Shopping for a Barn Coat, Part Deux
Jan. 25th, 2019 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickLL Bean's effort at a Women's Barn Coat arrived in the mail today. That we are having a blog post about it should indicate how I feel about it. Honestly, if it'd been fine, there would be no blog post.
Yeah, I'm not happy.
Here's the letter I sent to LL Bean to let them know that I was not amused by their efforts.
I ordered a green Women's Barn Coat to replace my existing (reddish) LL Bean Women's Barn Coat that I've had for several years and adored. You "updated" the styling by adding princess seams and a back fake-belt-thing (because I really, really care if I look properly feminine when I'm wearing two sweatshirts and a turtleneck under my coat while breaking the ice out of the horse troughs in single digit weather or driving my 1972 IH 500C dozer up the road to scrape the slush off before it freezes. I mean, seriously, I REALLY CARE how I look at those times -- being warm and sturdily-clothed is NOT EVEN REMOTELY AS IMPORTANT AS LOOKING LIKE I HAVE A WAIST AT ALL TIMES.) which I could have lived with but you ALSO MADE THE POCKETS SMALLER AND CRIPPLED THE WONDERFUL STURDY SLANT POCKETS BY PUTTING THEM ON THE SEAMS AND TAKING AWAY THEIR REINFORCEMENT. THEY ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY REINFORCED AND WILL RIP OUT, RIGHT ON THE SEAMS. THEY BARELY FIT MY HANDS. MY WALLET WILL FALL OUT. THEY SUCK. (The old diagonal pockets were deep and VERY ROOMY, fit hands, spare gloves, wallet... they were great.) You also made the lower square patch pockets smaller by about a third for no reason I can determine. The old-style, square cut barn coat (mine is kind of a cranberry color, though very faded and smelling slightly of diesel fuel) was wonderful. The "new" women's barn coat is not made for women who actually Do Things In Barns. It's some kind of bullshit fashion item made for women who want to LOOK LIKE they do things in barns. I am clearly not your target market anymore.
I'm not making up the thing about the pockets. They are TRULY A LOT MORE SHITTY THAN THE OLD POCKETS. I hope I was clear enough to LL Bean so that they understand how upset I am. Fucking hell and also I have to keep this unsatisfactory coat OR LEARN HOW TO DO RETURNS (which is cripplingly difficult and I do not feel capable of doing it). Honestly, eating the hundred and twenty nine dollars is easier for me than figuring out how to return a product. I am an ideal by-mail shopper for companies b/c of this. Adulting is hard.
And now I'm going to go have to buy a different barn-style coat because I cannot live with this one. I can't. The pockets are unworkable.
The women's sections are not helpful (I tried Carhartt, LL Bean, and Duluth Trading Co), which means I will now have to try the men's sections. Mail order means I can't try the coats on but in-person means people think I am shopping in the wrong section.
Look, I just want a coat I can live with. Coats do not involve penises or vaginas. They are not a gendered item.
The men's section puts the fucking pockets right over my tits, which IS NOT HELPFUL FUCKING A. And whatever they make is not going to be wide enough to button over my hips. Because I have hips. All the time, I have hips. The men's section, see, is not good. It's bad in different ways than the women's section. It's not like a win or anything. THIS SHOULD NOT BE SO HARD.
Yeah, I'm not happy.
Here's the letter I sent to LL Bean to let them know that I was not amused by their efforts.
I ordered a green Women's Barn Coat to replace my existing (reddish) LL Bean Women's Barn Coat that I've had for several years and adored. You "updated" the styling by adding princess seams and a back fake-belt-thing (because I really, really care if I look properly feminine when I'm wearing two sweatshirts and a turtleneck under my coat while breaking the ice out of the horse troughs in single digit weather or driving my 1972 IH 500C dozer up the road to scrape the slush off before it freezes. I mean, seriously, I REALLY CARE how I look at those times -- being warm and sturdily-clothed is NOT EVEN REMOTELY AS IMPORTANT AS LOOKING LIKE I HAVE A WAIST AT ALL TIMES.) which I could have lived with but you ALSO MADE THE POCKETS SMALLER AND CRIPPLED THE WONDERFUL STURDY SLANT POCKETS BY PUTTING THEM ON THE SEAMS AND TAKING AWAY THEIR REINFORCEMENT. THEY ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY REINFORCED AND WILL RIP OUT, RIGHT ON THE SEAMS. THEY BARELY FIT MY HANDS. MY WALLET WILL FALL OUT. THEY SUCK. (The old diagonal pockets were deep and VERY ROOMY, fit hands, spare gloves, wallet... they were great.) You also made the lower square patch pockets smaller by about a third for no reason I can determine. The old-style, square cut barn coat (mine is kind of a cranberry color, though very faded and smelling slightly of diesel fuel) was wonderful. The "new" women's barn coat is not made for women who actually Do Things In Barns. It's some kind of bullshit fashion item made for women who want to LOOK LIKE they do things in barns. I am clearly not your target market anymore.
I'm not making up the thing about the pockets. They are TRULY A LOT MORE SHITTY THAN THE OLD POCKETS. I hope I was clear enough to LL Bean so that they understand how upset I am. Fucking hell and also I have to keep this unsatisfactory coat OR LEARN HOW TO DO RETURNS (which is cripplingly difficult and I do not feel capable of doing it). Honestly, eating the hundred and twenty nine dollars is easier for me than figuring out how to return a product. I am an ideal by-mail shopper for companies b/c of this. Adulting is hard.
And now I'm going to go have to buy a different barn-style coat because I cannot live with this one. I can't. The pockets are unworkable.
The women's sections are not helpful (I tried Carhartt, LL Bean, and Duluth Trading Co), which means I will now have to try the men's sections. Mail order means I can't try the coats on but in-person means people think I am shopping in the wrong section.
Look, I just want a coat I can live with. Coats do not involve penises or vaginas. They are not a gendered item.
The men's section puts the fucking pockets right over my tits, which IS NOT HELPFUL FUCKING A. And whatever they make is not going to be wide enough to button over my hips. Because I have hips. All the time, I have hips. The men's section, see, is not good. It's bad in different ways than the women's section. It's not like a win or anything. THIS SHOULD NOT BE SO HARD.
