How the Toteme Scarf Jacket Became the Season’s Status Coat

Whether you know it or not, you’ve seen the Toteme scarf jacket. A draped, wool-blend coat distinguished by its blanket-stitch border and matching fringed scarf, the oversized jacket has been on the market since November 2021. While it easily found buyers in the brand’s native Stockholm, the coat has since earned a legion of fans worldwide. 

Toteme has been on the come up over the last few years, especially among fans of stealth-wealth and capsule dressing, thanks to its philosophy of a somewhat trend-defying uniform backed up by craftsmanship and high-quality materials. The jacket first got its foothold in the fashion community in 2022, when it began popping up around Europe. Thanks to its unique contrast stitching and homey quality, it stood out from a sea of indistinguishable trenches and dusters. Now, aided by social media hype and aptly timed restocking, the Toteme scarf jacket is reaching fans from Berlin to New York, just in time for winter. 

TikTok is a major player in the coat’s hype. Search “Toteme scarf jacket” on the app, and you’ll be served loads of videos that position the coat as a gateway to an aspirational lifestyle full of days getting lost in the Louvre, flaneuring through New York City (or maybe just SoHo), and galavanting around London, bouquet of flowers in hand. (The hashtag #TotemeScarfJacket currently boasts nearly 16 million views, and #Toteme has 34 million.) Last November one TikToker, @expensivb1tch, posted a video captioned, “pov you are wearing THAT coat in paris.” Despite the fact that she was also wearing Loro Piana loafers and carrying a Birkin, it was the jacket that took center stage.

Ana Escalante, an assistant editor at Who What Wear, had long coveted the coat before buying the dark gray mélange version on a recent trip to Stockholm. “As a plus-size shopper, honestly, I do want to look like everyone else,” she says. “There’s this beauty that exists in seeing something online, not thinking it’ll work for me or my body, and then going in and realizing it actually does. I wanted the Toteme coat for so long, thinking it wouldn’t be a possibility.” Toteme offers up to a size 42, the equivalent of a US 12—and a 44 (a US 14) in the chocolate colorway. But Escalante, who usually wears between sizes 16 and 20, bought it in a size 42 (the equivalent of a US 12), meaning that the coat should be able to fit a slightly wider size range.