Most wardrobes answer the question of how many jackets you really need by accident rather than on purpose — you end up with four, three of them are dark, mid-weight and knee-length, and two never come off the rail. The useful number is not a number at all: it is a list of jobs. Count the distinct weather and formality situations you actually dress for in a year, and buy one jacket for each. For most people living in a temperate European climate that comes out at three.
How many jackets should a man own?
Three, covering three jobs. One light shell for mild, dry days between roughly 12 and 18°C, when a knit alone is not quite enough. One warm coat for genuine winter. One smart jacket that can go into a room where people are dressed up.
The light shell is the one that gets worn most and is bought least carefully. A matte, short jacket such as The Bomber Jacket covers it, because a closed ribbed hem keeps warmth in without adding the length that makes a coat feel like too much for a mild day. Underneath it goes whatever knit suits the temperature — The Alpine Crewneck for the warmer end of that range, something heavier below 12°C.
The test for whether you need a fourth is simple: name the conditions it would be worn in, and check that no jacket you already own covers them. If you cannot finish the sentence, you are buying a variation, not a gap. Browsing the men's jackets range with three named jobs in mind is a very different exercise from browsing it without.
How many jackets should a woman own?
Also three, but the third job is usually different. Instead of a formal overcoat, the third piece tends to be a structured jacket that sharpens an otherwise casual outfit — the thing you put on over a knit and jeans when you need to look considered rather than warm.
That role belongs to a blazer. The Monroe Blazer is cut for it: structured through the shoulder, clean through the body, and available in enough colourways that it can be the neutral piece or the loud one depending on which you choose. Buy the neutral first — black or khaki will get four times the wear of red or lavender, however much better the red looks on the rail.
The light shell role is worth filling separately rather than asking the blazer to do it. The Solis Jacket handles the mild, in-between days that a blazer is not built for — closed, casual and easy over denim. Between those two and one proper winter coat, the women's jackets shelf is genuinely complete.
How many coats is enough?
One, if it is genuinely warm and genuinely neutral. Coats are the most expensive item in the outerwear list and the least often worn — in a mild climate a heavy coat sees perhaps eight to twelve weeks of use a year. That maths argues for buying one good one rather than two adequate ones.
A second coat only earns its place when it does something the first cannot: a dressier cut for evenings, or a genuinely waterproof shell if you commute on foot. Two coats of the same weight and the same colour is the most common duplication in a wardrobe, and the easiest to spot — lay them side by side and if you cannot articulate when you would choose one over the other, you cannot.
Is it better for a jacket to be too big or too small?
Slightly too big, because more of it is fixable. A jacket that is a touch roomy through the body can be taken in at the side seams, and sleeves can be shortened. A jacket that is too small cannot be let out meaningfully — there is rarely enough seam allowance — and it will pull across the back every time you reach forward.
The one dimension where neither direction is recoverable is the shoulder. The seam has to land on the outer edge of your shoulder bone. Past it and the sleeve head collapses; short of it and the jacket binds when you move. Judge the shoulder first, buy the size that gets it right, and let a tailor deal with the rest.
One more check people skip: try the jacket on over the layer you will actually wear beneath it, not over a t-shirt in a warm shop. If you plan to wear a knit under it, bring a knit. What goes underneath changes the size you need, which is a question worth its own answer — see what to wear under a bomber jacket.
Short, specific answers to more fit, fabric and care questions are collected in Style Answers.