Trenchcoat Guy

I am trenchcoat guy.

I do not wear trenchcoats.

Except for a single day. My Mum had gifted me a navy wool trenchcoat from a second-hand store. It was thick, scratchy, and heavy. The day I wore it to work as a test run, a co-worker’s girlfriend visited the office for some reason. Months later he recounted to me of her wondering “if trenchcoat guy still worked there”. He initially had no idea what she was talking about: “No-one in the office wears trenchcoats!”

That was when I realised it didn’t matter what kind of clothing I wore. People would assume that whatever you’re currently wearing is your daily attire. Looking at strangers, I make that same assumption: the way that person looks right now is the way they’ve always looked.

The fashion choices made by my teenage self in high-school had persisted to that point — my look was black with maybe grey — and I was convinced that there was nothing I could do to change it, despite the desire to. I’d see vibrant clothing in stores and think “that looks really nice, but it doesn’t suit me”.

The slow process of reinventing my own wardrobe began on that day in 2011.

I donated the trenchcoat.