Hood Or Collar?

Sometimes you just want both!

That’s not me in the red hoodie, but this is me in a black one:

I am not an alien, but I had to blur my eyes since the collar comes all the way up between them.

This is not the only “ninja” hoodie I have, but it’s certainly the coolest by quite a distance.

Now, I usually only have the collar up to my eyes for scaring small children and old ladies. Most of the time, I will either zip the collar all the way up and then “scrunch” it under my chin or zip it halfway up and turn it over like this:

This hoodie is from 2005, but you can find similar ones if you look around.

Now on to the general subject of hoods and collars. It seems to me that jackets that offer both are a dying (or already dead) breed. When I grew up, most jackets had collars, but a lot of the time they had hoods as well. Sometimes the hood would stow away in the collar. There would be a zip on the back of the collar. Unzip that and there would be a hood which you could pull out and over the head and tighten with strings. Granted, these hoods would be rather flimsy, but they were still hoods capable of keeping the wind and rain out. Then there would be the hoods that would zip onto the jacket. There would be a zipper “track” along the base of the collar onto which you could zip a hood. You could then either leave it on all the time or zip it off for a different style or if you didn’t need it. The downside would be that you eventually misplaced the hood (happened to me!).

Update (2022-08-09): There was actually a third variant where the hood was attached to the inside of the jacket. These hoods were equally flimsy to the ones that zipped into a pocket in the back of the collar. You would pull the hood out and over your head if you needed it and if you didn’t need it, you would let it hang down your back on the inside of the jacket.

I say; bring these designs back for those of us who prefer collars on our jackets/coats! And no, a hood that’s high at the front is not a good compromise; I want a real collar on my jacket!

Now, I hear someone saying; just wear a fucking hat with you jacket! Fair point, but I want my jackets to be “self contained”. I don’t want to carry a hat with me. The reason I prefer collars (in addition to the style) to scarves is that the collar is always “there”, and I can just zip it when I need to.

End of rant.

Here is a very 70’s-looking jacket which has the hood inside the collar:

I wish I knew what brand this jacket was so I could track down one. Could be one of the bigger skiwear brands from the 70’s, but could very well be some obscure brand. Anyway, I love the design; the collar that’s a perfect height, the two-way zip, the zip-out hood from the collar, the buckles at the side, the zip-pocket on the arm, and the pockets which have both zips and snap down “flaps”.