The importance of thickness when choosing a wool coat – CDL#85

Cover photo: Gloverall lookbook

Reading your comments, I see that the idea that a wool coat should not contain too much synthetic has been understood.

In fact, a coat with too much polyamide/polyester, like many entry-level ones, will not insulate you well from the cold.

However, you must add another criterion to your reading grid, in the choice of your coat: the weight of the material.

A 100% wool coat, if it is thin, will not keep you that warm when the thermometer is near or below 0°.

Massimo Dutti offers 100% wool coats that are pretty and affordable, but quite thin.

What is the right thickness for a wool coat?

If you buy your coat in a store, you will of course be able to touch the garment and feel on your shoulders when trying it on whether it is thick enough or not.

On the other hand, when you buy online, it is less obvious.

Either the material weight is not given, in which case you should only rely on the photos, which may possibly give you an idea of ​​the thickness.

Either the material weight is given, in which case you can refer to this reading grid:

• >400 g/ ^m2 : heavy weight
• 350-400 g/ ^m2 : medium/heavy weight
• 300-350 g/ ^m2 : medium weight
• <300 g/ ^m2 : lightweight / mid-season

Square meter and linear meter: the big difference

You may be thinking:

“Great, I’ve seen loads of coats with 500, 600g/ ^m2 wool or even more!”

Except... the reality is more subtle.

There are actually two ways to express the weight of a woolen cloth: square meter and linear meter.

And the two are sometimes confused.

Here is what Benoît wrote about it on the presentation of our navy coat :

"I would like to draw your attention to an important point: many brands (the majority, in fact) choose, to simplify their speech, to speak of 'square meter' when in reality it is a question of 'linear meter.'

Now, the weight of a linear meter of fabric is generally higher than that of a square meter, because it is the weight of a meter of fabric in length... But not in width!

In fact, the linear meter is not a reliable unit of measurement if you are not also given what is called in textile jargon the 'width', that is to say the width of the roll of a fabric, which depends on the machine on which it is made.

Very often, the widths of modern looms are 140 to 160cm.

On this Jules Tournier fabric, the width is 150cm. Hence the equivalence: 410 g/ ^m2 = 615/linear m (1.5 times more) »

1. The theory

Here is the explanation in pictures:

• This is 1m ² (1m*1m). Let's call it "A".

• This is 1 linear meter (1m*1m50). But it can also be 1m*1m40 or 1m*1m60, depending on the width of the strip. Let's call it "B".

• What some brands do is say that B = A. But this is incorrect. If B = 600g, then A = 600/1.5 = 400g/ ^m2

The maximum weight for a coat seems to me to be around 500 or even 550g/ ^m2 . So:

• If you see weights of 600g and above: you can reasonably assume that these are linear meters . Dividing by 1.5 will give you a rough idea. weight in square meters
• If you see weights around 500, it's more complicated . It can be both square and linear meters. I'm not sure that asking the brand will necessarily guarantee you a reliable answer: the person who answers you will not necessarily know the concepts of width or linear meters. In this case, you can only assume from the rendering of the coat in the photo

2. Practical cases

Let’s look at some concrete cases together.

Hast Coat

"700g per linear meter". We're good.

After conversion, we obtain a weight between 450 and 500 g/ ^m2 .

The Initialist Coat

The brand says "550g/m2".

Although I could be wrong, I think it's more linear meters here: the material looks quite fluid.

So in equivalence, we would arrive at between 350 and 400g/ ^m2 , which remains quite respectable, especially for a Loro Piana wool coat offered at a reasonable price, around €300.

Should synthetics still be banned?

That being said, I asked myself the following question:

Wouldn't a thick coat with a bit of synthetic be better than a thin 100% wool coat?

Let's take an example with two similar coats:

• Coat 1: 100% wool
• Coat 2: 80% wool 20% polyamide

A primary reflex would be to stop at the composition and immediately declare: "the 100% wool coat is necessarily better".

Now let's add an additional piece of data, the material weight:

• Coat 1: 350g/ ^m2
• Coat 2: 430g/ ^m2

This Noyoco coat is a good example of a light/mid weight 100% wool coat

This Gloverall duffle coat is a good example of a thick coat with a bit of synthetic

It can be estimated that these two coats actually have about the same amount of wool. .

Coat 2 ultimately weighs more thanks to the 20% synthetic.

So what is the best coat?

Well the answer is, as is often the case in clothing, "it depends" .

In this case, it depends on your criteria:

• Coat 1 will be suitable if you are not looking for a very warm coat, but rather a reasonably warm one. It is also suitable if you appreciate the more fluid drape of a lighter material.
• Coat 2 will be suitable if your main criterion is warmth. Thicker, its fall will logically be a little straighter. Obviously, a thick, 100% wool coat would be more suitable, but maybe with your budget, this is not entirely possible

The final word

In broad outline, here is what you can take away from this article:

1. Not all 100% wool coats are equal in terms of warmth . Knowing whether a coat is rather thin, medium thick or thick will already guide you a lot in your choice.
2. A coat with a little synthetic is not systematically to be rejected , especially if the synthetic is in reasonable proportion. and that the garment is rather thick