One of the more frequent questions posed to me through my blog and email is usually about travel. How cold do I think Australia will be in May or Paris in January. What sort of clothings should I wear and if there are any alternatives to jeans.
The thing is, the weather these days don’t follow a schedule anymore. I’m not sure if you have taken notice but winter arrives early and lasts all through with spring barely arriving. Even in an equatorial country like Singapore, it’s hot and sunny at the weirdest months and there isn’t a distinct monsoon season anymore… the rain can fall for days with no apparent rhyme or season.
And so to my friends and readers that are travelling overseas, it is important to know the art of layering.
I travel quite a bit and on very tight schedules. So I usually have to pack my suitcases with only a vague idea of the real temperatures of the places I’m visiting. It may state 17C on the weather report but with strong winds, it may feel like 7C in the night especially to a Singaporean that is not used to cold temperatures. And with most airlines, you get a 20KG bag allowance which means you can’t pack for summer through winter. But if you know how to layer, you can.
So in this post, I will show you how to layer and dress up for your holidays. I’ll be using some items from one of my favorite brands ClubCouture.
The most common and easiest way to create a layered outfit for travelling is to start with a pair of jeans or leggings and a sweater top. Then add more layers. If you are a pants and top kinda girl, go for it! I think the Faith Knit Sweater from ClubCouture would be a nice place to start.
But for this post, I’m going to layer with my basic piece being a dress. I’ve had a many readers asking me how to wear a dress in a cold climate and I thought this will be a good chance to show you how its done.
Firstly, start with a great basic dress. I love this plaid jumper dress from ClubCouture and have worn it on my overseas trip. The dress came with the belt and was a striking preppy outfit worn on it’s own. The beauty of layering is that you can buy clothes that can still be worn in Singapore and not just when you are overseas, making your purchases more economical!
I’ve worn the dress without the belt so it’ll be easier to show you how I layer it later on. The dress is perfect for a rainy day in Singapore with a scoop neck and it’s knit material. Worn with ballet flats it’s great for watching 2 hour movies in the cold cinemas too.
Next layer, add leggings and boots.
There’s no hard and fast rule about it. It depends on the temperature once again. I have on thick knit leggings that I got in Korea and knee high boots from Steve Madden. This would be a really comfortable outfit for autumn. But if you feel that it’s too warm especially if it’s early autumn or if the place you are heading to is not that cold but just rather windy, you can always wear a lighter textured leggings with boots or even go with sneakers and flats.
If you are looking for a sexy pair of leggings, I’ll suggest these lace black leggings from ClubCouture. They are bound to up your style factor!
Next, add on a turtleneck knit.
This is actually more layer under then layer over. But adding a long sleeve knit turtleneck under your dress does keep you a lot warmer. If you are battling really cold weather, you can even consider cashmere turtlenecks and add on thermals under the dress. The beauty of this ClubCouture knit dress is that it’s pretty stretchable so it allows me to layer without looking bulky.
Now we get into the heavier more prominent layering for those going to holiday during winter.
I’ve added to my ensemble, a fur scarf.
There are so many different types of scarves out there you can try. I’m using a faux fur scarf for this outfit but that doesn’t mean you can’s substitute it for knit or cashmere or angora.
And there are so many ways of wearing it too! You could just throw it over the dress and belt it up so it looks like a vest.
Or you could spin it around your neck and depending on the material of the scarf you can even do really fancy knots or wear it around your head.
And of course in when layering, one must not leave out the jacket or coat. It not only helps keep you warm but when there is snow or rain, it helps to keep your pretty dress from getting wet too!
I normally prefer to wear a trench coat with dresses cause it tends to give off a more polished vibe but I’ve worked the look with thick puffy snow jackets before and it does still look great. The type of jacket you choose, the material and whether or not it is waterproof depends on the temperature of the place you are visiting as well as they type of activities you will be engaging in.
For winter in a not too extreme winter area like Hong Kong or Perth or if you are visiting in late spring/early autumn, you can consider less bulky jackets and still feel warm if you layer well. The best part is you can reuse the jackets for Singapore weather. An example would be this Jamie Double Breasted Coat from ClubCouture.
Last but not least are to protect your ears and your hands. Whenever I travel in cold regions, my ears and my fingers are the most susceptible to the cold. It may not look like much but ear mufflers or hats and gloves makes such a big impact to making you feel warmer and more comfortable.
I personally love the warmth of ear mufflers. But I know that the look might not be suitable for everyone and so the best alternative is hats. There are so many choices of hats that there’ll definitely be one to suit you. Don’t forget to wear gloves too! I don’t have gloves in the photos as I’ve sent all my gloves to the cleaners.
See how easy it is to create an outfit that can take you through spring, summer, autumn and winter? And each of this piece can be reworked and reused in a million different combinations giving you endless different looks when you are travelling with just a luggage of clothes.
Hope that this post on layering will be useful to all you travel junkies out there! Enjoy and have fun experimenting!
If you are interested in getting any items from ClubCouture, even those gorgeous party dresses that I did not show in this post, you can get 15% off if you type RENZZE15 at the shopping cart!