After living in California and Louisiana, it took me years in Oregon to realize why I was always so cold: I’d failed to embrace the puffy jacket. Almost everybody wore them, but it took me a while to overcome my aesthetic reservations. People looked like they were walking around in sleeping bags, and the puff added so much bulk.
But now I’m over that. Puffy jackets take up much of my closet. And their insulation makes all the difference between a pleasant February walk and a shiver fest.
Of course, as a vegan I’m no fan of down. Birds need their feathers. I’m always on the lookout for vegan alterna-downs.
So I was excited to try out a Frank and Oak jacket featuring vegan Thermore® Ecodown® insulation. Both the insulation and the matte-finish fabric of the Skyline Reversible Bomber Jacket are made from recycled PET bottles.
Wearing the vegan bomber jacket
I’m used to wearing longer jackets that come in at the waist. So it was fun to try a different silhouette. The bomber comes in three understated colors: black, ash blue and rosin. I tried the rosin, which I would call olive green. It fit true to size, is cute and comfortable. Wind and water-repellent, it’s perfect for walking around town on late winter days. Supposedly it’s adequate for temperatures ranging from 14 to 41 degrees Fahrenheit. But I think that’s for somebody from Norway or Russia, not a So Cal native. I’ll wear this jacket when it’s in the 40s. Since it’s not super bulky, you could probably wear a bigger coat over it if necessary.
The Skyline vegan bomber jacket is reversible. You can turn it around and wear the smooth side—rather than the quilted side–out. Just cut off the tag at the back of the neck. I wish the inside was a different color so it would be more like a different jacket when reversed. I think the quilted side is cuter, so I would only wear it inside out if I got a bad stain or a rip on the quilted side.
If you’re looking for a vegan alternative to down and you like the bomber style, this is a great jacket. And you’ll be keeping 32 plastic bottles out of the landfills, oceans, or whatever other unfortunate place they too often wind up.
