We asked seven exceptionally tasteful New Yorkers to tell us about an item they bought forever ago — and that they still love (and use) today. Here, New York’s deputy editor on her North Face jacket that is the same age as Timothée Chalamet.
I was 13, and the status symbol among a certain subset of New York City teens was a North Face jacket. As I wrote in the pages of this magazine once before, the one I really wanted was a colorful Gore-Tex parka, but it was much more expensive than the classic puffer. Which, I should note, was still more expensive than, say, a sensible parka from the Gap or Lands’ End. But my parents acquiesced because it was, unlike other status items that I coveted at the time (a Kate Spade diaper bag springs to mind), incredibly warm. I couldn’t wait to wear it with my boot-cut jeans and Rod Laver sneakers. So, my mom and I went together to Paragon, and we settled on a women’s medium, which was enormous on my little prepubescent self. But how prescient we all were, because now, 27 years later, I did end up, in fact, going through puberty, so it fits perfectly and I’m still wearing it.
To be fair, there was about a decade, probably in the early aughts, when I had forgotten about it, and the coat hung unworn in my parents’ closet as I cycled through a wool peacoat from Club Monaco and a Soiya and Kyo puffer that I got on sale at Macy’s. But for the last decade or so, I’ve worn it consistently — with a little smugness these days amid the great Nuptse boom (and now backlash) of the 2020s. I’ve even gone full 1997 and got some Rod Lavers. Thanks to Secret Strategist (sign up!), I also recently ordered a cheap Hervé Chapelier bag on Poshmark — but wearing that with the North Face and sneakers, as I did the other day, was actually a bridge too far, and the whole thing felt kind of perverse.
I should note that last year there was an unfortunate period where the puffer briefly lived in a damp basement and the zipper got stuck, which led to a tear in the coat — but about $25 at the tailor later, it’s good as new.
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