Importance of that Winter Coat

[Vinclothes]

I am volunteering at a small local museum, inventorying clothing donations with another volunteer. We find a higher proportion of coats than other garments. We wonder why donors considered coats so important to local and community history. Donation forms (when we have them) give no clue. I did a cursory internet search but found nothing in blogs or memoirs. Ideas? Do you have anecdotes or memories? Any help will be appreciated.
Marian

 

[pastperfect2]

Winter coats were a pricey purchase that was often mean to last for years, so they had a lot of value to the wearer. Maybe that's it?

 

[anothertimevintageapparel]

I believe with rationing in the 1940s, one was allowed one coat per year.
Possibly because of this people hold on to their coats and consider them of value

 

[Rue_de_la_Paix]

I agree with the sentiment about people holding on to coats for a very long time, even if no one has worn them for many years. No one would want to toss a "good Winter coat", even if the style was out dated or old fashioned. They seemed to hold greater value than just in dollars. My mom was the same way, had every winter coat she ever bought since the 1950s. I was lucky enough to wear a few of them! So you used to find a good number of vintage coats at estate sales and such.

Any historical society collection I went through had a LOT of winter coats.

 

[Linn]

I think the above reasons are part of it but also that in most cases winter coats tended to be roomy and would fit for many years. They could be worn by the original owner and then passed down. I moved to Hawaii (many, many years ago with one) - I'm wearing it in this photo of me and my dog in Central Park!

I gave it away many years ago but bought another winter coat in the late '90s. It's in the back of my guest room closet - why?? No idea. I rarely travel in the winter.

 

[modamuzesi]

This is not so much history but I think related:
I used to love doing odd surveys when I was in high school. One time I asked everyone "What was the most expensive garment you ever purchased?".
Interestingly , everyone answered "winter coat".

 

[Vinclothes]

Thank you all for your thoughtful answers. I don't have a memory of a particular winter coat as a child, but I do remember the smell when my mother opened the Montgomery Ward mail-order package! I do remember my little sister, an unusually pretty child, had a red coat everyone commented on.
I believe there might be a prestige factor. I am in farming/ranching country, and if the wife and children had handsome coats, it meant the rancher was prosperous --- that year, anyway. He would have worn a Pendleton tailored suede trimmed western jacket.
Marian

 

[poppysvintageclothing]

I also have a lot of coats and jackets from the 40s to the 90s. I don't think I own any that are newer than that. Living in Canada we need the variety...some lightweight and some to keep us warm and I do love to change them, too boring to wear the same one.

 

[Midge]

I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense! I have several winter coats now (all vintage or second hand) because we get different degrees of winter as well, though it doesn't get as cold as in Canada (I have spent half of one winter in Montreal ), and I might wear a longer one with a dress than with jeans. Plus winter jackets for when it's not quite that cold or when it's just more convenient. For the really cold days (zero degrees and below - it does happen) I have my vintage fur car coat.
As a kid I had one winter coat/jacket, that was the norm, and it was kind of a big deal even then. My favourite and the one that stuck in my mind from childhood was a mint green anorak with a hood with fake fur trim. When I grew out of it we donated it to the Red Cross. I remember my mom packing up a big box of winter clothes for the Red Cross to go to Romania. So I learned about donating clothes early on! The first coat I bought myself when I was earning my own money as a trainee was a slim, long black wool coat with dark brown fur-trimmed collar by Benetton. That was a big thing for me, Benetton was expensive, but it was good quality and they had a lot of classic styles that I really liked back then. And I loved how you could get one thing in several colors. I spent a lot of time shopping at Benetton in the second half of the 90s, though usually during the sales, as at normal price it was quite expensive for what I could spend. But when they had a sale on, the whole shop was 30% off for example, so I mostly shopped then. A winter coat by them then would have been around 400 Francs, and in my third year as a trainee I earned around 1100 Francs monthly (though I was still living at home, but I was paying my parents my share for food etc. as well). But it was the thing I had to have, and I wore it for several years - which I usually did with my winter coats. Having more than one coat for me really only started when I got into more vintage and second hand, making it more affordable in general.