There is one item that I am dying to get my hands on this season. It's not a bag or a pair of shoes. It's actually something that I might not be able to pull off as it is over and beyond my fashion limits. But I want it anyway. I think about it constantly. I dream about it. I even ripped photographs out of magazines and taped them to my closet door.
The item is a very luxe, all natural shearling aviator-style jacket with an exaggerated double collar from Burberry Prorsum. Normally, shearling appears in fashion as lining for a coat or a shoe or a bag. But this piece from Burberry Prorsum is completely made from shearling with little strips of brown leather piping on the pockets and zippers. It is plush but still manly and tough-looking.
A friend of mine said that I might look like a lamb that's out to pasture, but I think it has that intrinsic devil-may-care attitude. I might consider skipping meals to afford this big-ticket purchase because isn't making sacrifices in pursuit of something beautiful part of the very nature of fashion?
Until recently, shearling has been off the fashion radar. Its most popular incarnation is perhaps the awkward and strangely phenomenal shearling-lined Ugg boots. An unfortunate name really because it is so close to the word ugly.
Shearling, shorn lambskin, is the warming device of choice this season among the fashionable set - it appeared in so many runway collections. If you find the particular style from Burberry Prorsum too much for your fashion sensibilities, you can find others elsewhere. The best echo the enduring style of the great aviator Charles Lindberg, for example, the caramel brown leather jacket with chocolate shearling on the collar from Hermes. Gucci's version is in faint blue leather with button closures. The shearling peeks from the collar, hem and sleeves and from the pocket openings. I like the way it was styled on the runway with a light turtleneck and very skinny white jeans, making it modern and not costumey.
Shearling also comes in shapes and styles other than aviator jackets, from the classic to the avant garde. In the classic column would be the Salvatore Ferragamo suede fishing coat that is completely lined in natural coloured shearling and the mid-thigh length camel coat with shearling lapels from Prada. I am particularly fond of the one from Prada because of its slim and tailored fit despite it being a heavy winter coat. Z Zegna has a double-breasted cropped jacket in felted wool with dark brown shearling on the lining and cuffs that is very urban and contemporary.