If you asked anyone to make a Proper mood board, we’d hope ‘BIG COATS’ would be slapped right in the middle, written in enormous bubbly letters. Since our first issue back in 2006, we’ve been banging on about them – and we haven’t stopped since. Without big coats, we’d probably be unemployed. And your coffee table would be a lot emptier.
Across 19 years of magazines, we’ve tried to celebrate large outerwear in ways that don’t get stale. One of those ways has been our HDI (highly desirable items) section: historically an excuse to gather every coat we’ve been drooling over and quietly kill a few pages.
Lately, though, the magazine’s been doing well. More brands, fewer spare pages for incoherent coat chat. So for landmark Issue 50, we decided to reset. Back to basics. Forty-odd pages devoted to the finest down-filled delicacies we could find.
Given the significance, we wanted full control. Time to properly bond with the coats and say exactly why they mattered. So we retreated to the ‘boardroom’ (the room with the slightly bigger desk) to think big coat thoughts. Hours later, we emerged to a whiteboard bearing four words: Cold Dip, Warm Zip.
Inspired by the cold-plunge takeover of our Instagram feeds, the idea was simple: freezing water, natural pools, and warming up not in saunas – but in massive coats. It felt wildly ambitious and brilliantly stupid at the same time. The only question was whether the brands would be up for it.
As it turned out, they were.
What followed was the best two weeks of post we’ve ever had. Couriers repeatedly hammering the door, delivering coats from all over the world. A growing mountain of jackets made it clear how colossal the task we’d set ourselves was. Mouths bigger than our stomachs? Definitely. Jackets bigger than our ambitions? Not quite.
In our heads, we wanted to shoot the coats in Switzerland. In reality, surely not. Except, somehow, yes. Thanks to some perfectly (and questionably) timed logistics, we made it happen. Busy schedules, bursting suitcases – and the dream scenario: photographing jackets in one of Europe’s most beautiful backdrops.
The next five days blurred together. Stunning landscapes. Icy plunges that would horrify wellness influencers. Dragging muddy suitcases to lakes, rivers, and puddles, looking like confused tourists from another dimension.
By Friday, we’d pulled it all off. We’d tested the limits of human warmth and down fill power, eaten alarming amounts of Toblerone, drunk plenty of blanche beer, and come away with photos – and a revitalised love for massive jackets.
So here it is: our big coat pilgrimage. A love letter to the garments that have kept us going for 19 years, through drizzle, deadlines, and daft ideas. Scroll down the page to find our thoughts on a few standouts.
66°North – Dyngja Jacket
“In terms of heft, 66°North’s Dyngja Jacket was well up there. This jacket is absolutely massive, and for that reason, we kept it reserved for the moments where insulation mattered most. The 700FP down wasted no time in bringing our bodies back up to near normal temperature after many icy dips.”
Gramicci – Down Puffer Hooded Jacket
“Gramicci’s Down Puffer Jacket has taken the formula set out by their Puffer Vest, and simply added arms and a hood. And you know what? We can’t fault this pragmatic approach. It’s worth mentioning that this jacket’s light rust colour was one of our favourite shades we encountered.”
Montbell – Superior Down Parka
“Montbell’s Superior Down Parka is already a certified outerwear legend. But that didn’t stop us from being highly, highly impressed with the one we took on our trip. Definitely one of the lightest down jackets at our disposal, but also somehow one of the warmest. If you don’t already have one of these, you need to do something to change that.”
Mammut – Taiss Pro Belay IN Hooded Jacket
“We never quite realised how good Dr Pepper’s colour scheme would look on a big coat until we had the Mammut Taiss Pro Belay jacket in front of us. And even better than its soft drink aesthetics were its insulating capabilities.”
Rab – Mythic Ultra Down Jacket
“We’re not sure if Andrew was simply firing on all cylinders when he was taking photos of the Rab Mythic Ultra, but this jacket – shimmering in the Swiss sunshine – provided some of our favourite visuals from the entire trip. The jacket wasn’t just a pretty face either, it also proved to be a seriously, seriously toasty piece of outerwear – courtesy of 900FP down.”
Norse Projects – Herluf Alpinix Smart Merino Jacket
“There were plenty of good hoods on show during our trip, but the Herluf Alpinix Jacket’s might just take the cake. Beyond the hood, we found that the jacket didn’t just do a great job of keeping us warm in the Swiss mountains – it also looked right at home cruising from bar to bar in the country’s capital of Geneva.”
Amundsen – Peak Parka
“Truth be told, we almost felt a bit embarrassed wearing Amundsen’s Peak Parka. This jacket was designed for serious expedition-use, and frankly, hopping in and out of cold water doesn’t qualify as an expedition in anyone’s vocabulary. Joking aside, this Parka was fantastic. Incredibly – almost absurdly – warm.”
Peak Performance – Helium Diamond Fuse Down Jacket
“Just like the mountains that towered over us, Peak Performance’s Diamond Fuse Down Jacket was massive, white and absolutely mesmerising to look at. This coat also stood as another favourite of ours for running errands (drinking beer) in Geneva.”
KA_YO_Prototype Lightweight Down Jacket
“KA_YO_Prototype has only been manufacturing their own product since 2024, but the new Lightweight Down Jacket still manages to compete with the heavyweights. Think of this as a Montbell Superior Down Jacket, only with bigger pockets and a beautiful sprout green colour.”
Taion – Military Crew Neck Down Vest
“The Military Crew Neck Down Vest was the ultimate modular layer – endlessly wearable, whether thrown over a shirt or layered neatly beneath a big coat. A true balance of form and function.”
Montane – Kamen XT
“Montane’s Kamen XT jacket wasn’t just one of the brightest coats in our selection, but with a doubt, also one of the warmest. It’s excellent insulating properties can be attributed to a massive 800 down fill power, which made the jacket so warm, it almost made us want to get right back in the water. Serious, serious heater.”
Big Rock Candy Mountaineering – Arctic Parka
“Arguably the most quintessentially big coat, big coat on this list. Big Rock Candy’s Arctic Parka is a slice of outerwear heaven, modelled on the golden era of expedition parkas. Massive baffles, huge pockets, loads of drawstrings and a tremendous ‘Candy Cane’ colour, had us cutting through Switzerland like Reinhold Messner.”
