There are many downsides to winter, but amid the shoveling and slipping and frostbitten fingers, there's one thing that's always guaranteed to get better during the snowy months: clothes. Elegant knitwear, colorful scarves, multi-colored socks, awesome boots – winter is the time for sartorial expressiveness to peak, and the best part of it is that you don't have to worry about being in beach-ready shape to look great in winter gear. Because winter is all about maximizing your wardrobe potential, and because we don't see enough of that, we thought we'd use this post to bring up some criminally underrated pieces of cold weather attire that are badly due for a comeback this year:
- The shearling coat: In any given office the peacoat-to-person ratio is almost guaranteed to be around 1:1. And don't get us wrong, peacoats are great, and deserve the visibility they get. But wouldn't it be cool to switch it up every once in a while for an item that will truly turn heads? That's where the shearling coat comes into play. Before saying anything about it, we just want you to look at this photo for a second. Now that is a coat! With shearling, you're covering yourself with stunning and extremely comfortable sheepskin or lambskin. Harry Styles is down for it, and you should be too. A warning, though – a shearling coat does not run cheap, but if you invest in one, it's the gift that keeps on giving, since it'll be something you can pass along to your grandkids.
- The Loden coat: A timeless alternative to the peacoat that sees little use these days, the Loden coat should be the first thing you look to if you're trying to distinguish your outerwear in an understated way. The only problem is that a true Loden coat is invariably going to be difficult to find, and it'll be even more challenging if you don't live in the fashion hotspots of Milan or Paris. Basically, the Loden is a classy overcoat made of cloth and designed to be worn in a more draped and less fitted style, according to Die, Workwear. It originates in Bavaria, and it's something that's steeped in the history of the country.
"Loden is to the Bavarian what tweed is to the Scot – a fabric so long indigenous to its land, of such peasant origins that it has become almost a folk cloth," stated a 1956 Sports Illustrated article.
If you want a really good one, you'll have to do some good hunting, and it'll also probably cost you a pretty penny.
- The classic polo shirt: Yep, that's right – the last underrated winter item worth highlighting here is your typical, short-sleeved polo. For those of you who think that's just a summer garment, consider this: Most of us work in offices where the heat is set to full blast, and if we have only a piece of chunky knitwear on, that's a one-way ticket to sweat soak city. Yet peeling layers off to reveal a t-shirt is not good form either if you work in anything but one of those anything-goes-clothes tech startups. A t-shirt just looks sloppy.
Preventing that kind of horror is all about preparing yourself with top-of-the-line layering. By having a crisp polo as your base layer in the coldest months of winter, you can rest assured that stripping down layers isn't going to leave you with a sweaty t-shirt.
So what are you waiting for? We look forward to seeing your in your shearling and polo!
