NEW YORK — A camel-colored coat may sound bland, but it could be just the thing to spice up a cool-weather wardrobe.
While a camel coat makes a classic chic statement, the style is malleable enough to be either a trendy boyfriend jacket or traditional trench. Its place in fashion history, on the backs of Katharine Hepburn and Grace Kelly, and Ali McGraw and Kate Moss, give it a solid pedigree, and the color — a range of shades between tobacco and fawn — has a richness to it that, quite frankly, makes you look rich.
“A camel coat evokes throwaway glamour,” says Michael Kors, who for many seasons has used camel as a core of his fall collections.
You can wear camel with any color in your wardrobe, including black, which makes a camel coat a good investment piece, but one that you don’t have to spend a fortune on, says Stephanie Solomon, fashion director of Bloomingdale’s.
Kors suggests pairing camel with white or bold brights such as red or orange; stylist Mary Alice Stephenson recommends it with one of the season’s other trends, a neon color such as hot pink or electric blue.
Macy’s vice president of ready-to-wear fashion, Nicole Fischelis, says what most complements a camel coat are brown leather accessories — the belt, the boot, the bag. She likes a little animal print thrown into the mix, too.
Camel coats aren’t always camel-hair coats, but that’s the garment that really made its mark in the middle of the 20th century as a sign of sophisticated taste. Camel hair is from the soft undercoat of the camel, with a similar feeling — and similar cachet — to cashmere and alpaca, explains Marlene Middlemiss, fashion design instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Over time, some manufacturers started mixing camel hair with wool as a cost-cutting measure.
Stephenson likes a juxtaposition between the tailored lines of the coat paired with feminine blouses that have ruffles or bows.
If you haven’t tried one on because you think it doesn’t match your personal style, Stephenson takes a bet that you haven’t test-driven a camel kimono coat, or a peacoat, or a cozy wrap.
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