'This is my pet peeve': The innocent mistake you're making with your new winter coat
Updated . First published
Investing in a new winter coat is always an exciting rite of passage.
The style, cut and colour send a clear message to the world about who you are, and how you plan to interact with the world during the cooler months. Are you colourful and bold? Timeless and chic? On-trend?
Once the coat arrives, it's the beginning of a new era. That is, unless you, along with many across the country, forget one simple yet essential step after that new coat is unboxed.
There's one mistake many of us are committing with our new winter coats. Getty Images/iStockphoto
That step is the removal of the 'stay stitch', or 'vent stitch'.
This is an X-shaped stitch added to the split at the back of a coat for "shipping and packaging purposes only".
Iconic Australia explains via TikTok these "must be cut" when you get a new coat.
A stylist for the online retailer explained the importance of the step, saying it's her "pet peeve" when people neglect to cut the stitch and calling the removal "satisfying".
The X-shaped stitch at the back of a new coat is called the stay stitch, and it serves an important purpose. TikTok/theiconicau
However, many don't realise it needs to be snipped and removed before the garment is ready to wear. TikTok/theiconicau
"The vents are here to allow movement and freedom," she explains.
We are then instructed to cut the stitch out, and then "pull the strings, and it's perfect".
"Thank god someone is bringing light to this," one customer commented.
"Hahaha yes this is my pet peeve & blazers as well!!!!" another said.
Sure enough, a quick survey of the nine.com.au office quickly located one worker, who shall not be named, with the 'stay stitch' still on their stylish work blazer.
This was quickly rectified with the use of the office scissors.
And now, her blazer too is free.
"This is actually my biggest irk, the amount of people I see that still have it on gives me the biggest urge to just rip it off," another commenter wrote on The Iconic's TikTok.
Another TikTok influencer @hello_eveh who shares shopping tips, also posted a PSA video urging viewers to "please please please unpick your back vent (and pockets!) before you use your gorgeous new coat".
"These usually come stitched close so they don't lose their shape before you get to them," she explained.
One nine.com.au staffer still had the 'stay stitch' done up on her blazer. 9Honey
"Haaaa seeing this every winter always makes me giggle," one of her viewers said.
"This is my mum's pet peeve!!!" another said.
"Ahhhh she always unpicks mine as soon as we get home."
"Omg... the amount of influencers I saw in Paris with that stitch was ridiculous," another said.
"I'm like a public service. If I see one person I make sure I let the person know," one viewer said.
Now you're aware of it, you'll start noticing people's coats with the stitch intact. Getty Images/iStockphoto
"Every winter," another observed, "Do we tap them on the shoulder and tell them?"
Another said: "I need to start carrying around a small pair of scissors."
