November 10, 2023
After it snowed on me LIKE THE END OF THE WORLD last week, on Halloween, I’ve been seeing more and more people finally break out their winter coats! It seems like a challenge, here in Chicago, to see how long you can go (1) wearing shorts, (2) wearing sandals, and (3) layering 4 sweatshirts, so you don’t have to wear your “real” winter coat…
Crazy people, aren’t we?
Image – Marina Zezelina
I was out for coffee yesterday with a friend, and this post is inspired by the Chic Sighting that was her outfit! None of these are exact replicas, but they all resemble her overall outfit idea…
Please note that neither of these camel garments are CALLED camel, nor are they named the same color! Must shopping be so complicated?
Deep wine cashmere sweater – L.L.Bean; Mumbai Floral Silk Diamond scarf – Echo; earrings – Kendra Scott; soft brown coat – J.Crew; heather saddle pants – J.Crew; loafers – G.H.Bass
I feel like everyone is wearing sneakers these days; until it snows and gets slushy, there’s no reason not to!
Hot pink sweater – Lands’ End; turntable silk bandana – Echo; earrings – Ross-Simons; navy twill pants – Alex Mill; navy jacket – Alex Mill; sneakers – Reebok
If you want to get a full dosage of daylight, you need to be up at dawn!
Photo – Old Farmer’s Almanac
If you can wear an unusual accent color, long, dark winter days are the perfect opportunity!
Iime citrus cashmere sweater – Lands’ End; Buzzy plaid scarf – Echo; earrings – Harfi; sandstone coat – J.Crew; chinos – L.L.Bean; boots – Dolce Vita
Why yes, this is perfect for me! I have the cardigan in this color/fabric, and I’m smitten…
Violet plum cashmere sweater – Lands’ End; paisley medallion scarf – Echo; earrings – Robert Lee Morris; riding jacket – L.L.Bean; knit cords – L.L.Bean; oxfords – Miz Mooz
I enjoy the juxtaposition of autumn leaves and snow…
Image – Wdnet Studio
If it’s not snowing/raining where you live, there’s no reason you can’t wear white pants! Fashion rules are made to be broken – even season, every year!
Earrings – Ottoman Hands; emerald forest sweater – J.Crew; scarf – Jessie Zhao New York; down jacket – Lands’ End; jeans – Lands’ End; loafers – Talbots
I had one of these coats – decades ago! I loved it… I shrank so that it was far too big, but I am open to getting another one some day!
Delphinium blue sweater – J.Crew; scarf – Echo; earrings – Genevive Jewelry; fleece-lined pants – L.L.Bean; grey coat – L.L.Bean; loafers – SoftWalk
If you’re looking for really stunning photographs of snowflakes, look for Alexey Kljatov. He’s a genius…
Image – Alexey Kljatov
It’s fun to see how few items you really need in order to integrate an accent color into outfits….
love,
Janice
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Gorgeous ensembles as always… but these are fall jackets, not winter coats for this Chicago kid. 😊. (Just used your shopping link to grab a replacement 600-fillpower waterproof windproof down with fanny coverage & a faux-furry hood the other day on a killer Lands End sale…).
You outdid yourself again! I am in love with the pictures, the solutions, the colorful (colourful?) garments. Just wow. Kind regards from Germany, where, today, we have blue sunny sky and dark rainy sky at the same time. I could just watch the weather now, but will have to go leaf raking (?).
I love fall/autumn in any case!!!
I just love these posts and the photos you find to go with them. No snow here in the PNW – we’ve had several glorious blue sky, stunning autumn leaf days. My son, however, in Minot ND, said their fall lasted a nano second, with a snow storm about a month ago and snow still on the ground! All of these ensembles are just beautiful. I couldn’t wear all the colors, but if I could I would. Just a great way to end out the week. Thank you Janice!
These are all beautiful! I really love that snowflake photograph. Simply amazing. Thanks for all you do, Janice!
He has an entire website of snowflake things that you can admire, or buy! His patience, and his tolerance for cold weather, is stunning…
hugs,
Janice
LOL, we do the same here in the Northeast with waiting as long as possible to bring out the winter wear. Love the beautiful outfits and especially the blues. Thank you Janice!
I’m so excited for winter. I agree that people wait as long as possible to break out the winter coat, but I think it’s strategy….you want your body to acclimate to the cold slowly so that when real winter comes, it’s not such a slap to the face. I finally broke out my parka yesterday because there was freezing rain in our area and I needed something warm and waterproof. I love these outfits! Especially the highlighter yellow one.
I have the LL Bean riding jacket. It was the jacket I grabbed most often last fall through spring since we didn’t have many really cold days. I have the riding vest that is no longer available and I really wish LL Bean would bring that style back since I now need a different size. These items have washed well and still look fine.
Does anyone have experience with the cashmere sweaters from J Crew and Lands End and how well they hold up? All the colors are appealing!
I have several cashmere sweaters from J. Crew. I size up because I like a looser fit. They are thinner than other cashmere sweaters I have, but all right. They do come in so many colors! As far as I can tell they hold up fine, but I don’t wear them on a weekly basis or anything like that, so I guess that would depend on you. I am really easy on my clothes and shoes.
I have some older Lands’ End cashmere sweaters that have been worn and washed for… 10 years? I machine wash mine on delicate – if the cashmere ANIMAL can stand rain and snow, my sweater can stand a little front-load washer action!
But I have heard that their newer sweaters are not as durable; I will have to keep an eye on my new purple cardigan to see how it fares…
hugs,
Janice
Like Janice, I’ve been buying Lands’ End cashmere for a long time. My oldest set is probably 20 years old and the best cashmere I own. The three sweaters from Christmas, 2013 are next best and have held up well over 10 years of fairly constant wear – with a little pilling but not much. The more recent sweaters are thinner, but still warm, and they seem to be pilling a little more than the 10-year-olds. However, they are all much better than Talbots cashmere that I find pills terribly.
I hand wash my cashmere with Forever New and dry it on a towel.
I’ve got some more recent Lands End cardigans (2020) and there was some underarm pilling after the first wear or two (boo!), although it wasn’t catastrophic. Just got a long sleeve sweater that seems to be more tightly woven, so fingers crossed… but the jury’s still out. (I’ve got some decades old cashmere that I’m hoarding like a jealous dragon because it has held up so much better than anything I’ve found in the last 5 years… even the originally-$300 ones I got on sale at Bloomies pilled out. Aargh!)
Note to all: the oxfords come in some wonderful color pops!
Somewhere between now and mid-December the weather takes a turn where it demands boots, boots and my 10 year old LL Bean rain shoes, which are going to last another 10 years, likely longer. This boot/rain shoe weather will cling to the Pacific Northwest until mid-May or later! I might wish to up my boot game, in case the capricious fashion industry gets hell bent on offering us sandals all winter next year. This is a roundabout way of saying I’ve looked with longing at the lovely slingbacks that seem to be popular this year. The window for wearing them in my climate is far too narrow. Sigh. If I lived in AZ, southern cA, TX, LA, GA…anyplace where most winter days are in the 50s & 60s or 70s slingbacks would be at the top of my wish list.
I totally relate to holding off on the winter coat. In southern Ontario, that coat gets waaaaay too many wearings. By the time spring comes, I’m sick of that coat. I layer up the jean jacket/fall coat/heavy sweater with scarves and hats and avoid the winter coat as long as possible. However, I love boots so I pull them out early, lol!
I have just given in and break the long winter into 3 different sub-seasons, with a different coat for each – the fall/winter coat (purple/burgundy), the serious winter coat (navy and burgundy floral), and the spring/winter coat (light blue)!
I do that in Texas, but the opposite! I have fall, summer, and spring colors, but all in basically the same summer weight clothes.
The Miz Mooz oxfords are glorious. And they come in a lovely green called … Kiwi! Also Ocean, which is pretty nice as well. We’re coming into summer here, so almost sandal weather. I don’t mind getting into my winter coat, but I’ve realised that’s probably because our “real” winter, while cold, is not as long or cold as some of yours. And also I have more than one “proper” winter coat! (One grey to go with everything, and I never get tired of it; one orange because I loved it and still do; one red puffer for good cheer in the dark days.) There’s something so appealing about a winter-white puffer, either coat or vest. I’ve never seen a really nice one here though, and the one time I saw one I loved “out and about”, she’d got it in Canada! The sandstone coat is also lovely.
I have four winter coats… a serious, lie in the snowdrift for an hour parka, a purple wool long coat, and a mid-thigh length black down coat with a hood. Not quite the industrial strength affair like my parka! Gotta recommend Lands’ End parkas for deadly cold weather; mine is 16 years old, and I could, literally, be trapped outdoors for hours in sub-zero weather and survive in it. It’s a masterpiece of insulative properties!
hugs,
Janice
I love love LOVE the gray coat and pants with that blue sweater. I could live in that for 3/4 of the year here in northern Minnesota. Well…probably half. I would need a truly warm parka from December to February when the temps don’t get above zero F even on the warmest days for months on end. And then there are the couple of weeks in July when you don’t *necessarily* need a coat… lol. Thank you for another gorgeous post!
I know colder weather has arrived when I begin to wear darker versions of pink, purple and red.
These outfits are basically what I wear during our short winter, as well as the shoulder seasons of late fall and early spring. We don’t really need heavy coats here in the mid south of the United States, but I do have several jackets to go over my cashmere sweaters. Sometimes I even wear a skirt instead of pants. I love these outfits, especially the white and green example. I’ve been thinking of adding a little more green to my wardrobe, and this is a beautiful example.
So – as we speak, it’s 83° at 10:00 a.m. here in beautiful West Palm Beach. This is the time of year that I feel a little left out in terms of seasonal fashion. Like lauramaureen in Texas, I enjoy wearing seasonal colors, but it it can be surprisingly difficult to find fall colors in tropical-friendly clothes. I have been really thrilled with the recent prevalence of dark greens.
The colors of the pullover sweaters in this post are fabulous. I’m going to see if I can search out lighter weight items in those colors.
Thank you for all your wonderful posts! Maybe some heroines can come to Florida or go on a Caribbean cruise?
Hello,
I have 4 coats: sand, brown, gray and black. And a functional jacket in turquoise.
The shoes shown are not suitable for our winter. I’d be happy to take you in spring/autumn.
I really like the color combination.