The COS Varsity Jacket

Image from Stockholm Street Style.

I am really obsessed (to quite an ungodly extent) with the style of the guy in this photo, which was taken late last year during Paris Fashion week (he also appeared on The Sartorialist). I just think his whole look is total perfection, and it's exactly how I would look in a perfect world, in which I knew how to dress myself in a way that could be described as something other than an 'expensive mess,' which is really the current state of affairs.

The pivotal piece, if you like, is the beautiful black varsity jacket with leather arms. When I first saw the picture for some reason I got it into my mind that the jacket was old Raf Simons; at any rate, I certainly didn't assume it would be available to buy then, again for reasons unknown to myself. Fast forward to just a few days ago, and I made the ill-fated discovery that the jacket was, in fact, COS from last season:

As soon as I got to London I rushed to the nearest COS store, but of course the jacket had gone, and the new season collection is now in place. It kills me that there were months during which this amazing jacket was available from COS (for the reasonable, within reach, price of £250 too), but I never put two and two together, and predictably, of course, I found out just moments too late, making it all the worse.

For the uninitiated, COS is an upmarket brand from H&M, which at present is only sold in dedicated COS shops in seven European countries. Since its inception a few seasons ago, the brand has been getting rave reviews from fashion editors and other similarly hard-to-please consumers for its relatively affordable clothes and accessories, which are very stylish, very sophisticated, and of good quality. Don't be fooled by the H&M connection... the prices are significantly higher (after the jacket upset, I wandered sadly around the store, stopping to caress beautiful, heavy cardigans which cost £79) and both the design and the quality are more long lasting. Acne, APC and Jil Sander spring to mind, but Cos' designs are much more than designer rip-offs: in fact, I would say with confidence that it's the most consistently stylish shop on the high street at the moment.

They don't yet have an online shop, and the fact that the brand is still relatively small with no operation yet in North America and Asia means that the resale market is very limited (hence little to no hope of finding the jacket on eBay or similar). I am really annoyed with myself for being so stupid... to brighten things up, here are a few pics from their new season SS10 collection: