You’ve heard me talk about Jenni Kayne before on this blog and so you know I’m a long time admirer though I never pulled the trigger on any of their stuff (because it’s so dang expensive and not really in the ethical fashion realm). But I just love her simple California casual styling and many of her pieces are classic, feminine and modern (and all in neutrals—just how I like it). I follow her on Insta for inspiration, which I then try to sometimes recreate with Everlane. And recently I started watching The RealReal (through my saved “feeds”) to see what popped up on there. I mostly was keeping an eye out for a pair of their leather mules in my size (which I’m not as keen on purchasing those anymore now that I have my Everlane Boss Mules that I love), but when a wool trench coat was listed I took the chance to try it out ($12 shipping and possible $12 return shipping be damned—I actually purchased several things I’d been saving to try out at once in order to hopefully reduce the pain of these costs). Anyway I’ve featured it several times on my Insta-stories because I’m in looooove. And even though you can’t buy the exact same one (though who knows what will pop up on the secondhand market), I wanted to write this post about my first experience and impressions of Jenni Kayne.
So first of all, I was seriously considering an Everlane coccon coat as a preggo winter coat since none of my winter coats currently fit me. True, I live in California so it’s not super necessary for me to button up all the way. But at the same time I just really disliked the feeling of not being able to button up any of my coats (essentially making everything feel as if it doesn’t fit). Well when I considered the Everlane cocoon coat (which I slightly regretted passing up as a freebie from Everlane but you know about my new resolve), I saw that it was only 60% wool and 40% plastic. In general, I’m trying to add clothes made from only natural fibers from here on out so I was hugely turned off by the plastic content of the coat (which by the way makes it substantially less warm). So I got really lucky that this 100% wool (with a 100% silk lining) Jenni Kayne coat popped up.
And how is it? It’s so dreamy. It really is the perfect wool coat for California. The wool is on the thinner side so I do need to layer sweaters under when it gets colder, but for San Jose weather it’s just right (for San Francisco I definitely need to layer). I love that there are no buttons to fuss with and it’s a simple tie closure. The inside silk lining feels wonderful when I wear shorter sleeve tops or dresses. The material quality is top notch and I’m very impressed by how well made the coat is. I’m wearing a small here and it’s perfect with just enough space to layer my Everlane cashmere waffle knit sweater underneath and accomodate my growing baby bump.
There’s the exact same trench in a size XS available on the RealReal right now and it’s about $100 less than what I paid (dangit!). If you’re lucky enough to be a size 0-2 and live in a place with moderate winters, I highly recommend this wool trench! If that one happen to be gone (depending on when you see this review), maybe you’ll get lucky when you do a general search on theRealReal for a Jenni Kayne coat like this link here.