Peacoat

A peacoat is a great grab-and-go item for cooler weather. I love anything that can single-handedly transform a tee-jeans-boots ensemble with no effort.  They are perfectly between a jacket and a full-sized coat.   One of my favourite coats is a navy peacoat with brass-coloured buttons. It has pockets, a stiff collar that can be put up against the cold wind, and has a little bit of cashmere in the wool fabric to make it soft, warm and light to wear.  

Peacoats are about as preppy as I get, though.  I’m never going the full Ralph Lauren for anyone.

One-Piece Swimsuit

Having slinged the specific idea of a bikini into the distance (PING!), I hereby declare a generic “swimsuit” (togs, swimmers, cozzie, cossie, bathers) to be essential.

It doesn’t have to be a maillot, a bikini, and tankini or any other particular configuration. It just has to fit and to function. I mean, go starkers if you want to, but a great many places frown upon that sort of thing. A good one piece is like any other good cossie: it doesn’t ride up when you walk, doesn’t fall down or off when you dive, doesn’t go loose or transparent in the wet, doesn’t rub, grab, pill, sag or cut in. It doesn’t fade in the sun or in chlorine, and doesn’t leave you with weird tan marks.

A one-piece makes my one hundred.