There's only one fishtail parka

My latest fixation has been towards the fishtail parka. A classic since it was adopted as leisurewear by the mods in the sixties and enjoying something of a revival of late.

As usual my interest was piqued by a chance sighting of a Visvim Townsend on Ebay. This is Visvim's version of the fishtail, in Goretex, with multicoloured seam taping and all sorts of other Visvim-esque details. I decided I needed this despite having recently taken delivery of my Alta on the basis that the Townsend has a hood and is Goretex.

I missed the Ebay auction, mainly because I had my eye on a Townsend being sold by Seenmy on Fuk.co.uk. I missed that, too, but then the Ebay one became available again, so I hit the BIN button. Three days later when I emailed 99katemoss99 to get the tracking number, I was informed I had bought a jacket which had already been sold to someone else. Livid. Totally.

So the trail has dried up on the Townsend front, and I have started to explore other fishtail possibilities. Supreme have one (above), which is wicked but fails completely in the waterproof stakes. Nike does one, called the M51, (top right). Waterproof, seam-sealed, nice looking, but, well, it's Nike, and I hate the way they jump on every streetwear bandwagon going. This NSW QS line is just a cynical attempt to rip off the likes of Visvim with its technical revisits of classic styles.

WTaps has a nice three-layer Sherpa Field Jacket (bottom right), but it isn't a fishtail, which is obviously the key detail when looking for a fishtail parka.

Which all makes me think I should just wait. A Townsend will come up in time I'm sure, and it is hardly as if I am lacking in the coat department right now. In fact, my wardrobe actually looks like a coat department.

But you know what it's like when you've established a need for something, and so far I have imagained that fishtail parka as the perfect solution to a whole host of sartorial dilemmas. Just as I did with the Alta, and just as I'm sure I will do with whatever comes next.

It could be a long wait.

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