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The Jewish Chronicle

Jump on board the camel train

The key is finding a shade of camel that will suit you.

September 8, 2010 11:54
Mid-tone camel coat with bold buttons, £100, Warehouse

ByJan Shure, Jan Shure

3 min read

Let's be clear. When every fashion page - including this one two weeks ago, and our glossy Edge - is telling you to get into camel, they/we are talking "fashion" camel, which is anything approximating to that pale toffee shade, rather than to a garment made from the fine, soft, warm and prohibitively expensive hair of an actual camel.

When it comes to the latter, the kind of investment needed to acquire a truly luxurious camel coat - or, in many cases, a cashmere coat in camel colour, which looks the part and is equally warm - requires that you and your coat be committed to an enduring relationship based on mutual trust.

For your part, that means maintaining it with regular trips to the dry cleaners, efficient moth-proofing and proper coat hangers. Its role is to make you feel unfailingly fabulous whenever you wear it. If that is the kind of investment you wish to make, there is an achingly sumptuous, ruffle trim, pure cashmere coat by Fendi at an eye-watering £2,150, and a ravishingly minimalist collarless camel cashmere by Alexander McQueen (at an equally ruinous £2,765 at Net-A-Porter).

If you are planning to wear camel - investment or "fashion" camel - the key is finding a shade of camel that will suit you. On a recce in Fenwick's last week, I counted at least a dozen tones that could be described as camel - from blonde to almost tobacco.