Winterising a Summer Dress | Moodboard Tuesday

I love wearing dresses all year round, especially in these mid-months when it’s cool yet not cold and thus you can go sans-tights. My favourite way to winterise a summer dress is to pair a floaty dress in a pattern or plain colour with ankle boots, a coat, jacket or vest and a hat or knitted beanie. It’s a fun look that quite easy to achieve and the best thing is you probably have pieces similar to these in your wardrobe already, and I just stick to a few basic ‘rules’ when winterising a summer dress. My key tips for winterising a summer dress include:

• Look for dresses in your wardrobe with longer sleeves or shift style, spaghetti strap dresses are much harder to winterise.
• For print dresses, look for tones that work well with boots you might already have – do you have a black and white print dress you can pair with some black ankle boots? Or a Paisley print you can easily turn into a boho-vibe outfit? A leopard print you might wear with some tan boots?
• The fabric of the dress is important – thicker fabrics work better, obviously, or a sturdy cotton. Light, floaty cotton dresses or silks are not so easily winterised.
• Maxi dresses are more difficult to wear in winter – despite their longer length they can look bulky with a jacket or coat and boots. Midis are much easier to style, and mini and smock styles are the easiest to wear with boots and jackets.

Apart from these loose rules, it’s just a trial and error game! For today’s Moodboard I have just found three simple summery dresses on Boohoo and accessorised with a faux fur vest and coats. A felt hat adds warmth and a touch of fun too. Of course, everything below is under $100, see the links after the picture to shop.

Outfit 1:

Boohoo dress AUD$30

Spurr boots AUD$60

Country Road fedora AUD$60

Chicwish faux fur vest (sizes XS-XL) AUD$55.57

Outfit 2:

Boohoo dress (sizes 8-16) AUD$30 

Spurr boots AUD$60

Forever 21 fedora approx AUD$19

Romwe tweed coat (size S- XXL – check measurement on site) AUD$41.36

Outfit 3:

Boohoo dress (sizes 8-14) AUD$20

Spurr boots AUD$50

Blackfive coat, sold out, similar here for AUD$40

Witchery beanie AUD$40

Do you wear summer dresses in winter? How do you style them?