Readers Ask: Dear Lucky About Warm Winter Coats

A: Senior fashion editor Lynette Pone was knee-deep in gold lamé dresses when I hit her with this one, but like the true Lucky fashion girl she is, she was unfazed. "Shearling," she intoned, pushing a bare, sparkly cocktail shift off her desk as if it were a nagging child competing for her attention. "It really is the warmest." She had me at the shearling—"Oh my God, so cute and so warm," she exclaimed—but Lynette was just getting started. "There's so much you can do! Lots of people have this army green jacket that's got fake fur inside ... " I knew precisely what she was talking about, because every cool Lucky fashion editor has been wearing one, on and off, for at least the past three years. They should rename it the Lucky Jacket. What I would point out about its cuteness especially is the narrow three-quarter-length-plus-hood aspect. I have a navy wool Vince coat from last year that I wore (and will wear) every day, also a hooded, narrow three-quarter-length coat. Warm enough, but enough of actual you pokes out either side, plus there's the joie de vivre of the hood.

Vests are nice too, Lynette reminds us. "If you wear a little fake-fur vest over a leather jacket, or you wear one of those thin Moncler vests under a wool coat, you'll be super-warm and super-cute." Or, like me, you can wear a super-fat Moncler vest (on the weekends) with just a sweater underneath—the arms sticking out make it clear that you are not, in fact, fat.