Summer's End: Dress for the Autumn

We might be enjoying one of the hottest summers on record but as we begin to enter August, you need to begin to think about the oncoming autumn. Summer can’t last forever, and beginning to think about what to wear when the weather starts to worsen will pay dividends for you later on.

Autumn, like spring, can be an awkward interstitial period for your wardrobe. The height of summer and the depths of winter are relatively easy to dress for. Even if you’re not enjoying the weather (whether you’re suffering from SAD in winter or not coping with the heat in the height of summer) consistency makes it easy to make your choices. The transitional seasons don’t have that consistency, and that means it’s difficult to make your choices.

Another complicating factor is that if you’re overzealous about putting your out of season clothes into storage, you could find yourself stretched for options if this year's autumn is warmer for longer than you’re expecting. Current long-range forecasts do in fact indicate a warm, dry autumn so committing to a winter wardrobe too soon could see you barred from enjoying a long tail to the summer.

Dressing for the autumn means being able to mix your summer and winter staples to create a flexible set of outfits that demonstrate your style and individuality while meeting the changeable demands of the weather. If you have an extensive wardrobe, it might be worth marking a dedicated section for ‘round the year’ clothes that you can come back to when the weather itself can’t seem to decide what season it is!

Good choices for this section of your wardrobe are a couple of luxury sweaters, to provide a foundation level of insulation on the colder days and a stylish top layer for the evenings when the weather is warm.

You could also include a classic cut leather jacket, to provide both insulation and waterproofing without compromising on style, and jeans, which are an ever reliable choice on all but the hottest days.

The key to dressing well for autumn are providing layers of clothes that you can swap in and out to meet the demands of the weather, patterned t-shirts revealed or covered up by sweaters or cardigans and finally topped by a bold coat that’s your final statement on the season. This means you’re never sacrificing comfort for fashion or fashion for comfort.