Transition to dresses & skirts......failing

[Musicforsnorks]

Earlier this year I became tired of skinnies and leggings and decided to swap over to dresses and skirts. Summer went very well, obviously, and I thought going in to winter might have issues, but nothing insurmountable..

But previously I was wearing fairly,tough, country type stuff (in comparison) like wax jackets, gore tex boots, wonder resistant coats. Etc
This stuff was pretty high quality and very durable and versatile.

I’m in a fairly rainy, wind blown part of the north and don’t run a vehicle. I work from home (art related) and don’t have young children. I don’t work on a farm but I am out in all weathers and do a lot of walking, which often requires hauling stuff about in my rucksack.

So this transition might not work for me for those reasons, but every skirt or dress I find is cheaply made, polyester and two midi’s have snagged already. I know it is possible to find quality dresses ‘somewhere’ but even John Lewis was full of delicate, floaty viscose and polyester, and not cheap with it !

Then, when I can locate a dress or skirt which suits me, not all of my coats and shoes work with them. So it’s really bordering on fucking tedious to kit myself out this way, and don’t even mention the search for a coat with wool that would keep me warm AND go with every dress combo.

At heart I am a minimalist, so my previous style really worked for me. Everything I had worked well with everything else.

Would you just sod it all off and go back to my boring country togs?

God that’s long, 😐 sorry!

My winter uniform is knee length skirts in wool or cord (try Laura Ashley or Boden for tweeds) with opaque tights and merino or cashmere jumpers/cardigans/shirts. Footwear is brogues, ankle boots or chunky calf length boots. I’d do a cord pinafore but that’s my teen DDs territory! Coats are a short padded jacket, a big parka or a boyfriend coat - I like the look of a long coat over a short skirt.

If you still want to wear long skirts in the winter (I love mine) look online for wool, cord or faux leather skirts. I got most of mine from charity shops, but you can find similar things online. Etsy is a gold mine, I've just had a quick nosy and want about 20 things now!

Look at Joules. They have a fab online outlet on ebay. Lots of heavy, Jersey dresses of varying lengths. Tweed skirts (think modern, fashionable not granny) are really versatile. What about cord pinafores? You can get them in a variety of lengths too and are so easy to mix with different types of top depending on how warm it is.

Have you tried tunics? Longer length ones are mini shirt length ("joe brown's" is somewhere that does quite a few). They can be wore with tights, leggings, maybe even your skinnies and are pretty forgiving/comfortable for thigh, tummy area. And you could wear with same coats and shoes/boots you have for leggings/skinnies.

Short dress/skirt and woolly tights will work with a Barbour and solid boots.
For longer dresses how about knee high flat boots?
Depends a bit on your shape and height but to get it right you sort of need everything at once. Shoe, coat and dress. Once you find a formula that works you just repeat it by buying other dresses shoes in that same style.
You could try see if contrast works for you. So floaty dress with big jumper? Doexnt work on me but I see lots if women looking great in that.
Mannish coats are a contrast that works for me over a dress. Particularly if it's quite long. I do mannish coat, flat boots or even brogue plus a midi dress. Sounds very librarian but looks good on me. The bonus is I wear the coat over trousers too.
When I had stomach bloating issues I also just bought maternity wear trousers. That would let you stick to your old look.

I'm with you OP. I really can't do long floaty dresses I. Wind and rain. I saw a woman today in skinny jeans and long boots and I was jealous. I'm in loose straight leg jean and dms. But even that felt a little cold.
I have a cord mini and I'm still going to wear it with tights and boots. I've seen some combat type skirts, which were shortish and Cos has a short wool skirt which I'm going to try on next week.

I find that a pea coat can work. I love midi dresses and skirts but I haven't had a need to a coat yet. Fingers crossed that my navy pea coat fits the bill.....otherwise it'll be a long cold winter. I detest skinny jeans as I find them uncomfortable.

I wear stretchy sweater dresses with thick tights and boots when it’s very cold

Thanks for all of the great advice and replies everyone!
It has been really helpful, and I have at least decided to skip anything floaty until summer, I have already ruined two long skirts so even with long boots they’d be vulnerable in winter.

Very long coats drown me a bit. I’m 5’4 so not very short, but coats already drown my shoulders a bit so I’d feel overwhelmed.

A mid coat would go well with short skirts and jeans, if I wore them.

I have this gorgeous pair of dubarry Galway boots, which I have worn for 2 yrs and they never age - sadly they only really work with jeans so I’m sad ☹️ I know they’re not everyone’s thing but I love them.

There's a good thread here at the moment about wool skirts which might be useful. Otherwise you might find heavier dresses at Toast or Hush (Hush does have its fair share instaready floaty dresses as well). Fat Face is good for woolly tights in different colour and DMs and walking boots are very on trend this year and go with everything. Though probably more when they are contrasting with a satin maxi than paired with a cord mini. But we'll ignore that because you need practical.

I actually think longer skirts peeping out of the bottom of shorter coats look great. Whatever the ‘rules’ are generally change with each new era anyway, nothing is set in stone.
I’ve seen tons of women with shorter coats and long skirts and they all looked fantastic.

Thing is with me, I don’t like fussiness, patterns - and I prefer minimal solid colours (navy, grey, white, beige) so find many skirts and dresses have too much ‘going on’.

It feels more difficult to have a minimal way of dressing with them, if that makes sense?

Most tunics and dresses I’ve seen that aren’t workwear have patterns and textures and stuff.

@CountFosco I often wear my docs with a cord mini
I will check the thread, thanks !