Cheers and happy holidays to all the lovely ladies! This truly is the most wonderful time of the year. There are so many different opportunities to show off your fashion sense in the winter. Whether you are dressing up for an office party, a family gathering, a first date, or a night out with your favorite man, these simple tips will help you look and feel amazing.
There are wonderful things about winter that fill our lives with beautiful memories. I love the sheer pleasure and comfort of entering a toasty room after being in the cold outdoors, warming my hands and feet by a fireplace, snuggling under a blanket with a loved one or pet, or cozying up to a steaming cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. However, if you’re a woman who loves to dress fashionably, winter presents its own set of challenges. You need to be prepared to look great both indoors and outside, where temperatures can vary dramatically. No matter the season, my first rule of fashion is comfort. Physical comfort greatly affects how we feel about ourselves and nothing makes a woman look more attractive than the confidence she projects when she feels amazing. The best way to manage that in the winter is by wearing separates so that you can layer and easily remove or add clothing when needed to adjust to a temperature change.
The number one most important article of clothing that I consider a ‘must have’ for winter fashion is a hat or cap that suits your personality and goes well with the colors you mostly wear. When it is cold outside, we lose some of our body heat from the top of our head where the blood vessels are tightly packed together and close to the surface of our skin. A head covering will keep you insulated and let you add a fun accessory to any outfit. As a bonus, it will smooth over a bad hair day so you always look your best.
The next most important thing I consider when dressing on a winter day is creating a base layer, something I call a ‘second skin’. A second skin is simply a stretchy form fitting top and leggings that create a base layer to be worn underneath your outer clothing. Even though it’s winter, I sometimes wear a sleeveless top as the upper portion of my base layer which goes underneath a long sleeved top. This will help keep you extra warm while outside, but give you the option to go sleeveless if you find yourself in a room that is too hot and dry from a heater. For the base layer on your lower body, stretchy, smooth, form-fitting leggings can serve as a second skin that allows an additional layer of pants or skirts to look good over your first layer. The reason wearing multiple layers keeps you warmer than a single layer is because warm air that gets trapped between clothing layers acts as an insulator. Using a form fitting base ensures that your layers don’t make you look bulky.
It’s easy to brighten up any outfit, make it look much more interesting, and enable you to feel, as well as present a more cheerful vibe on a dreary winter day. One simple colorful accessory such as a scarf, hat, gloves, belt, handbag, boots or jewelry is all it takes to instantly create a more exciting or festive appearance. We tend to wear darker colors in winter because light colors are cooler, but the combination of a dark basic outfit coupled with a dreary winter day definitely needs an uplifting touch. Start with a bold red scarf for example. All of a sudden with that one accessory, your whole outfit has a happier feel about it and you will look well put together.
Coats are one of our bigger investments when it comes to our winter wardrobe, but you don’t need to spend a fortune on fashion. If multiple coats won’t fit into your budget, just make sure you select your main winter coat in a neutral color so that you will have the flexibility of matching it with a wide variety of outfits. Great neutral colors for your coat include blacks, gray’s, beiges… you get the idea. Black is always a great staple that makes you look slimmer and that can match outfits ranging from very sophisticated to super casual. Looking streamlined is an important consideration, knowing that you may want to wear a few layers underneath your coat to stay warm. Grays and beiges are also wonderful options, especially for those days you want to feel and look a little lighter even though it’s cold outside while still being a bright, sunny day.
Indeed, winter, while sometimes not delivering us cheerful weather, gives us the opportunity to choose a whole array of choices in the way we dress that we don’t get at any other time of year. Make sure you have fun with these choices while staying warm, and you’re bound to look and feel amazing.
