Coat Reviews - Final

Well as you may already know I have been road testing Three coats two by myself and the third my friend is wearing, you can see me reviewing my coats Here, Here and Here. 


Just to go over the reasons why I choose to do these reviews....
Coat shopping for me is my most hated activity, Hate is a strong word that I rarely use, but I can honestly say that I HATE coat shopping.
It reduces me to tears and leaves me huddled in a corner wanting to hurt something, I can never get my boobs in them or if I can they are huge on the waist, I have a short waist and find they often fit all wrong, after talking to the fabulous Charlotte of Simply Be about this at an event they offered to send me a coat for review, but I thought it might help other people in my situation to see a few coats to get a good comparison, I want to know the shops I can go to every year and know I can likely find something suitable which I love, and the lovely Ann Harvey team offered me two coats to try, so I went with it.


I am going to give you my final review of the two coats I have tested now, and the full review of the Ann Harvey Cape my gorgeous friend Helen has worn for me will be scheduled for tomorrow, Helens crazy mummy/ work schedule and lost USB sticks have meant that we have been unable to split up the review of the cape. 


The Coats!

The two coats were the Simply Be Trench Coat and the Ann Harvey Red Funnel Neck Coat.


I have honestly worn these coats so much over the winter months and I have been so happy with them, I have found them both useful for total different things.


The Red Ann Harvey coat is such a vibrant red and makes me happy just looking at it, but I have found that the style for me is best worn with trousers and jeans as the length and shape suite them, but the Simply Be Trench works fantastically with dresses and trousers, and made me feel confident and sophisticated! 


I will start with the Ann Harvey coat, I really wanted to put these coats through there paces, so they have been worn for walking my four dogs, going out, playing in snow, even climbing trees! I wanted make them work hard for me!


Cleaning/Practicality 


It is dry clean only, but I haven't needed to put it in yet, as even when it has had muddy paw prints on it they have come off easily once dry, the colour is still vibrant and doesn't show marks easily, this makes me happy, as you can imagine, with four dogs it is easy to get mucky! 


Lining


Have you ever noticed how many coats you buy, even if the cost a small fortune, which have crap linings which are badly sewn and rip within a few wears? Or is that just me?
Well I can say that after 3 months of vigorous use the inner lining of this coat is doing brilliantly, no rips and not even thin spots, thats pretty good in my books!

Under arm bobbles and seems


This also something I hate I expect some wear and bobbles but sometimes on cheap material I find they happen almost immediately and look horrific! But so far so good the under arms look practically new, the colour hasn't faded from rubbing and the seems have held up brilliantly!

Buttons and Threads


Well as you can see from the photo there are one or two threads loose on the button holes but the buttons themselves are all still firm, I am impressed with this as I am hopeless at keeping buttons on coats!
Enjoy the added puppy hairs, they like to give me gifts :) 

Simply Be Caplet Trench Coat 


This coat has also been put through the same crazy routine as the the red coat, and has also worked extremely hard to prove itself to me!


Cleaning and Practicality 
The amazing thing about this coat which I loved is that it is fully machine washable, and although it is a  fairly dark colour it has held up well, but does show marks slightly easier that the red did, but only ever so slightly! I have washed this coat twice now, the first time I leaned against a dirty wall and put marks on it, and the second time, one of the puppies thought it was a good idea to try to jump into my arms, after she had ran around a muddy garden for a good half hour. 
Both times it washed brilliantly i popped it over a clothes horse and let it dry, which took no time at all really and it didn't need to be ironed which was fabulous (I hate ironing).


Lining


Again I am pleasantly surprised that the lining has held up brilliantly, there is no ripping or split teams, I have gone round every inch of seem on both coats and they are perfect!

Under Arm Bobbles and Seems


Now as you can see there is a loose thread hanging out of the underarm on the trench, but I cant decide if it is just a thread that has popped out and not trimmed, because i have had a good tug on the seems and they are holding completely, with no gaps at all, will have too keep an eye on it!  other than that all the outside seems are strong.

Buttons and Treads


 The buttons on the outside of the coat are all strong and holding up well, but one of the internal buttons has come off completely, So I will need to sew it back on, but not a huge job.

I am so happy with both coats that I cant choose which is my favourite only that they both get used for totally different things so that is great for me.
Ann Harvey is not a brand I have never tried before but they have really impressed me with the quality of their items, I will be looking at them again next year for coats! Simply be is a company I have been shopping with for quite a few years, but I had never thought to get a coat from them, but I would happily get one again, there is a rather gorgeous light weight trench coat I am tempted by!


The Red coat is no longer available from ann Harvey but they a couple of lovely winter coats in the sale half price if you want a bargain for next year.


The Simply Be trench is available here but this is the lighter weight one I want PU Sleeve Trench


Both of these coats come with my highest recommendation, so next winter if you are looking head on over and see what they have to offer!


I will be scheduling the Cape review to go live at 3pm tomorrow, so pop back then too. 


Mhairi.


xxx

Winter Coat Reviews Part 1

I don't know if my absolute terror at the thought of shopping for a winter coat is a plus size thing, a having big boobs thing or just a woman thing, all I know is that for the last 6-7 years I have not managed to shop for a winter coat without breaking down in tears of frustration during the shopping trip.

You may also wonder why are you doing this review now, winter is already here!

well my reason is that here in the UK our weather is crazy, I didn't start wearing my coat this winter until about 3 weeks before christmas as it was strangely warm, and it often randomly snows any time until April so my winter coats get the most use between december and march, therefore I thought they would get the most intensive testing during this time, and it will hopefully prepare us all for next year and show you some fabulous bargains for this season.

The reviews will take place over 3 months, I have 3 coats in the review 2 are being reviewed by myself and one by a good friend, I will explain why when I post about that coat.

In the initial review I will be looking at the quality of the coats (finish, colour, materials), the fit and shape and cost of the coats, then over the 3 months, I plan to use them regularly for all my daily activities, working, walking the dogs, shopping and every else in-between then look at how the cope, does stitching fail, is the colour fading, it it becoming threadbare etc. 

If you think of any other things you want to know about them please let me know.

In this first post I am going to show you the coats and the information provided by the companies about the item and my initial thoughts. 

The first coat to arrive was the Simply Be Double Breasted Caplet Trench Coat.

When this coat arrived I surprised myself by loving it ( a very rare occurrence for a coat), online they have darkened the image and it makes it look brown on the model, and I am not a fan of brown, but as you can see by the picture on the right it is definitely Camel and in person it is beautiful, the reason I picked it even though it looked so dark, was that it is so versatile the caplet part is removable so you get 2 looks in one. 

It is made from polyester but feels gorgeous and it is lovely, soft and easy to move in.

Because I have a large bust, I needed to order the size 22 which gives me room for jumper underneath but does make it fairly large on the waist and hips for me, but the tie waist belt solves this beautifully, and makes it very comfortable to wear for me, I would say though that it fits true to a size 22 I could fit in a 20 easily but wouldn't be able to wear layers under as it would be too tight on my chest.
The pockets are lovely and deep and in just the right spot for a comfortable position.

Length wise I am only 5'2" and it sits exactly on my knees.
at the moment the coat is on sale for £32




Next to arrive were the two Coats sent to me by Ann Harvey the Red funnel Neck Coat and the Double Breasted Cape.

Again, when both of these coats arrived I loved them they were soft and the colours were vibrant and the details were lovely.
Ann Harvey was somewhere I never thought to look for clothing but I will be looking more often from now on, I would say that some of the items are more mature than I would usually wear but they are making more and more items for the younger plus market. 
Ann Harvey have recently launched three plus size micro brands, these are the Ann Harvey Collection which most people are familiar with, the portrait collection which focuses on occasion wear and the Anya brand which is aiming at the younger plus size woman, both of the coat I am reviewing are form the main ann Harvey collection, but I will hopefully take a look at the other micro brands in the future. 


The Red Funnel Neck Coat is stunning in colour, it is such a beautiful red and I loved the details like the very pretty square buttons and the funnel neck is a lovely shape that doesn't strangle me like some coats in this style, it fits my chest beautifully in the size 22 and has a little room in the hips which make it nice to move around in and easy to layer, I can see this being my goto coat for casual days it looks gorgeous with jeans and dresses them up fabulously.
it is warm but not bulky which I love and the pockets are again nice and deep and in a great position.
Length wise it sits just below my hips on my thigh but I am tiny.


It is currently on sale for £40


The Double breasted cape is divine it is a gorgeous creamy colour with beautiful curved round buttons, it feels stunning and looks gorgeous, but unfortunately just doesn't work on me, although I am a size 20/22 my shoulders are very narrow and with being so short it totally swamped me, I was devastated, and was so sad to be sending it back to the company, but after a weekend of thinking I approached the company and said I would still love to find a way to review the coat as it is genuinely stunning, and I feel it would be a shame not to show it off to my readers just because it didn't personally suit me.
Therefore my lovely friend helen who is much taller and looks fabulous in a cape is going to take part in the three month review with me, she is going to test it in the same way I am wearing it for daily tasks and will report back to me and provide me with pictures.


This coat truly deserves to be seen.


It is on sale for £27


Tomorrow I will be making my first post with me wearing the coats so you can see them on a real live me, and get an idea about how they look and work.


Thank you for reading and please let me know in the comments if there is anything specific you would like to know about the coats.

Disclaimer : This item was given to me free of charge for review, but all comments are my own and I have not been asked or paid to give any items a favourable review.

The images were taken from the Simply be and Ann Harvey websites with permission.