The Colhay’s shawl coat is the ultimate winter warmer - our cosiest garment so far. The coat comes in navy or brown and can be worn indoors as a comfortable robe or outdoors as smart-casual outerwear.
We’ve designed the coat with layering in mind and so it has a slightly roomier fit with more space in the arms and armholes than our shawl collar cardigans do. Despite the larger fit, you can still achieve a slim silhouette by tying the belt. The coat’s front panels have been designed in such a way that allows them to overlap as little or as much as you require. This means you won’t look or feel bunched up when wearing the coat and allows the coat to be worn comfortably and stylishly by men of varying builds.
The coat is knitted at a slightly higher gauge than our other winter warmer type pieces so that it still has a slight swish when left untied. The thinner gauge doesn’t mean you’ll be cold in it though, this piece still weighs a hefty 1.2-1.4kg so it’s perfect for keeping the chill out.
The shawl coat is an entirely new piece for 2021. The idea came about during England’s first lockdown in 2020. At this point, much of the UK workforce was working from home and we were inspired to design something that would make people feel comfortable and cosy, yet relatively smart at the same time. If you usually go into an office wearing a suit, it probably wouldn’t feel right to do that at home too, and so the coat allows you to feel comfortable but not overly casual.
It’s not just the working from home scenario where the coat works well either. At weekends when you’re seeing friends for brunch, or for weeknight dinners after work - essentially any time when you might not want to wear a long and formal coat.
As this was a brand new garment, we had to start from scratch to get it right. From inception, it took about a year to get the design just right. There were several things to consider; getting the front overlapping panels right was the first. Too big and the panels become unwieldy if the wearer doesn’t do up the belt, too small and the panels won’t overlap. The second challenge was finding the perfect length. We wanted this piece to be set apart from other cardigans and sweaters by its length, ending the coat just above the knee. However, if we set it too low, the weight of the garment stretches it down even further, resulting in unsightly bulk at the bottom. Finally, getting the size of the collar right was another hurdle. It had to be big enough to be cosy but not so big that it felt cumbersome around the neck. There was certainly a lot to consider, but we eventually found the perfect balance for all three of these elements, resulting in this stylish and sophisticated shawl coat.
As you would expect from Colhay’s, the coat is of the very highest quality thanks to our diligent manufacturing processes. We source the world’s finest yarns from world renowned spinners Todd and Duncan, who choose only the very best fibres to produce their yarns. They choose the longest and finest (in diameter) fibres, which mean the garments produced with their yarns are less prone to pilling or becoming misshapen. Our knitters in Scotland are known globally for their craftsmanship and use several techniques that result in a higher quality garment but have been discarded by mass producers to save on time.
With both Christmas and some incredibly chilly months coming up, the shawl coat makes a superb gift. It’s ideal for cosying up on the cold and dark winter nights awaiting us. With gifting in mind, we’ve extended our returns policy meaning any items purchased between the 20th of November and 25th of December 2021 can be returned until January the 8th 2022. All returns are postal.
During the summer months, when you’re not wearing the coat, it needs to be stored correctly to ensure it's in the best condition for the next winter. We recommend keeping your coat in a zip lock bag to avoid moths and taking it to be dry cleaned once a year.
Take a look at our shawl coat in navy and dark brown.