Words & Stuff

Today I learned the phrase investment coat, which is not a coat one wears whilst engaged in financial speculation, but rather a coat that one purchases for a shit-ton of money with the intention of wearing it for many years.

I was able to find a couple of uses from 1994 (Paul Benedetti in the Hamilton Spectator and Tamsin Blanchard in the Independent of London) but the term doesn’t appear to have been in common use until around 2014, at which point fashion writers appear to assume that everybody is familiar with the phrase. Once I knew what it meant, the term was obvious to me, and was easily contrasted with the kind of garment a person evidently purchases with the intent of wearing it for a single season. There are people who do that, I know.

Thanks,
-Ed.