The ManicaPost
WALKING to work on a freezing, windy day may be worse than slogging through puddles after a rainstorm. While neither are fun, there’s something particularly brutal about the stinging of frigid air hitting your face.
That’s why figuring out how to dress for a windy cold weather is particularly important for the upcoming season.
While wearing a ski mask isn’t going to be your most stylish option, there are ways to protect your entire body from the icy blasts that aren’t going to require smudging all your foundation and contour away. Because let’s be honest, despite the cold, everyone still wants to look stylish.
There are several ways to combat frigid winter temperatures.
Fashion bloggers and the everyday fashion girl are full of tips on what to wear when you’re forced to head outdoors.
While we’d all love to stay indoors, drink hot chocolate, and choose a new show to binge watch, there comes a point when the music has to be faced.
Whether its layering tights under jeans, rocking a white button-down under a gorgeous sweater, or finding a coat with a hood to protect your ears, lots of fashionable tricks exist to let you still see the light of day despite the cold. So what items will you need?
Tights
Tights are the answer to quite a few of your windy weather woes. If you’re wearing trousers or jeans out, slip a pair on underneath, and no one will be any the wiser. If you’re going with a skirt, tights are a great way to protect your legs during the cold.
Wool skinnies are perfect for everyday or the office. The best part is that they’re super warm, especially if you rock those tights underneath.
Button down blouse
A button-down is the perfect layering option. Whether you’re dressing it down with an oversized sweater or using a more tailored option over the top, they’re ideal for keeping warm but not overheating you under your other layers.
Sweater
A sweater is the answer to all of winter’s questions. Whether you’re needing a lighter one for those days when it’s not bitingly cold or a thick, chunky piece to keep warm, these pieces are essential for winter. For those windy days, layering them over button downs is perfect because it gives you extra warmth but once inside, you could take the piece off.
Wool coats are perfect for cold days, and this midi coat offers a bit more protection from the cold wind.
Oversized scarf
No one wants to rock a mask walking into the wind, and that’s why an oversized scarf is ideal. It gives enough volume to protect your face and your ears.
Boots
Boots and booties are the perfect cold, windy day footwear. Add a great pair of socks with your boots, and your toes will be perfectly toasty.
here’s a surprising amount of science that goes into the clothing we wear. Materials are crafted for specific purposes, such as staying warm or cool and staving off the wind. Here’s how to dress to enhance the body’s natural ability to stay warm.
Layers
The most important advice, even if you ignore everything else on this page, is to dress in layers. Layers inherently cross off most of the other items on this list.
Three layers will keep you warm:
Base — Polyester, silk or some other material with the ability to wick sweat away from your skin. Just don’t use a cotton shirt as your base layer. It will absorb the moisture fine, but it won’t evaporate.
Middle — This is the insulating layer, which is the workhorse in keeping you warm.
Sweaters, sweatshirts, fleece; these will all work as the middle layer. It should be snug but not tight. Down coats also make a great middle layer in the coldest temperatures.
Outer — This layer is less about keeping you warm (the first two layers should be doing that) and more about blocking the wind and rain.
If it’s not that windy and it’s not raining, a regular winter coat (down puffer, wool pea coat, etc.) will be fine. But if you really want to stay warm, make your outer layer a wind-and waterproof shell, like a rain jacket. Ideally it has vents around the armpits to allow sweat to evaporate. If you want to get really fancy, the outer shells made of specially engineered materials such as Gore-Tex or Sympatex are rain-and windproof and also breathable.
Space
Probably the most common misconception about dressing warm is that the layers should be tight. But if you think of a layer of clothing as the interface between you and the elements, you can see how a tight shirt is only putting your skin closer to the cold air.
Space will keep you warm: a good-fitting wool sweater, for example, that creates a thin boundary layer of air between your skin and the environment. Your body heat will warm the boundary layer and the sweater will prevent the layer from being blown away from your body.
Stay dry
Moisture is the kiss of death on a cold day, whether it’s from rain or perspiration. Evaporation is a cooling process, and if you’re wet, the cooling process is happening right on your skin.
Avoid getting wet by wearing a base layer that wicks sweat away from your body, such as polyester or silk. Your outer layer should be waterproof, such as a rain jacket, but should also have vents or breathable fabric so your perspiration can evaporate off the interior layers.
Break the wind
Even if the temperature isn’t that cold, the wind can make your time outside miserable. Our warm bodies heat up a little layer of air around us, which helps insulate from the cold. Wind can blow the warm layer away. The best way to counter the wind is with a windproof outer layer, which keeps the warm layer of air next to our skin, where it should be.
Hats, gloves and socks
Protect your extremities by wearing a hat that covers your ears, waterproof gloves and wool socks. If you have a beautiful, thick head of hair, you can get away with earmuffs or a winter headband. The idea that most of your body heat is lost through your head is a myth. The body loses most of its heat through whatever is exposed. Stay covered, and you’ll stay warm.
Materials and what they do
Polyester or polypropylene — This material is basically fine, woven strands of plastic, which sounds horrible to wear, but it actually can give clothing its softness. Fleece tends to be made out of polyester, for example. Polyester and polypropylene are moisture-wicking fabrics, which draw perspiration away from the skin. They make great cold-weather clothing.
Cotton — Clothing made of cotton is not good for cold weather. It absorbs moisture and traps it next to your skin.
Save the cotton for summer, when you might want a little extra moisture to keep you cool. — Online.
