A subtitle for this would be: I am from Florida and Never Learned How to Dress for Warmth
My fatal flaw as a person is that I am a Floridian by birth. Considering that I never experienced a real winter until I was 19, I have no idea how to look like a normal person during the winter. AI had an endless assortment of summery outfits, because in Palm Beach, it is perfectly acceptable to wear Lilly Pulitzer in any season. I sure that there are people in SoFlo who learned how to add fall colors and silhouettes into their wardrobe, but I spent most of my adolescence judging people who whipped out the Ugg boots the moment that the temperature dipped below 65 degrees.
Now that I am an adult with a real job, not only do I have to venture into the winter cold every day as I commute to the office (with a broken window that will not roll up, no less), I also have to look professional. Gone are the days when I could wear fleece lined leggings and a bigass coat over a triple layer of sorority sweatshirts.
If you grew up in a land that had actual seasons, you may now take this time to laugh at me. If you are just as clueless as I was, you can take this time to learn along with me as I attempt to battle the cold. Considering that the low in Dallas tonight is 25°, I think that this is pretty fitting.
As we eased into the season of temperature dropping, I wanted to find a way to still wear my summery dresses while making sure I didn't die of frostbite. If the dress is not too thin of a material, you can easily layer it over a warmer turtleneck or even a sweater.
This is a floral dress from Target that I never had an occasion to wear during the summer. It has a cool detail of a handkerchief hem, so it almost counts as a midi length. The mock neck I am wearing was a hand-me-down, and with the proper black coat, this look was warm enough to venture outside of my apartment. I topped it off with my trusty, square-toed ankle boots from the deep archives of Madewell (spoiler alert: you're going to see these a lot. I have yet to find a good arsenal of winter appropriate shoes that are not heels). I topped this off with geometric earrings that I had painted black in a fit of DIY-ing, and very thick socks.
The secret of this next look is that it is only kind of warm, which is great if you want to embrace the season but the weather won't really cooperate.
This look was perfect for last week when Texas weather was fickle and it was still 60° outside. I thrifted this bomber jacket and it is not very thick at all. Luckily, it does have pockets, and the gorgeous embroidery makes it worth it. I sacrificed my hands for this look. Jackets are pretty easy to thrift if you are not particularly squeamish, and if you plan in advance, you can find really good deals on them at the beginning of summer when everyone has abandoned their warm clothes for seasonal appropriate beachwear. I got this jacket in July and did not find a chance to wear it until October.
If you think you recognize this dress, it's because I wrote about it in my post "How to Get Away with Wearing Pajamas to Work" and it's technically a sleepshirt. It's steadily becoming an essential part of my wardrobe rotation considering it is comfy as hell and really easy to style. I tried my hand at pattern mixing with the black and white socks that I let peek out of the top of my ankle boots. It's that easy, folks.
The most important thing about this look is that it is sort of inspired by Regina George.
If you recall from the scene in Mean Girls where Cady meets the Plastics for the first time, Regina is wearing a V-neck sweater over a button down with a popped collar. This is only vaguely inspired by that look as I am too dignified to pop my collar. I thought of this outfit while watching an amazing video from Vanity Fair where Mary Jane Fort, the movie's costume designer, explained her thought process behind some of the key looks. She calls this Regina's "power suit," and I highly recommend watching it.
This sweater is one of the first articles of clothing my mom bought me when we discovered I would be moving to a state that sort of had seasons, and I layered it over a classic white button down. It's from Madewell, because that is the kind of person I am (I bought this specifically for a job interview, and for the two interviews that I have done while wearing this top, I have been offered the job. It is magic!). I'm wearing this with my favorite high rise jeans and my Steve Madden over-the-knee boots which are the footwear loves of my life and which were also a gift from my mom. Moral of the story is that my mom furnished most of my winter wardrobe and for that (and also for giving birth to me), I owe her my life.
One of the things I find the most difficult about styling myself is trying to play with new silhouettes. I tend to keep it safe with fitted jeans, but these wide leg crop jeans are my favorite way to wander out of my comfort zone.
If every single article of clothing here looks familiar to you, you're right, it is because I have literally already talked about them in this exact post. That's the secret y'all. You don't have to have the vast wardrobe of an Instagram influencer, you just have to tweak tiny details to keep from outfit repeating. The jeans stand out enough that it doesn't matter if I'm just wearing a boring black mock neck. If you want to keep your ankles warm unlike me, you could easily wear tall socks or tights that will also add a pop of personality, or you could just wear tall boots and hide them under the leg of the pant.
My last look for this post is my favorite, since I never get to play with sleeve silhouettes in the other seasons. I'm sure I could, but I've never been clever enough to consider it.
This is another Madewell sweater from last year, and it is super cozy. They sold this as a "balloon sleeve sweater," but as I know now from my copy of The Fairchild Fashion Dictionary, it is actually a bishop sleeve. It is a cousin of the "imbecile sleeve," a term that is one of my favorite discoveries of working in fashion, pertaining to a really fat balloon sleeve that ends at a narrow cuff. It is at times called the "Gigot sleeve" and the "leg of mutton sleeve," and it is also a big mood.
Since the sweater is such a statement with sleeves that make me comparable to a governing leader of the clergy, I kept the bottom simple with black jeans and my trusty-over-the-knee boots. Apparently I only have two pairs of boots in my preferred rotation for winter. The earrings happen to be the exact shade of red because Madewell loves their signature shade of poppy red, and considering that I had seven different shades of red lipstick, I was able to find a color that matched perfectly to top off the look.
I'm doing my best to survive this winter season. We will see if I am a frozen popsicle by the end. The delicate line I am attempting to toe is of finding looks that are still cute when you get inside and take off your big coat.
Bonus content for those of you who stuck around this far:
This is what I actually look like when I drive in the cold with a broken window. I attach this massive furry hood and zip the hood up to cover the bottom half of my face. Now accepting recommendations for a good mechanic in Dallas.
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