Recently I used a fun feature on Instagram to pick out my favorite looks from the last year: the bookmark-like “Save to a Collection” button. Essentially it lets you create an edited selection of Instagram shots so you can look at all your favorites in one place. It’s also an excellent tool for saving inspirational looks from other people’s accounts so you can get a sense of what you might want to incorporate into your own wardrobe. (Let me know in the comments if you want instructions on how to use it.)
But creating a “My Style Favorites” collection made me realize I have a problem: my favorite clothes are the ones I have the least opportunity to wear.
This is because it turns out that Spring, my favorite season style-wise, is also the shortest season here in New England. So all of my cropped, fun-colored pants and lightweight, funky blazers – the stuff that’s too cold for our long winter, too hot for full-on summer, and odd color choices for our short-but-sweet autumn – get worn for a period of about two months (give or take) a year.
For example:
View this post on Instagram
I certainly have pieces I love in the other seasons, so it’s not that I’m depressed about what I wear the rest of the year. But when I’m at the Goodwill/browsing Poshmark and find a great 3/4-sleeve blazer or a fantastic ankle-length patterned pant, I find I have just about zero justification for adding to the part of my wardrobe that’s already the most populated. There just aren’t enough days of appropriate weather to give my favorites the number of wears they deserve!
To further demonstrate, here are my latest Poshmark crushes:
The plaid shirt could be layered under a sweater (and indeed, that’s a major way I imagine wearing it); but the pants are both cropped and the blazer is lighter weight/shorter sleeved.
Maybe I just need to find ways to style such pieces for the cold – e.g. get a pair of boots with longer ankles that would rise up to meet a cropped-length pant, or add a light blazer over a thin sweater to get enough warmth instead of always opting for thick sweaters.
Can you think of other ways I could wear spring-like favorites through more of the year? Do you have a “problem” where your favorite season of clothes doesn’t match the realities of your climate?
I think you could wear those green floral pants with tall boots and a cozy turtleneck sweater. That jewel tone palette is great for winter, especially the current festive season.
You’re right, Sarah, that those pants could pass as festive! They’re not quite as heavy as my normal winter clothes (and I can’t wear any of my normal pants while pregnant…), but they could work either for an indoor party or layered over leggings.
Interesting topic. It may seem intuitive that if one lives in a four-season climate, one should own four equally sized wardrobes, but your analysis shows that this strategy might be impractical or inappropriate.
I try to buy for three separate temperature seasons: hot, cold, and in between. Thanks possibly to climate change, we have seemingly shorter springs and falls in my area. I had only about one week to wear the bubblegum pink raincoat I thrifted, and then I needed my old blue fall coat.
Lightweight blazers might be good to keep around in summer for air-conditioned environments. Cropped pants might be good for travelling/vacations. I think also that spring or summer colours can look good as an accent piece with an otherwise neutral outfit during fall and winter. I believe you have done this with gray and navy dresses. And I’m not really serious, but are leg warmers a thing these days? They would solve the problem of the gap between ankle pants and ankle boots in winter.