The only upside to rainy days is that my water-resistant Burberry pieces get to come out and play. This brings me to my second Burberry coat: a single-breasted raincoat in size 2 with detachable hood and fleece warmer, acquired circa 2007 at a Burberry outlet store.
Looking back, the fit was so awful that I should have left it behind. But at the time, I knew that size 2 was the smallest size they make, and I was stubborn about “making” it fit. I think of this poor coat like a child whom has undergone many surgeries:
1. Burberry retail store shortened and narrowed the sleeves (barely), refused to do shoulders or the body.
2. Burberry retail store elongated the sleeves, having mis-pinned the first time and made them inches too short!
3. My tailor narrowed the shoulders by 1.5 inches each side, tapered the entire body of the coat, and slimmed sleeves a little more.
End result (a little wrinkled from storage):
I like how there’s many subtly different ways to wear this coat – hood on or off, collar up or down, with fleece warmer or without, belted or unbelted A-line style:
My coat had to undergo several stages of alterations because the tailors at the Burberry store often challenge or flat-out refuse my requests. For raincoats, they said they would not work on the shoulders, because all Burberry rainwear is dyed in one piece into water-resistant material, and any detatchment of individual pieces (like removing the arms from the shoulder) will cause damange to the water-resistancy. Another example – I wanted the sleeves slimmer but the Burberry tailor just kept scolding me repeatedly with “It’s a coat, not a dress!” Ok…thank you for your opinion, but its my coat, so shouldn’t I be able to decide?
As soon as I took the coat to my own tailor, she clucked her tongue at the poor fit and immediately started pinning away. She muttered in disapproval about how wide the shoulders were and how baggy the sleeves were. Sigh … a good tailor is truly invaluable for us petites!
Hello, I love your blog! I am petite like you and I know the value of a good tailor : )
My grandma was a tailor herself and told me how to dress. You do not need to spend a capital to dress well, just a tailor…
Good luck with you life
Ale
so agree with you about the BURBERRY poor fit. One would think at that price point they'd ant their customers to look good! That's why despite the excellent quality stay away and bought (sadly) less quality but better fit trenches. I am 5.6 but small frame and the BURBERRY raincoats simply overwhelmed me. Drowning in it!
Hi there! Burberry does make petite coats, but they are only available in Burberry Japan and in the United States through Nordstrom online. The catch is, only a few designs make it to petites at Nordstrom – not a great selection at all! Not to mention, you miss out on the experience of trying coats on in the store and having it custom-pinned to your size for alterations.
I have tried a few kids coats. It was trial and error. If you look at my related Burberry posts, you can see part I is a kids coat. Bloomingdales.com had a very nice and basic black Burberry trench available in kids last month, but it sold out within days!
I'm 4'9" and filipino. I love it that I accidentally found your blog when I googled "petite burberry raincoat". I have the exact same rainboots! Does Burberry make petite coats? And did you ever consider trying the kids size coats?