Winter is coming. And so is the time to invest in a new coat. The leaves are falling from the trees and all of a sudden soup seems like a totally appropriate lunch option. That means that any day now your biker jacket isn’t going to cut it against the impending cold weather.

Let’s be honest though, shopping for a coat is annoying work (third only to jeans and bra shopping). The constant on and off again of layers, the up and down of handbags, the fastening and unfastening... It’s exhausting. But it’s an important, expensive purchase (hands down you’ll wear it more than any other item this winter). Worth putting the hours in trawling around the shops then. Hey ho. 

But wait! There’s good news! We’ve done the hours of trawling for you. We put together a panel of 8 women, each with a different take and taste, and invited them to join us on a mammoth, impartial edit of this season’s coats. 

Throughout the course of a day 600 coats were tried on and whittled down to the 80 best. It wasn't about picking what looked great in a still life photograph (so some styles may raise the odd eyebrow – we can vouch for them in real life though). This was about what looked lovely on a real body, and which people genuinely wanted to take home and wear – the coats that left the majority excited enough to want to get their credit cards out even after spending 8 hours surrounded by enough outerwear to swaddle a small army.

So click through the gallery to see what made our objective, definitive guide to the 80 best coats in stores now. Or if you’re in the market for something in particular (pastel pink, pastel pink, pastel pink!) then use the buttons below to jump to the relevant trend.

A special thank you to the following fashion bloggers and readers who took part in the edit.

Charlie, girlalamode.co.uk

Danielle, fashionistabarbieuk.com

Isabelle, isabelleoc.co.uk

Kristabel, iwantyoutoknow.co.uk

Laura, Never Underdressed reader