Melbourne, where I live, is considered to be a temperate climate, though all I think that means is, we are not tropical, but we get some pretty hot weather in summer, but never get snow in winter, but it does get cold (though I’m sure you Northern Hemisphere snow dwellers would disagree!).
We don’t need a completely different winter wardrobe here as many fabrics will work year round, so there are many garments in my wardrobe I like to layer up in winter so I can still wear them.
I’m often asked by clients how best to layer, particularly as Melbourne is known as one of those “4 Seasons in One Day” kind of places, so thick layers don’t work well.
For instance, today I have on a dress (by Oscar and Oscar) with a long sleeve merino knit top (Glassons), jacket (Jacqui E) with tights and boots (Django & Juliette). Because it was only 7 degrees (celcius) this morning when I left the house, I put on a jacket over the top, but now it’s 18 degrees so I have taken off the jacket.
I also layer cotton/elastane knits under this dress too.
When layering, the neckline is really important – the two necklines of tops should work with each other – so because this dress has a squarish neck, I’ve put a top with soft square rather than V-neck underneath.
I also like to wear alternate colours when I layer, but sometime might layer with a black top or something more similar to the dress so that you don’t notice that it’s a short sleeve dress in the same way.
If I’m layering tops with jeans, I will make sure that only the top coloured top can be seen at the hem as I don’t want to further shorten my short waist by having multiple horizontal hems at my waist.
By the way, these Glassons merino knit tops are one of my little secrets – they are high quality New Zealand merino wool, machine washable, and every year they bring them out in different colours with a few different necklines, and they’re only $39.95. What I love about them is that I’ve got a few now that are a few years old and they don’t pill! Mid winter I’ll often layer a couple of them as they’re fine enough to layer but the wool gives some warmth. If you’re really cold you can also layer a Giordano long sleeve cotton knit underneath (or if you don’t like the feel of wool against your skin).
