The season’s new jacket style has an added bonus

I’m not ready for a puffer jacket. What do I wear?

The zipping-up of a puffer jacket, along with the advent of flannelette sheets, flu shots and a pot of soup on the stove-top, is an admission to self that winter has arrived. But, for now, keep squeezing the juice out of autumn with a trans-seasonal jacket that doesn’t look like a cropped sleeping bag, one that’s still warm enough for your walk home from work through a path of crunching leaves.

The funnel-neck jacket, which emerged in the first collection by every designer’s favourite designer, Phoebe Philo, in 2023 – when we were still wearing trench coats – is this season’s outerwear staple. Countless labels, from Camilla and Marc to Melbourne label Henne, Witchery and Uniqlo, have followed suit. As the name suggests, the signature silhouette is the neck, which resembles the popped collar of a shirt and acts like a built-in scarf, protecting you from brisk breezes (and any unwanted scrutiny of your jawline).

Longer styles are available, but I prefer the funnel-neck bomber, which works with A-line midi skirts as well as straight-leg or barrel-leg jeans. You don’t want to be too motorcycle-gang, matchy-matchy here: black, brown and burgundy jackets work well with denim, white and charcoal bottoms, while a statement white jacket works well with a black bottom. Just don’t wear it on a motorcycle: splattered bug stains are even less fashionable than a puffer jacket in autumn.