about how I look at all, but I'm certainly far from a fashionista.
  

It is far, far easier than all that, and I'm a feeling fatigued to think about it at the moment. But if you've got any other thoughts on the outgarment I like to call a coat, please speak now or forever hold your piece of pizza!