I don’t know about you, but I sometimes wonder why I even bother to buy new winter clothes every year – after all, my coat is normally the only thing people see.
When you live in a cold climate, a winter coat is not only a sound investment, it can also be more or less an outfit in itself – especially if your lifestyle requires you to spend time outdoors every day. For those who love clothes, this can be a little bit frustrating: I’m sure we’ve all had that moment when we’ve just put together an outfit we love, only to realise that no one’s ever going to see it, because it’s going to be covered by a coat most of the time, right? In a bid to get around this, I went through a phase of buying brightly coloured coats, hoping to make my outerwear seem a little more interesting that way. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that brightly coloured coats only really work when everything else you’re wearing is fairly neutral, and because I wasn’t keep on the idea of a hemline or shoe clashing with my coat, I’d just end up reverting back to my trusty camel and black coats – which may be a little less interesting, but which at least work with just about everything.
I do still get tired of wearing the same old coat all the time, though, so here’s are four easy ways to try to make that boring old coat a bit more fun…
01. CHANGE THE BUTTONS
One of the issues with budget outerwear is that the money you’re saving will often be apparent in little details like buttons and belts, which can sometimes look a little cheap – or just a bit dull, really. Luckily, there’s a quick, inexpensive fix for that, and it simply involves replacing the buttons with higher quality ones: you can pick these up for not too much money on sites like eBay, or even snip them off something you no longer wear.
02. ADD A BELT
Many coats come with their own, self-tie belt, but sometimes switching it for a leather or patent one can instantly elevate the appearance of your outerwear, while experimenting with different colours is an easy way to switch things up.
03. TAKE TIPS FROM BLAIR WALDORF
Any Gossip Girl fans out there? One of the things I used to love about the fashion from the show was Blair’s coats: which were always accessorises with things like necklaces and brooches, to really turn them into an outfit in themselves. For some reason, that’s something I rarely think of doing (and I’m guessing it could get quite annoying if you’re only going to be wearing the coat in question for a short period of time, and don’t really fancy having to remove a string of pearls before taking it off…), but it’s definitely something I intend to try!
04. ADD A SCARF
It’s almost too obvious to mention, but scarves don’t JUST keep you warm in winter – they also look good, too. Experiment with different ways to tie your scarf and use it as an accessory, as well as something warm. An oversized bow or creative braid can look much more stylish than simply stuffing your scarf under your coat.
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