Duffle Shuffle.....

I can remember my first duffle coat well, made in West Germany, it was a tan beast that when wet, weighed about ten pounds. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, it kept me warm as hell and it was made like a tank. However, it had a couple of things wrong with it that I could never quite get over. The front left corner looked like it had been chewed by a dog at some point, it was about two sizes two big and it was missing the fucking hood. After I had it for a couple years and only wearing it a handful of times, I traded it for some cheap urban outfitter grey wool overcoat (which I later gave away). I thought that finding the perfect duffle coat was going to be a lifelong search fraught with many obstacles. I know what I want, I just don't want to spend upwards of three to four hundred of my hard earned dollars on one, although if I could it would probably look something like this:

 which come to think of it, looks a lot like my old West German made one. Or this

Never mind that the Burberry shot is of a woman's coat, you get the gist. Anyway, now that I'm in one of the thrift capitols of the world, my options of finding one have increased exponentially.  One of the thrifting mantras is that if you want something bad enough, and you are diligent and thorough in your thrifting ways, that eventually you will get what you are looking for. And so it was, I picked up this beauty from one of my spots in the dead of the summer (another thrift mantra is "always buy off season", because who the hell is looking for duffle coats in July?):

A vintage Eddie Bauer tan colored duffle coat with horn toggles, and it had the hood, for $6.99!  It just had one small problem problem, it was a woman's. No matter, it fit me like a glove and was in great shape, piss on the haters I say! And yet, it still was not the duffel that I sought, merely a stand-in, something to get me through until I found what I was truly looking for.
          It had been some weeks before I saw another duffle  in the wilds of the thrift stores, sure, I had seen glimpses, toggles sticking out from the racks of winter coats only to be put back when I saw they were either way too big or way too small, beat to shit old Gap and Ann Taylor wool/poly blends. That is,until I came across an International Scene, early 90's, black and orange monstrosity.  I grabbed this for three reasons, one, it fit me really well, two, it was in mint condition, and three, it was, after all, a duffle coat. Only one small problem, it was an early 90's black and orange International Scene duffle coat. I would post pictures but to save myself some dignity, lets just say that this thing does not photograph very well.
        I had now come to the realization that I would be forever doomed to wear an 80's vintage Woman's Eddie Bauer duffle coat, which in itself is not that bad of a thing, but being a person who is obsessed with clothing, this simply would not suffice. Enter my next duffle:

I saw this baby and nearly shat myself. Could it be, a knee length, black with plaid liner, hooded duffle coat? In my size? With the throat latch? It was, and for the very reasonable price of $12.06, from one of the most crowed and dirty thrift stores I frequent. Kind of looks like the Burberry one, no? Except it has no manufacture's tag, just a  good ol'  Made In The USA one and it was about $900 dollars cheaper. It just goes to show you that perseverance pays off. Happy Thrifting!