The sun has gone to bed for the year, the mercury’s regularly dropping below the 0 mark and the monthly heating bill is reaching astronomical levels – it must be winter. For a lot of people, winter is a time of depression and sadness, short days accentuated by long nights and cold mornings, a sorrowful time with a brief respite of joy for Christmas before descending back into the frozen heart of winter.
Of course, if you’re into fashion, winter is actually a joyous time as you finally get to sport all those killer styles from the Autumn/Winter catwalks that you’ve been dying to wear all year. If you’re not into fashion, however, winter can be a difficult time as you try to transition your clothing choices from the mild autumn to the bitterly cold winter.
It can seem like dressing for winter means compromising on style, but this simply isn’t the case. In fact, as any good fashionista will tell you, winter is the most stylish time of the year – you just need to know what to wear and how to wear it!
Build A Winter Wardrobe
Put away the hammer – you’re not going to have employ your carpentry skills. Instead, we’re talking about building up the contents of your existing wardrobe. In order to survive winter in style, you’re going to need a wardrobe full of ‘go-to’ winter pieces.
Key to a winter wardrobe is a good winter coat, which will be the crux of most of your outdoor outfits. The ideal coat will be nice and thick while also looking awesome; key trends this year include faux-fur and sheepskin coats!
Also fill your wardrobe with a varied collection of jumpers, boots, warm tights (for the ladies) and thick socks. Don’t forget about knitwear either; at the very least you’ll need a scarf, a hat and a pair of gloves!
Mix Fashion and Function
Key to winter style is striking a balance between fashion and function – in simple terms, you want to look great without freezing to death! This is obviously easier said than done; items you may think are warm enough for a trip to the shops may turn out to be insufficient once you’ve set foot outside.
The best approach to mixing fashion and function is to think about the ‘keeping warm’ part of the outfit first. Rather than picking out an outfit that looks great only to find you’re absolutely freezing in it later, determine how cold it’s going to be and pick out stylish items based on the weather forecast! However, avoid the temptation to go overboard on cosy items; no matter how cold it is, two scarfs or two hats is never a good look!
Observe and Take Inspiration
It’s amazing what you can learn from other people, so keeping an eye of the style pages of various magazines or even just watching what other people on the high street are wearing is a great way to find inspiration for your own winter outfits.
However, don’t confuse inspiration with plagiarism. Regardless of how good someone looks, you should never directly copy someone’s style. Instead, choose the bits you like the best and try and work them into your own wardrobe while also maintaining your own sense of style. You’ll look a thousand times better for it!
So there you have it, a couple of tips for staying stylish and warm this winter!
