Tag Archives: boots

Layering Dresses When It’s Cold Out

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Your favorite beautiful dresses don’t have to sit gathering dust in your closet when the weather’s cold. It’s super easy to layer dresses in the cold weather so you can show off those sundresses year-round!

Just follow these quick tips for how to stay warm in a dress during winter and you can look frilly and flouncy all season long.

Some Essential Layering Tips for Any Outfit

First, you need to make sure you’re keeping warm the right way. There are a few essential points about basic layering you should know so you can learn how to stay warm in a dress during winter!

It’s possible to look stylishly layered without looking bulky. To do this, keep your thinnest layers inside, and save the frilly fabric for the exterior.

Keep only one or two items that have a bold pattern. If your dress is colorful and bright, for example, wear a dark jacket and tights to not overwhelm it.

Keep your outer layer long. A dress looks much better when the jacket is long enough to suit it.

Under-Dress Basics: Layering Essentials

The items you wear under your dress should be thin, but warm, so that you don’t look bulky. Opt for insulating materials like cotton or wool if you live in a seriously cold place.

Innermost layer: Camisoles/tank tops/undershirts

If you live in a climate that gets seriously cold, like Minnesota or Canada, every single layer is important. If you’re going to try and wear a dress in the winter (you brave soul!) invest in thermal inner layers designed to wear beneath your clothes. They go a long way to protect your skin and keep you warm.

Turtlenecks

Turtlenecks for a layered dress? Yes please! Just not the thick, chunky woolen sweaters with a neck — you’ll look like you’re smuggling a small animal under your dress. We’re talking those relatively thin, form-fitting turtlenecks.

White T Shirt

This is a good look to take you back to the 90s, too. Simply pair it with a corduroy overall dress and you have a timeless Americana look.

Thermal tights

This is our #1 essential item for layering dresses! Numb, exposed legs are the worst part about trying to stay warm in a dress during winter. If you get tights that are still form-fitting but designed to keep you warm, the problem is all but solved.

You probably won’t find thermal tights that are sheer or partially sheer. They’re most likely to be solid colors, like black. That’s not an issue; you want your dress to be the star of the show.

You can also get thermal leggings to do the job, so long as you wear very warm socks. If your feet are cold, it’ll be hard for you to feel warm no matter how many layers you wear.

Warm socks

When it’s cold out, you should wear warm socks and gloves. There’s nothing revolutionary we can really add to that — your mom was right. Don’t forget your warm socks!

Boots

When you’re layering dresses with tights and jackets for the winter, your best bet for footwear is a reliable pair of leather boots. If you have cute patterned socks, you can tuck them over your lace-up boots to show them off.

You can opt for the Bella Swan converse-and-prom-dress look if you want, but in our opinion, that’s a little dated. Up to you!

Over Dress Basics: More Layering Essentials

Experiment with cute jackets and chunky patterned cardigans! Go wild!

Jean jackets, bomber jackets, peacoats

Do you have a funky jacket in your closet that you love, but never have the chance to wear? Now’s your chance. Layering dresses is a perfect opportunity to bring out that kitschy patched up jean jacket from the 80s. Wear it over a plain dress and tights so that the jacket’s the star of the show!

Tip: If you wear a jacket that cinches in the middle, it can go a long way to make your silhouette look curvier when you’re wearing all those layers.

Chunky cardigans

Is there anyone here who can admit they don’t practically live in warm cardigans when they’re trying to stay warm in a dress during winter? They’re not only perfect to live in, but they’re also perfect to layer over a dress. Or, wear your dress as a skirt by pairing it with a warm, cozy sweater.

Scarves, scarves, scarves

Not only can you stay warm in a scarf, but it’s also easy to take off if you get too warm.

Perfect Dresses for Layering

If you have the warm inner and outer layers down pat, you can style almost any dress in your closet! Even summer spaghetti strap dresses and sleeveless dresses can work when you’re layering dresses. Well, you might want to avoid ball gowns and statement pieces you’d see at the Met Gala, for example — but that’s your prerogative.

An American Patriotic Christmas Tree – Remembrance

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Here is a Christmas tree found at a veterans hospital. They used a flocked green tree and covered it with flags and red and blue ornaments. Service members boots were put to the base of the tree. A collection of flags were used to make a finial on top of the tree. White lights are used but i think I would add some red and blue as well. Making a statement like this is so respectful and very beautiful to boot.

More Garden Planter Ideas

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There is a growing number of posts I have made to show numerous ideas of re-purposing and creative ways to make planters. Here we have an old pair of cowboy boots picked up cheaply at many yard sales or thrift stores, recycled house rain gutters that have been hung on a fence (note how they aren’t hung perfectly left to right but with a slight tilt – this gives the eye something more appealing to admire, and lastly we have an old boat (but you could use a canoe) which is ready to go after embedding it into the ground a ways and filling it with a rich soil for the garden in the Spring.

History Of The Boot

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THESE BOOTS ARE MADE NOT ONLY FOR WALKING but for working in all kinds of weather—and looking smart, too. They were introduced in 1817 by Hoby of St. James’s Street, London, the personal shoemaker of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, famous for defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellingtons were initially designed to look good with the newfangled men’s fashion of wearing long trousers instead of knee breeches.

The boot’s predecessor, the Hessian, had a curvy folded-down top and heavy braid.The duke wanted something simpler, made from soft calfskin and cut closer to the leg. Sturdy enough to be battle-hardy yet stylish enough to be worn in the evening, the Wellington allowed the British gentry to look like their favorite war hero while standing tall in polished boots.

However, it was an American named Henry Lee Norris who came up with the idea of producing the Wellington in rubber. (Charles Goodyear had recently patented the process of vulcanizing.) The British Isles had a wet, muddy climate, so Norris headed to Scotland and, in 1856, founded the North British Rubber Company to produce the weather-resistant boots that were to become famous.

The Wellington has gone through many changes since its schizoid days as a foppish combat boot. In the 1860s, it was worn by soldiers in the American Civil War. And the cowboy boot was modeled after the full V- Wellington, so called because the whole front and whole Q£ back are each made from a single piece.

Production took off during both World Wars, when the military requested sturdy rubber footwear that would keep soldiers’ feet dry in the flooded trenches and provide civilians with long-lasting boots during wartime rationing. Introduced to Wellingtons in a time of great hardship, British men, women, and children have never given them up, and their appeal has spread far beyond the home turf.

In New Zealand,Wellies—or gumboots, as they’re known Down Under—come in white for doctors and nurses in rural hospitals. Green is a favorite with the Brits (Lady Diana Spencer was a green girl long before she married her prince), while black ones with brick-red soles can often be seen on fishermen up and down the U.S. East Coast and into Canada’s Maritime Provinces.

Today, children the world over splash through puddles in Wellies styled to look like ladybugs, ducks, and frogs. And, thanks to designers such as Paul Smith and Karl Lagerfeld, the streets of many a rainy fashion capital are a riot of Wellies decorated in candy colors, wild stripes, and funky prints.