It feels like summer provides us so many opportunities to be stylish and play around with our clothing choices because we don’t have to worry about getting cold. But winter feels like a dreary period of time when we can’t afford to look stylish without our bodies feeling numb all over. But a little creativity with your winter dressing sense can help you look fashionable and chic as the temperature drops.
Work with dresses and skirts
A lot of women abandon dresses and skirts as soon as it starts getting a little chilly. But you can actually use these items of clothing if you layer them with warmer clothes. During fall, you could just wear a plain tee shirt underneath a sleeveless dress but for winter, wear your dress over a sweater or a thick turtleneck. If your legs feel cold, put on a pair of stockings underneath your skirts and dresses. If wearing a single pair of stockings still feels cold, you could wear multiple stockings – one on top of the other – just make sure you get tight fitting stockings so that you don’t end up looking frumpy.
Winter is also the perfect time to make use of all of your longer skirts and dresses that feel too stuffy or awkward to wear during summer. Again, wear them over a pair of stockings and you’re good to go.
Winter travel tips
Make sure you avoid clashing colors and prints in the different visible layers of your outfit. The safest thing to do would be to pair neutral colored turtlenecks (or sweaters) and stockings with a color block or patterned dress. If you want a bolder look, you could also wear either a bright colored or patterned stockings or a bright colored or patterned turtleneck – just one out of the two – and keep the rest of your outfit minimal.
These days, you’ll also find dresses and skirts made from fabrics suitable for colder weather – like tweed, velvet, wool, etc. – so wearing them is also an option.
Utilize your coats and blazers
Everyone wears coats and blazers during the winter but most people just put it over their sweater and jeans combo when there are actually so many other ways you could style your coats. The first one is to style it as a dress. You can do this with either short coats (that come down to your hips) or long ones (that end past your knees). All you need is a belt. We recommend using a wide belt that matches the color and pattern of the coat as this makes your outfit look well assembled. If you don’t have such belt then you could also use a plain black, brown, white or grey one. Button up your coat or blazer completely and tie the belt around your waist. This gives you a feminine silhouette and makes you look super chic. Pairing this with heels – especially heeled boots – adds to the overall elegant vibe of the outfit.
You could also don a matching blazer and skirt set this winter. Pick a blouse or sweater that plays into the color of your blazer-skirt set and wear a pair of stockings either in a neutral color or something that matches with the blazer-skirt set. For inspiration, look up the tweed skirt suits Chanel has been putting out in their Fall/Winter collection in the past few years.
Experimenting with the fit, design, and fabric of your coat could also make you look more fashionable. Instead of wearing something like a brown trench coat, opt for a blue plaid structured blazer that fits a few sizes too big. Style this with dark trousers, a bright colored shirt and a pair of black lace up boots, and you’re ready for the day – looking stylish in a playful and modern way.
Master the trick of layering
Layering is essential to create stylish yet warm winter ensembles. But a lot of people shy away from this fearing they will end up looking like a puffer fish if they add to many layers in their outfit. This can be avoided if you master a few simple rules of layering. Firstly, you should always start with a skintight layer in neutral – ideally black – colors. These items (like a turtle neck or a pair of stockings) should hug your body completely and should feel like second skin. Then work on adding more layers to your outfit, each looser than the previous one, until you’re satisfied with your look or how comfortable you feel in it.
An important thing you should be mindful of is the number of colors in your outfit. If it’s all neutral or darker colors then you can incorporate as many as six to eight colors in your look but if you plan on wearing bright items, limit them to just one or two and style them with other dark or neutral layers to balance your overall look.
Items like thigh high boots, scarves, and sleeveless sweaters can be used to maximize your style quotient while layering. Also, because you have put in so much effort into matching the items you layer, make sure most – if not all – layers are visible at all times. Or else, there isn’t really a point of layering.
