Is there a right way to wear a winter coat? A recent viral video about the best way to brave the cold has seemingly launched a new trend.
Jessica Alzamora, a 37-year-old Chicago resident, shared a quick tip on her social media earlier this week that has some questioning if they’ve been wearing their winter coats the wrong way their entire lives.
In the clip, Alzamora is seen wearing a black parka with a fur-trimmed hood. “Guys, you’re wearing your coats wrong,” she says in the video. “Please stop wearing it like this.”
She then folds the fur into the hood, displaying how to wear the parka “properly,” as she wrote in the caption.
“This is not meant to be stylish,” she explains as she tucks in the fur so that it surrounds her ears and face. “It’s meant to be functional. You’re supposed to fold it in like this and it covers your ears and it blocks air.”
Alzamora continues, “You zip your coat all the way to the top and it blocks air from coming in and you stay so, so, so much warmer.”
She unfolds the fur and shares that if people don’t follow her advice then “all that air is still hitting you and you’re not warm.”
In the caption, she also wrote, “You’re wearing your winter coat wrong, and I’m sorry to be this person but it’s 8 degrees in Chicago and you need to stay warm.”
Her styling tip went viral, reaching over 1 million views in four days. Some social media users were grateful for the recommendation.
“I beg your finest pardon?!? Can we add this to the how to adult manual?” one asked.
Another said, “All my life.. ALL MY LIFE… and no one could have mentioned this or put it in the coat’s description lol?!”
But others pushed back and pointed out that the fur-trim is intended to block the wind. Critics said that following Alzamora’s advice goes against the purpose of the fur lining.
Alzamora tells TODAY.com that she never expected the video to take off and cause a debate across the internet.
“My pediatrician told me about it years ago,” she shares, and that she has “ran with it” since then. Earlier this week, Alzamora, who says she had about 80 followers on TikTok before her post went viral, decided to upload the video to inform her close friends about the best way to survive the chilly Chicago winters.
“I was literally just talking to them,” she explains while laughing. “I don’t even know how it got this crazy. I know my friends. I know their coats. We all have kind of the same coat. I was like, ‘Hey, you’re wearing it wrong to them specifically. I thought five people were going to see it. It wasn’t for the world. It just happened to go worldwide.”
She shares that she wears her hood the special way whenever the Chicago weather becomes unbearably cold.
“I tuck it in and just make sure I’m really warm and cozy, and my kids do it, too,” Alzamora adds.
She also addresses the “backlash” she has received from other cold climate natives, living in places like Canada and Alaska, who have left comments criticizing her advice.
“I’m like, ‘I believe you. I understand. I wasn’t talking to you guys. I would never tell you how to dress in that climate. I’ve never been there!’” she says.
But in Chicago, she says the technique works for her and she has heard from others that it is helping them stay warm, too.
“Now when I see it, I genuinely smile. I have people stopping me in person that are like, ‘Hey, I saw your video,’” she shares.
Another person who approached Alzamora at her recent birthday dinner told her that the tip is helping her survive the low temperatures.
“In person, I don’t get backlash. In person, everybody’s saying they’re doing it, and it keeps them warm. So I’m happy about it. I feel like it was helpful,” she says laughing, adding that she’ll continue to sport the trend.
What Is the Right Way to Wear a Winter Coat? Experts Weigh In
Experts say that Alzamora’s technique might not actually keep coat wearers warmer.
“Pressing the fur against your ears isn’t harmful, but it defeats the design,” Albert Varkki, co-founder of the leather brand Von Baer and a fashion expert who studies how design details in outerwear actually function, tells TODAY.com.
“Tucking the fur tightly against your ears can feel warmer in calm conditions, which explains why the TikTok went viral. But fur, real or faux, only works when it has space. Once it’s compressed, it stops breaking wind effectively and behaves more like a damp fabric than insulation,” Varkki says.
Angela Uriyo, assistant professor of fashion design and merchandising at West Virginia University College of Creative Arts and Media, explains to TODAY.com how a coat’s fur halo helps reduce heat loss in cold, windy environments.
When wind comes in contact with the face, Uriyo says, it strips away warm air. “Fur disrupts this process by thickening the thin layer of relatively still air next to the skin. A thicker layer of this still air slows heat transfer, helping the skin stay warm,” she says.
Even if tucking the fur in feels warmer, Uriyo says “heat loss is inevitable” from this technique, since it removes the trapped air around the fur that insulated the face.
The right way to wear a coat, she says, is for the fur to be kept loose enough to trap air and positioned to block the wind.
(TODAY)
