Wonder Product: Lands' End Down-Filled Reversible Coat

I have always been fashionable to the point of stupidity. Freezing cold out? I won't wear gloves if they clash with my outfit. I will insist on a jaunty cap even if it means my ears will freeze. I will wear stiletto boots the day after a snowstorm instead of snowboots. And this winter, I could not bring myself to stop wearing my Kenneth Cole green tweed coat with velvet buttons no matter how cold it got until one day, amid a brutally cold screaming blizzard that practically picked me up off my feet and blew me along a downtown street, I asked myself: "What is your problem?"

So I decided to go online parka shopping. I found some tempting ones on Roots.ca, but they were more expensive than I could afford. So I surfed on over to Landsend.com, and ended up buying this coat.

And can I just say how happy I am with this coat? It is reversible, quilted on one side and sleek on the other, downfilled, totally lightweight and yet utterly impenetrable no matter how bitterly cold and blustery the wind. Last week I walked up a long hill in my neighbourhood in the face of a horrific minus-30-with-the-windchill gusting wind and I didn't feel a thing. I was toasty and warm inside that coat, even though my ears were frozen in my jaunty tweed cap. Plus, it was on sale and I got a great deal on it even with the duty.

One thing to be careful of, however. Lands' End sizes are large. If you're a medium here, you'll need a small. I might have even been OK in an extra-small and I am not tiny.

The second best thing about this coat is how cute it looks when you pair it with a funky scarf and mitts and a jaunty cap!!! Yes, I am still working on giving up the jaunty caps.