I bought a new jacket to wear in Iceland. It’s a lightweight stuffable warm down-filled jacket and I’ve never owned anything quite like it. I did have something puffy in purple which I wore in Finland in 2014 but 1) I’m pretty sure it wasn’t actually down 2) it didn’t stuff down into a tiny bag 3) it wasn’t particularly lightweight 4) it doesn’t fit my anymore. I saw the Uniqlo down jacket on Miranda Goes Outside’s YouTube channel and I decided to invest in one myself.
Now, a couple of caveats. Miranda’s video was about how it compared to a $400 down jacket and concluded that the expensive one won by quite a lot. Also, it was £27 because it was one of 2021’s colours. If you still want one, at time of writing it was available in XS in the beige-white colour only and it’s now £29.90. How it can be last year’s colour when it’s black and there’s a black on offer in the current version, I don’t know. There must be some minor changes in the design – I don’t recognise the poppers on the collars; maybe that’s it. Add poppers, charge £69.90!
I thought it might be a useful thing to have, a warm down jacket that I can shove into a small bag when I’m not using it. A full-size coat that takes up barely any more room in my hand luggage than a packet of crisps. I can wear it as an outer layer on some days and layer it under something warmer when it’s really cold. What a good idea, thank you Miranda. Miranda did have some issues with it, namely that it’s not waterproof and that it doesn’t keep you warm when you sit still in the snow. Ok, so don’t wear it in the rain and don’t sit still in the snow – I’m not sure there’s anything that can keep you properly warm when you’re stationary in freezing conditions, so that was ok for me.
I tried it out before going to Iceland. Uniqlo’s MySize Assist recommended an XXL and that worked well – I was surprised how much I could fit underneath it and not feel squished like a sausage in a case. It’s a bit of a square fit which I appreciated. I find a lot of outdoors gear fits, or is too big, around the top but is a tight fit around the middle. That aforementioned purple jacket undoubtedly fits fine around the shoulders but I can’t persuade the zip to quite meet at the bottom. So this fitted comfortably, it was very lightweight and on my evening walk around town it was comfortably warm, as long as I had something more than a t-shirt on underneath. Ok, good. This will do to take to Iceland.
I carried it in my hand luggage because I wanted to also take my heated coat and the down jacket fitted better in the suitcase. Carry the small thing, wear the bulky thing. But then I put the down jacket on to walk to the pool in the evening and I wore it the next day to Perlan. That was a good decision.
See, the thing about Perlan is that it was a 4km walk through a snowy winter wonderland up to the building and then we went inside where it was quite tropically heated. I suppose I could have left coat and bag in the cloakrooms downstairs but I wanted it again to go out on the observation deck, where it was freezing and windy and then again to go in the Ice Cave exhibition. So having a jacket that was properly warm but which I could squish into a tiny pouch in my bag when I wasn’t using it was really useful!
On the other hand… it’s not waterproof and it rained several times while I was in Iceland. Mostly it rained on the days when my plans were to amble Reykjavik rather than the days I was out and about. I hadn’t been expecting rain. If I’d taken my rain jacket, I could have plonked that on over the down jacket and we’d all have been very happy but I got up on Saturday and Sunday and looked at the weather and went “… guess that thing’s staying home then”. It’s a shame because it was so easy to wear and so comfortable and I really enjoyed the huge pockets. I could fit my GoPro on its floaty handle in the pocket and zip it up!
So, how did the £27 down jacket fare vs the Icelandic winter? Pretty well against the cold – you do need something more than a t-shirt underneath but generally a thermal layer, a t-shirt, a zip-up polartec/fleece jacket and the down jacket made a good enough team to keep me warm – but not so much against the rain. I’ll be taking it to Finland in May. I don’t expect to need too much in the way of warmth at that time of year but it’s going to be the absolute best warmth-to-size-in-suitcase ratio item that I’m ever going to own. It would be foolish not to get into the habit of taking it everywhere. Would I pay full price for it? No, I don’t think I would. I have enough warm clothes that I don’t need to splash £70 on a fast fashion item but for £27, I think I’ve acquired something that’s going to be very useful.