The padded parka has a serious image problem and most of it is deserved. Walk into any high street and you will find racks of them in that particular shade of black that fades to grey after three washes, with stitching that puckers, hoods that collapse, and a silhouette that adds bulk without adding anything else. They look fine on a hanger and deflating in person. We have been looking specifically for parkas that avoid all of that. What we want is a clean outer shell with some weight to it, fill that actually insulates rather than just puffs, and a cut that works over a midlayer without turning you into a sleeping bag. Length matters too. A parka that hits at the right point on the thigh does real work in weather that a shorter jacket cannot handle. The ones we have pulled together here are built to last more than a season and look like they were chosen rather than grabbed.