Ready for Winter? Let’s See Some Suggestions…

photo: gq.com

I’ve had several guys ask me: “What should I wear this winter?”, my typical aanswer being, in fact, a series of questions where I ask them details about themselves:

“How old are you? What’s your body type? What other stylish clothes do you have? What clothes do you like? What clothes don’t you like?”

And on and on.

So here’s my thought. I’ll simply enumerate a few suggestions for this winter… clothes that are ESSENTIAL in any man’s wardrobe… and you can just pick the ones you like the most. Ideally you don’t want to blindly purchase my recommendations – think about what you already have in your closet and which clothes will best work with those.

OK, let’s get moving. This winter, I recommend that you wear…

Brown Brogue Boots

The best footwear for winter are boots, no doubt about it. And, because of brogue shoes’ success, designers thought of men who wanted to wear them in the cold season by “borrowing” the texture and the design to make a cool-looking pair of boots.

This type of boot is not different from it’s sibling, the classic brogue shoe, when it comes to outfit matching. It works with jeans, it works with warm wool pants and I guarantee I will draw a lot attention if you go for brown.

How you match brogue boots is entirely up to you. The first option is to choose a brown leather belt, about the same hue as those magnificent boots. You can complete the outfit with a pair of jeans, a dark-brown turtleneck and a camel coat on top. The blue and brown color combination is amazing every time.

You can choose other boots as well, just make sure the shape resembles the one in the photo above. It’s the most stylish I could find and you can’t go wrong with it.

Ankle Boots

foto: about.com

The pair above works great with casual AND formal outfits – your money will be well spent if you choose it.

Now that you have some great footwear suggestions, let’s talk a little about socks.

Winter calls for thick, wool socks but that’s not all. Bring your outfits to light by wearing patterns such as…

Fair Isle Socks

They’re made either from wool or from the more expensive cashmere. This pattern will look awesome if you could match it with a Fair Isle sweater.

Wool Pants

I know you’re used to wearing thinner jeans on summers and thicker ones on winters. Nothing wrong with that, except there are more stylish alternatives. One of them are wool pants, just like the ones in the picture above.

If you’re thinking that wool might irritate your skin, you shouldn’t worry that much. Stick to soft quality wool and you’ll be just fine.

Herringbone Wool Suits

Whether you like wearing suits or you’re forced to do so by your job, be careful during winters. A wool suit is your best ally against colder temperatures so make sure you get a quality one that will last you for years. herringbone is a great pattern to wear and, though it might make you look older, you can always bring it to like with a red scarf.

Camel Hair Coats

A suit like the one above needs an overcoat. One that’s really in the trend right now (and contrasts great with grey) is the camel haired coat. This business overcoat can also be dressed down to be worn on casual encounters as well.

If you can’t find one that’s (partially) made of camel coat, one made of cotton is fine as well.

Pea Coats

I bought one last winter and I intend to wear it every other day with my other pea coat, which is camel colored. This way I’ll bring some variety to my winter outfits which, you must agree, can get pretty boring. Don’t let that happen!

The pea coat is more casual than the camel-haired coat, so if you’re not the business-man type you’re probably going to enjoy this overcoat more.

If you can, go for a lighter color, don’t just stick to navy. Camel is great and a read recently told me he saw green pea coats.

Aviator Jackets

Even if you didn’t like the movie Top Gun, you should still steal Tom’s aviator jacket because it looks really cool. This is by far the manliest overcoat you can wear during winters, even though it furthers you away from that gentleman look.

Wool Scarves

Scarves are an excellent excuse to inject some color into your winter outfits. You can go for anything, from bright red to yellow or light green.

Let me give you a starting point. Before buying a wool scarf, ask yourself: what kind of overcoat am I wearing?

If you have a navy blue pea-coat, for instance, a lighter colored scarf will work wonders. But, if for instance, you have a camel-haired coat, then, to make good contrast, you should go for a darker-colored scarf.

Classic Leather Gloves

Although a classic, most men don’t even wear gloves. They’ll give you an air of elegance and make you look really classy.try them.

Fingerless Gloves

If you want mobility when you’re dialing with your fingers on your cell-phone or when you’re taking pictures, a pair of fingerless wool gloves is just the thing you need. They’ll allow you to use your fingers while still keeping your hands warm.

Plus, the wool fabric allows you to find such gloves in a variety of colors and patterns. This means you have yet another way of standing out from the crowd.

Alright, these are my suggestions. Let me show you 3 more winter photos. Those were made by Tommy Ton for GQ are they are GREAT.

photo: gq.com

In the first photo you can see how the herringbone suit jacket matches the black leather gloves and a silver business watch.

Here’s a pair of brown brogue boots like the ones recommended at the beginning of this article:

photo: gq.com

And one final picture, which happens to be my favorite because it demos how you can accessorize during winter.

photo: gq.com

The guy is wearing:

• a wool tie
• sunglasses
• a pocket square
• a wool scarf
• a beanie
• and even a bracelet

You didn’t expect you could incorporate that many accessories into a winter outfit, did you?

What I really want you to look at in this last photo is the discrete colors the accessories have and they way they are matched. Very important.