Park(a) Life

It's January and it's cold and coats just keep popping into my mind. I think I can say that we all have probably enough of lux winter coats at this stage which is why I rather randomly thought of posting about the parka/anorak. Yes, certainly rather random but I can not help but feel a little fond of the parka, despite it being rather removed from my style. I did however purchase a new coat for school recently. An rich purple anorak more then a parka, bear in mind though that the terms parka and anorak generally mean the same thing, although a parka is often considered to be fur trimmed. My anorak is however a bit more feminine then the Britpop anorak as it's satin with a great hem (quite similar to the Paul Smith ones below). 60s' mod in wearing a classic fish tail parka

I guess I am quite partial to the parka because it was a symbol of the mod subculture in the 60s and the mod subculture being something I am rather fascinated with. The parka was seen as the ideal garment when on the mods' vehicle of choice - the scooter, due to it's practicality, as well as it's availability and cheapness. Indeed the parka is as much an iconic mod symbol as the air force/target symbol is. It is fair to say too that the parka/anorak wasn't always that scruffy thing that it appears to be nowadays, the mods afer all were sharp dressers.

Rocking the parka and in typical 60s fashion, accompanied with a scooter

Enter the 90s and the parka is out and about again. This time a little scruffier and generally not accompanying any Lambrettas. Britpop groups like The Verve, Oasis and Blur, the latter two being especially infatuated with the 60s mod sounds of The Kinks and The Who and of course The Beatles, sported their parkas and anoraks with a sense of national pride. Liam Gallagher did of course go that step further with the not - exactly - mod John Lennon glasses. Nevertheless the parka/anorak was an icon once again.

Liam Gallagher sports the iconic parka

Enough with the history lesson, when all I am trying to say is that as a person who enjoys elaborate dressing up to a rather worrying degree, I cannot help but be slightly partial to the sloppy and perhaps even ugly anorak. Perhaps I have just lost my mind but I'm sure there's an inner parka wearer in us all! But if you are still unsure just look at some of the parkas/anoraks that appeared on the runway, rather cool, yes?!

The parka appears on the runway at Paul Smith Women and Topshop Unique

Note- I apologise for my long absence and will be returning all those lovely comments as quickly as possible. And yes, I know this is a very random post but I live in a rainy country where an anorak is quite handy as well as being a fashion icon!