Once upon a time I will walk into a thrift store - with its smells, florescent lighting, and red plastic carts -and walk straight to the dresses (because that is where I almost always start) and in a store with aisles almost as winding and drawn out as this sentence stumble on it: 

THE coat. 

Burberry, to be exact. It will be a rich oxblood color, or perhaps a classic beige and it will turn me into a princess. I've dreamed of this coat for years, ever since I saw the price tag on an actual Burberry and knew it would probably never be something I could afford. What if such a thing would be hanging in an ordinary, backwater town of NC? What if a rich, single, traveling aunt would've left the coat last Christmas and deemed it unworthy of the postage it would take to mail it? Then, for the price of that postage I would own a beautiful "new" coat. 

Ah, Burberry, the stuff of dreams and the jewel of English design. Anything can happen while wearing a Burberry trench: perhaps an engagement in snowy downtown London, or a dream trip to NYC in autumn with my girlfriends, or getting caught in a spring rainstorm in Boston and getting shelter from a handsome stranger with an umbrella.

The possibilities are endless. 

I practiced for my fairy tale the other day, walking into the lowliest, dingiest thrift store of them all in a stone's throw from my tiny abode - straight to the dresses - to see a coat that I've only dreamed about before. It wasn't Burberry, lest you are holding your breath, but it was indeed one of the finds I've dreamed about. 

A deep, olive green with a double-breasted row of luxe gold embossed buttons of the military; cut in a princess-style with double pleats in the back and... Oh yes. It draped where it should drape, and hugged where it should hug. A massive orchestra started playing somewhere and I knew this was the coat to tide me over: to accompany crisp autumn walks in the city, and cold, snowy nights going to see the Nutcracker. Perhaps a sharp winter night with a full moon shining and frolicking with friends, while the tree boughs crack in the wind and we think of the nice warmth and hot chocolate that we will have back at the house. 

The possibilities are endless. 

Happily ever after,

L. Raine

P.S. Instead of taking photos on a scorching hot day in NC I've opted to simply link another color of this coat, on Poshmark. Perhaps it will strike your fancy, and then we can twin for a coffee date.