A camel coat was one of my most sought after closet pieces for years. I didn't want just any camel coat, I wanted a Max Mara camel coat. The kind that I saw Gwyneth Paltrow parade around in the 90s, with a slinky slip dress underneath. The kind of floor sweeping thing she wore in movies like 'A Perfect Murder' and most notably 'The Royal Tennenbaums.' I loved the contrast between the big bulky coat in a caramel color keeping the perennial waif cocooned, safe, stylish. Then last year these very coats made a big comeback with some help from the likes of fashion editors, street style photographers, and most notably Kim Kardashian — blah, that doesn't have such a nice inspirational story to it than the Gwyneth one does it?
Anyway, I mentally wrote "Max Mara Camel Coat" down in my mental list of lifetime forever investment pieces. The problem? A Max Mara coat can run several thousand dollars, and the particular one I was interested retailed at a whopping $2700. Yikes.
Sadness.
Seeing as purchasing retail was not an option for me I looked for alternatives. I thought about eBay? ...Ugh, too risky. I'd be mortified if I got a fake and had to go through some litigious process to get my money back. What about consignment shops? Cool, sure. Great option! Ever notice how difficult it is to get something truly exceptional on those sites? I've found some cool things on sites like The Real Real but it requires a hefty investment of time. Time combing through hundreds of pages of product dressed in sad white mannequins to find anything that this method of shopping seems on par with combing through racks of vintage shops too.
It all seemed pretty impossible to find a reasonably priced Max Mara coat until the holy grail revealed itself in an unlikely place: Blogger resell shops. Just like my shop! The Tictails and Depops of the world were not just for selling my stuff but more and more became a viable option to purchase from people I follow on Instagram — other bloggers. The likeliness of them being fakes is pretty low, since the people I follow and buy from seem to a) get most of this stuff for free and then resell, b) have a massive amount of designer goods owning many fakes would compromise their credibility, c) I'm optimistic because most of them sell so damn cheap. I've been pretty quiet about a couple pieces I've purchased from a certain few fashionable people I admire, probably because I'm selfish. Yup. Selfish. Sorry. Because If I would have piped up sooner about a certain cool blogger getting rid of her Max Mara coat I'm sure there would be no coat for me to post about here. So you see, I've been conflicted.
But not anymore. I'm hereby encouraging all of you lovely honest hard working fashionable people to find resell shops and stalk those people. Know your sizes, befriend a talented tailor, and make those dream pieces yours.
Look, this may be disappointing since blogging has taught us that if you pay attention to a post you should at least get some clickable action that gets you the above coat now. But I'm not going to do that. Why? Because the clickable action is in my story. I'm not linking you to other camel coats right now because this isn't a post about just any camel coat — you have Google Search for that — it's about The Ultimate and Essential Camel Coat, which takes a little more effort and know how. Now that you have the know how, go forth and get one.