It got down to 0 degrees in the greater Boston area this past week. Fashion definitely takes a back seat to survival when the mercury gets that low – especially since my commute involves waiting at a bus stop, taking a bus, and then walking a mile (including over a long, windy bridge). When it actually was single digits, I decided it was worth the $14 for parking to just drive in, but the rest of the time I suffered the cold.
In my humble opinion, it’s a lot easier to look nice for work in temperate weather. There was no way I was wearing a skirt (BRRRRR!) and I wanted at least three layers on the top. The shoes were hopeless – I was wearing wool socks in order to continue having 10 toes available to me.
Here’s the outfit:
A nice, warm outfit
From top to bottom:
Hair – I can do my hair curly, wavy or straight. (The straight is theoretical. Only my hairdresser actually achieves it.) This is the curly option.
Earrings – I’m wearing silver fan-shaped earrings with a red stone. You can’t really tell because my hair covers them pretty completely.
Makeup – I’m wearing light makeup. This is the end of the day, so it’s even lighter. We have powder, mascara and eyebrows.
Shirt – I’m actually wearing a silk long sleeve shirt underneath the orange turtle neck. This orange was one of my favorite colors from the fall season. This isn’t really a seasonal color set, but I’m particularly fond of it so nyah to seasonal colors.
Necklace – I liked how the silver in this really stood out, with all the warmer earth tones around it.
Jacket – The jacket is what makes the outfit distinctive. Remember that in a desk job, 90% of your conversations that matter happen while both of you are sitting, so you are only seen from the waist up. I loved the embroidery on this jacket. The variety of colors in the embroidery make it easy to match with a variety of shirt. I could wear brown (boring), orange, red or light green (I would if I had one that matched) with this jacket, and really change the look of the outfit with each. I’m not sure if the fit of this jacket is quite as flattering as I would want (I think it makes me look a touch thick at the middle), but I still really like it.
Pants – boring. Brown. Have a pair of silk long johns under them.
Shoes – complete capitulation. They are the sort of shoes that announce the wearer has bunions and is wearing wool hiking socks under them. These are true facts.
What do you wear when it gets really cold out?
Technically Pretty 
Jan 28, 2013 @ 10:41:27
Are you seriously hiking a mile in work shoes across a windy bridge? Shoulder bag toting shoes, commuter ankle boots on feet. I even keep a pair of plain black flats in a drawer in my office in case I forget & walk out the door with nothing but commuter shoes. The worst dilemma is hat hair. I have been commuting in full sheepskin, and the hat is pretty tight.
Jan 29, 2013 @ 10:44:46
Natalie,
Yes, I do. I do have a pair of shoes at work, but 90% of my shoes are on the comfortable instead of nice spectrum. Even at work, I can easily end up walking half a mile during the day (for instance, yesterday we had a town hall meeting several blocks away). And I hate cold feet. And my office is spread over three floors – and I take the stairs. And I wobble in heels.
But I think you have a good – likely better – solution!
I use those earmuff things – they leave my hair largely unmolested.
Jan 29, 2013 @ 20:08:35
I realized at one point today I had five pairs of shoes in my cube – the two I keep there normally when it’s boot weather (Mary Janes and some low boots), my kickass boots, which I decided I just had to wear to work (with a skirt!) today, my outdoor boots, and my gym shoes. I think that’s a full quarter of all my shoes.
The skirt only happened because it’s warmed up this week. Otherwise, I’m in pants (when it get really cold or snowy, I give up and wear jeans on non-Fridays), and some sort of double layered top ensemble (shirt + sweater), often with scarf. I only have to account for a two second run to the car in my driveway, and a half football field-sized walk into the building from my car, so I don’t have to go super crazy on the layers. (Though I have gotten way more use out of my wool socks this winter then I have for a number of years past.)