Winters are pretty mild where I live, so I mostly get by fine with an insulated trench for everyday wear. I also have a couple wool coats--including a black swing coat and a purple pea coat--but neither of those two are especially warm. Since some upcoming travel is taking me to far colder climes, I thought I should invest in a somewhat warmer coat for walking around the city. I wanted something long but relatively sleek, preferably with a hood and some good zippered pockets. I didn't want to add to my wool coat collection, and it needed to look okay over business casual attire.

I ended up with this Bernardo puffer from Nordstrom. I'd actually looked at it on the website, but didn't care for how it looked. It was a little too shiny, and the blue was too blue. Today I was at the mall for other reasons, so I stopped in and looked to see what might be on sale in the petites area. They had this coat, in the "steel blue manatee," and I was pleasantly surprised to find the color a lot more subtle in real life. At first glance, it's a lot more gray than blue. There is certainly some blue, and there's some sheen, but overall, the effect is pretty neutral.

Bonus: it's packable, which is especially handy for the upcoming travel!