Well-Dressed Women Everywhere Will Appreciate These 34 Elegant Coat Styles

Eliza Huber wearing a tan, fur-trim, cape-style coat by By Malene Birger on the street in New York.

(Image credit: @elizagracehuber)

It's a well-known fact that if you live in a place that experiences true winter, your coat is the most important factor in your wardrobe. For an entire season (and then some), the outerwear you choose to wear is all you wear, at least from an outsider's perspective. No one's going to see what fantastic ensemble you've assembled underneath it. All they know is the coat you put on top. So if elegance is the reputation you want to build around your style this winter, finding a sophisticated and expensive-looking piece of outerwear is the only essential step. (A great bag, some fun earrings, a cool pair of leather gloves, and a standout hat help, but those are buys for another day.)

Fortunately for anyone in the market for an elegant coat style right now, I have just the selection for you coming up. I grew up in Chicago, where my hair would freeze if it was at all wet on the way to school in the morning. I went to college in Iowa where the land is so flat that nothing can block the wind from whipping you around. And then, did I move somewhere warm and coatless? No, I came immediately to New York City, where it "felt like 2ºF," according to AccuWeather, every morning for the last week. Let's just say I know a thing or two about purchasing a good coat that's both utilitarian and worth showing off when nothing else about your outfit matters.

Without further ado, scroll down to peruse the most elegant 34 coat styles of 2025.

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Senior Fashion Editor

Eliza Huber is a New York-based senior fashion editor who specializes in trend reporting, brand discovery, and the intersection of sports and fashion. She joined Who What Wear in 2021 after almost four years on the fashion team at Refinery29, the job she took after graduating with a marketing degree from the University of Iowa. She has since launched two monthly columns, Let's Get a Room and Ways to Wear; profiled the likes of Dakota Fanning, Diane Kruger, Katie Holmes, Gracie Abrams, and Sabrina Carpenter for WWW's monthly cover features; and reported on everything from the relationship between Formula One and fashion to the top trends from fashion month, season after season. Eliza lives on the Upper West Side and spends her free time researching F1 fashion imagery for her side Instagram accounts @thepinnacleoffashion and @f1paddockfits, running in Central Park, and scouring The RealReal for discounted Prada.