Change Your Coat, Change Your Life
Or at least your outfit vibe, and what I'm reading and listening to this week
Something totally unexpected happened to me two months ago: I found the exact pair of white Agolde Luna barrel leg jeans that I’d had on my wishlist for months…in (almost) my size…in very good condition…for only $56 on The RealReal. In my 11 years as a dedicated TRR shopper, this is my absolute best find. A big thank you to the kind person that consigned these jeans - I like to think that you’re somewhere in the fashion Substack universe.
One of my 2025 resolutions is to use Indyx daily and I started cataloguing my closet and outfits on the dot of January 1st. I was in the realm of 20+ wears of my Lunas in 2024, and thanks to Indyx I know that I’ve worn these three times in the last seven days. I’ve basically lived in these jeans and a gray Zara sweater since November and have been thinking about outfit repeating over the last few months since I do it so often (see: my gray suit).
Something that I’ve noticed about this outfit repeat in particular is that it looks different every time I’ve changed one piece: my outerwear. Not a groundbreaking concept by any means, but a great reminder that coats and jackets are an easy way to make a favorite outfit look fresh.
Getting bored with my closet makes me want to buy new things (the curse of a former merchant) but I’m evolving out of this mindset the more minimalist my wardrobe becomes. It was harder to appreciate my formerly maximalist wardrobe full of prints and patterns because there are only so many ways that you can style a colorblocked animal print maxi dress before it starts to feel stale. I’m way more excited about my minimalist closet since there are so many ways to mix and match things. I can make outfit repeats look new through styling, or switching up my accessories or coat.
My Outfit Repeat Formula: Agolde Luna Edition
The Base
Agolde Luna jeans in white (secondhand)
Zara turtleneck sweater (old)
Veja Campo CWL sneakers (old)
Reversible brown belt (old sample from my accessories buying days)
Look #1: Polished
My Agoldes are slightly oversized with a baggier fit and adding a long coat with clean lines helps balance out the looser silhouette. Even better is the gray tonal colorway paired back to white which makes me feel more elevated. My favorite look of the three, I’ve worn this multiple times in the last month even though my recycled polyester coat is fighting my fabric shaver every step of the way.
My longtime wishlist item has been a true maxi coat that reaches my ankles but I haven’t found the right one yet, partly because I’m tall and mostly because I had a no-wool policy for the last eight years. It feels like whole new worlds have opened up to me now that I’m exploring secondhand wool and leather and my fingers are crossed to finally have the maxi coat of my tall person dreams.
I’d love to hear about your favorite maxi coat brands, or live vicariously if you have any pictures in your maxi coat to link to in the comments.
Look #2: Sporty
The Stand Studio Autumn Quilted Bomber is one of my best firsthand buys and one of my few vegan leather jackets that’s still going strong. I estimated that I’ve worn this 100 times in the 743 days since I bought it and Indyx has my CPW at $2.65 - a total score since I waited months for this to go on sale before I hit add to cart. The detachable faux fur collar really makes this jacket since it changes up the look between seasons: collar on has a 70s apres-ski vibe and collar off looks Scandi collegiate.
Look #3: Animal Print
Prints are a big holdover from the height of my maximalism. I have about 15 animal print items in my closet and it’s a 2025 goal to find new homes for the pieces that I no longer wear. I was trying to find an image of my below Zara coat to upload to Indyx and was overwhelmed with eBay nostalgia since most of these Zara coats are labeled “blogger favorite”, the descriptor for virtually every fast fashion [insert item here] on eBay in the 2010s. I’d love a higher quality animal print coat like the gorgeous preloved style below, but I’m hanging onto my old Zara for now since it’s a classic shape and print, plus I’d like to keep it out of the landfill until truly circular textile recycling becomes more mainstream.
What I’m Reading and Listening To This Week
The Book:
Now that I’m on break from school, reading doesn’t feel like such a grind. I picked up You Will Never Be Me at the library, a thriller set in the momfluencer sphere. Meredith and Aspen started out as best friends, but had a big blow up once Aspen outshines Meredith in the influencer world. It starts with some light stalking and the pace rapidly picks up to the point of no return for one of the MCs. Some plot points were a bit predictable, but it kept me engaged and I’d read it again.
Looking for more books to kick off your new year? I have more recs here:
The Podcast:
I recently came across
through the magic of Sustack notes and it’s become a highlight in my podcast rotation. Host Victoria Smith has a masters in fashion entrepreneurship, my dream degree, and features an incredible lineup of founders with the end goal of making fashion more sustainable through tech.
The latest episode interviews
, CEO and co-founder of resale platform Future Reference and formerly of ThredUp and Google. Claire talks about the consumer pain points and barriers to entry associated with recommerce: low consignment payouts, big fees, and the time it takes to list items for sellers, plus not having the right supply for buyers (yes, yes, yes, and yes). She also touches on how we think our items, like dresses, are worth more than they actually are at resale. I’ve noticed seller pricing creeping up for outerwear in the last five years and this category could also use a reset to get preloved clothing circulating faster. Case in point: I just saw some truly mind-boggling prices on eBay and Poshmark for my Zara faux fur leopard print coat, bordering on the $300 range.I love that Future Reference is working to make luxury and contemporary resale more accessible through lower fees, larger payouts, and ease of use. Expanding the resale marketplace helps keep apparel in circulation longer, reducing landfill waste and potentially leading to less new production over time. Fashion needs all the help it can get on the path to circularity, and I’m excited to see innovation in challenging sectors like recommerce.
I’ve been playing around with the Value Your Wardrobe tool to get an idea of the resale value for my maximalist pieces and have been pleasantly surprised with some of my items. I’ve been burned by small payouts at consignment and Future Reference is such an intriguing concept. I can see this doing well on fashion Substack since every chat has a resale thread.
Curious if anyone has tried Future Reference out and your thoughts compared to selling/consigning on other platforms? I’ll share the process if I can carve out some time to get started this month.
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading! If you have a maxi coat or book suggestion, I’m all ears. And I’d love to hear about what resale platforms you’ve been using as a secondhand shopper or seller.
I don’t shop Zara anymore either, but the items I do have, I wear and am happy to keep out of landfill… that’s not really what I came here to say though! Those jeans 😍 I recently bought a similar CoH pair and I love how you’ve styled yours. I’m in Aus, so once it’s pants weather again, believe me - I’ll be referencing these looks.
I haven't heard of indyx before, but it sounds like such a handy tool! I hope you'll be able to find your dream maxi coat. I have a mint green one from Topshop that I got around 2018 and I still love it.