Lessons on clothing

One of the most fascinating aspects of moving to Dream State, is my entirely new education on clothing. I don't think this is fully appreciated by anyone who grew up in the cold or even semi-regularly seeing snow. But here's a few of the things I've found most interesting.

First of all this whole 'layering' business. Overall, I want to punch someone if they say "You just have to layer" when I mention it being cold. I'm sure to people that have lived in this climate knows what this means and is used to it, but I generally just cringe at the idea of how much laundry this layering business is going to generate. But, alas, I've been trying. Now that we're pretty constantly in the 50's now, I don't leave the house with a jacket of some kind at least. I'm also learning the joy of scarves as a useful part of being warm, and a nice color accent. I imagine when I run out of things to match my current scarves it will stress me out. I also pretty much always wear an undershirt of some kind now - right now tanks because it's what I have but I'd really like some long sleeve t shirts. I also have a new appreciation for turtle necks. Before it was an occasional statement, now it's a scarf alternative.  I've also started to understand the mix of sweater content - wool, acrylic, etc - and the impact on warmth.

Add it all together: tank, shirt, scarf, jacket. Sometimes a sweater between the shirt and jacket.

Jackets and gloves can be a fashion statement or functional. I've always thought those suit blazers were a bit much, now I understand they fit into layering. I've also had someone comment on my outter jacket as: Oh, you're going with warm, I'm trying to pull off cute. Normally I'd be offended, but I will say I was in fact warm.

And gloves - my goodness. The need for lining or not, leather or wool, fingers or no fingers or mittens, tops of mittens that detach for fingerless gloves. Match, don't match? How many sets are enough?

I also finally broke down and bought knee high boots. Being someone with thicker calves, I've never thought I'd be able to buy them. But, after some looking around I found a pair that were entirely stretchy that look like suede. I also discovered why people wear skinny jeans - to fit inside said boots. Who knew? That seems much more reasonable of a reason than because the sausage look is in. And, boots also gave new meaning to 'boot cut'. It's not just to balance out the thickness of my legs...it's to fit over boots. Weird, huh?

Oh, and another mystery solved....knee socks. Apparently for wearing under knee high boots.  Crazy.

Trouser socks...I'm still not quite sold. I've put away shorts as that's not even an inkling of a possibility until next year sometime, as well as sundresses and sleeveless shirts.