The Joys of a Seasonal Wardrobe

Most people are not into clothes—or at least, they wouldn’t consider fashion/style/clothing a hobby. I do count it a hobby, but I also distinctly remember turning up my nose at such an idea. Once I decided yeah, this is something I want to get into, I started figuring out what I liked and what my “style” is. But that in turn resulted in a great burden that nobody really tells you about: once you have a vision for what you want to wear, what you already own is probably awful by comparison. And unless you are wealthy, you realize you’ll have to take a long time to buy a wardrobe large enough to allow you to dress every day the way you really want to.

So it makes sense to focus at first on getting year-round staples—things you can wear most of the year and which are versatile enough to wear with many different outfits. These are things like a navy suit, a navy blazer, some gray trousers, chinos, some blue dress shirts, etc. Some people like to stay here, taking joy in having a capsule wardrobe that lets them dress stylishly with consistency. But for others (myself included), things can start to be a bit monotonous.

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However instead of starting to go too crazy with patterns and colors, my advice is to start diversifying into seasonal staples. Even if you never buy something outside the realm of “staples,” the seasonal shifts from warm to cold can provide enough variety throughout the year that you might never feel the need to venture into bolder varieties of clothing.

First, no matter what time of year it is, you always have something different to look forward to wearing. In the depths of winter you can dream about your lightweight seasonal linen and cotton jackets and trousers, lighter-color loafers and espadrilles. In the sweltering heat of summer, you can dream about thick tweeds, Oxford cloths, boots and flannel trousers.

Second, you can leverage seasonal fabrics and textures to stay creative in how you dress. Tweeds, faux-tweeds and flannel jacket fabrics lend themselves to really subtle, beautiful textures, whether they be Donegal, herringbone patterns, subtle tonal overchecks, gun clubs, or windowpanes. Linens, linen blends and cottons lend themselves well to some of those same patterns, but in lighter shades in open, breathable weaves.

Finally, seasonal staples help your clothes last longer, since you’re only pulling them out to wear them half the year and can store them the rest of the year.

In some cases, such as with a rarely-worn dark suit or double-cuffed shirts for special occasions, year-round staples are great and you never need to expand beyond that. But for most areas of dressing, consider expanding from the basics by going seasonal.

Click here to see my seasonal wardrobe, broken down by jackets, trousers and outerwear, with links to products on the Shop My Closet page.

[Photo at top: A double-breasted cold-weather navy blazer from SuitSupply, with a shirt from Propercloth]

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