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Category: Winter Outfits

How To Dress For Winter Weather: Staying Stylish When It’s Cold Outside

Generally speaking, I enjoy a fashion challenge: scoring that It bag in a vintage store, styling an outfit on a budget, or getting a nice bargain for that dream-dress on the seasonal sales.

Actually, I even started a whole category in this blog dedicated to all those glorious finds I get when hunting for treasures. Yes, I love a fashion challenge that much. What I don’t like though, it’s the challenge of dressing up for extreme weather. And more specifically, I have always found it difficult to dress for winter.

Being Spanish, I grew up in a very humid and wet area—we have got North-Atlantic weather in my region—meaning it rains most of the year but temperatures are rather warm, even during the coolest months. Hence, as a child, I was never taught how to dress for proper cold.

How to dress stylish in Winter

Seven years ago, the husband and I moved abroad and for the first time ever, I found myself experiencing proper winter—and by that, I mean winter in capital letters, like the type the Stark family spent 8 TV show seasons warning us about and, of course, we knew nothing of because we were totally unprepared idiots sweet summer children. So, I had to learn. Quickly.

Looking back now, I can only feel the clothes I had for winter were unsuitable, to say the least (thermals? I was clueless about the meaning of that word…) and I had to spend a considerable amount of time and money making my research. And even so—for an embarrassingly long time—I was either freezing or making my best impersonation of a potato sack (while still freezing).

Since this is nothing but cold winter, I thought I would share with you all those little pieces of wisdom a poor clueless Spanish girl had to learn the hard way.

libertwindonshopping

Here you are: my top tips on how to dress for winter (and stay stylish).

 

01.

Thermals are your best friend

I am not gonna lie. It took me a while to realize there is a limited number of layers you can wear over your clothes. (Actually, it took me so long I am surprised to this day I didn’t end up like Jack Torrance at the end of The Shining movie…) The obvious solution is dressing from underneath and building up. A nice thermal tie and tights make such a difference, really. In my opinion, nothing can beat the Heattech line by Uniqlo. To me, it’s been life-changing since a friend recommended it. I can wear mostly anything with those and still feel like a human being. Guys, if that’s not the definition of success, I don’t know what it is.

02.

And a nice coat should be your second skin

I know, Captain Obvious to the rescue. However, for most winter all people will see is your coat. Why not to invest in something that will keep you warm but is still fabulous? Personally, I am all about statement coats: they add up to your outfit in a simple way while making dressing a lot easier. If you want to play safe, go for a neutral tone that goes with everything. There are plenty of options out there depending on your taste and budget but I think we all agree a coat is such an investment piece.

libertydecember

03.

Hats add the final touch to any winter outfit

I collect hats and berets in every colour of the rainbow and I can tell you it’s such an easy, inexpensive way to crown any stylish outfit. The one I am wearing in these pictures used to belong to my mother before she passed it to me and it’s about twenty years old. (You can tell I love a nice vintage piece, can’t you?) But the point is, a good hat will protect you from extreme weather, so why not to look for something you truly love?

04.

Natural materials can be twice warmer (and fabulous)

It took me far too long but, once I said goodbye to all of that artificial knitwear and hello to my trusted 100% wool and cashmere, life was never the same. While living in Spain, I always thought it was more of a question of taste on texture but once I moved to a place with proper winter, I realized there is a difference beyond the mere aesthetics. The high price tag is there for a reason, guys. In the past, I found very nice pieces at The White Company but I’ve been obsessed over Repeat Cashmere lately. They offer a wide range of pieces from cardigans to coats in every colour and style, and I only regret I didn’t get to know them earlier.

05.

When still cold, add pocket warmers

On particularly cold days when the temperatures drop below zero, I will wear my heavier coat but also add my secret weapon: pocket or hand warmers. In case you don’t know about them, they are a small device you heat and insert in your pockets to release heat for a couple of hours. There are several model types, including electric, gel-based, and even stone or carbon-based models, but they are an effective way to keep yourself warm during a cold wave.

And these were my tips on how to keep yourself warm this winter while staying stylish. What about you? Are there any tips you want to share?

libertyjanuarythesecond

Coat | Zara (old, nice alternatives at New Look and La Redoute)
Trousers | Zara (last season, similar model at Karen Miller)
Patent Ankle Boots | Reserved (old, amazing alternative at Russell & Bromley)

Hat | Vintage

Bag | CHANEL (Great opportunity to get it with a fair discount at Vestiaire Collective)

 

 

January 11, 2021January 10, 2021

Allegra Caro18 Comments

Should you be dressing up these Christmas?

I think we could say, without fear of being mistaken, that 2020 has been a long, gloomy year. But just as December approached, we witnessed what I consider a Christmas miracle: the find of the Pfizer Covid jab. And guys, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been dancing around the house ever since then.

shouldyoudressupthesechristmas

Although Christmas will be strange this year, with the jab coming soon and the promise of an eventual return to normal life, they also look a bit sweeter. Still, the only social contact for those of us living in the UK will be our Christmas bubble.

Things are so different now that most of our usual festive traditions and habits seem to need a bit of a review, to say the least. We won’t be attending the annual corporative Christmas party, going out for festive drinks with our friends, nor hosting a twenty people Christmas dinner. We’ll be toning it down and, with that in mind, a question arises.

Should we dress up for Christmas this year?

should you dress up these christmas

In the middle of the whirlwind 2020 has been, this is for sure the last of our concerns.

However, as we approach the seasonal period and try to maintain as much normalcy as possible, it seems OK to ask ourselves to what extent is dressing up acceptable, adequate, or even relevant.

The answer seems to vary from person to person. Many people will be spending these holidays alone with their significant other, many with their closest relatives, and—sadly enough—many will spend them by themselves.

In our case, for instance, we were planning to go home (back in Spain) but with the existing quarantine protocols, it looks rather crazy to us booking a two week holiday just to spend it quarantined at our family’s place—and then repeating the whole process when back in the UK. Instead, we will stay, form a Christmas bubble with another household to celebrate, and then spend the whole thing speaking with our family via Skype. So, not the December we were expecting. (Or as The Rembrandts would put it: It hasn’t been our day, our week, our month, or even your year… No matter what, Friends philosophy always works over here, lately.)

shouldyoudressupthesechristmas

Every year, I will dress up to the nines for our Christmas Eve flamboyant dinner party but, without an opportunity to travel or host fifteen people in our miraculously roomy London apartment, the idea started feeling vacuous.

Would my family/friends look weird at me during our festive Zoom meetups? Would my Christmas support bubble be judging me? Should I give up and wear the ugliest Christmas jumper and pyjama bottoms all holiday long? Would anyone care at all?

I think it’s fair to say that, for most of us, these questions have come to our minds lately. And the reply was nowhere to be seen.

I’ve been thinking quite enough about self-love during the pandemic and how the small things and routines seem to affect our well-being. Even the smallest choices, such as the clothes we wear, have been playing a huge role in our mental health. And this is when all I have learned during the last nine months come into play.

Because the truth is the only person who cares is YOU. People are far too concern about real issues (no need to comment on how evident these are because we all know someone who has been put on furlough, lost their jobs, or even lost a vulnerable relative during this nightmare) to spend a minute of their time judging your personal choices about something as superfluous as clothing. So my advice is simply this: go with your gut.

 

Dress up for yourself, to have some sense of normality this year, to feel good. Or don’t dress at all and drink all the prosecco in your ugliest Christmas jumper and pyjama trousers. Dress up (or not) to claim the festive season for yourself. Just because you do deserve it.

You may have no control over the economic consequences, the permanent changes this pandemic will leave on all of us, or how quickly things go back to normal. And yes, if you are a control freak (hello bdudy, it’s two of us now!) it must have been bugging you for a while. What you can control though is the way you react. Try to take it easy by taking small decisions: choose the things that make you feel good. Love to wear a sparkling gold dress? Go for it. Love some jeans? That’s good too. You do you. Own your life and don’t let anyone or anything to convince you otherwise. Don’t even listen to me, for the matter. Always go with your gut.

Because you know? At the end of the day, we all had the strangest year and anything making it better should be welcome.

What about you, though? Are you dressing to kill these Christmas or toning it down?

 

callingsantafrombondstreet

Coat | Zara (last season, great festive alternative at L.K. Bennett)
Bag | Metamorphose temps de fille (vintage, similar model at La Redoute)
Scarf and gloves | Accessorize (last season, they have another scarf model on sale now. Nice gloves alternative available at Dune.)

 

 

December 14, 2020December 13, 2020

Allegra Caro10 Comments

Hi, I am Allegra!

A thirty-something Spanish expat with a love for Haute couture, books and period dramas. Way too many little black dresses in my closet. You can read more about me here.

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