I am not blessed with an expansive vintage wardrobe. I took the vintage leap last spring and as such only have a few retro-inspired garments in my closet, so I've needed to find a way to make these last, lest I be wearing the same four outfits all winter long (and it's a very long winter in Alberta!). Also, of course, it gets terribly cold (I'm not looking forward to -20, no sireebob) and so I have to have at least two layers under my coat, if not more.

Here are some of the ways I plan on stretching my wardrobe into the next seven (!!) months of frigid winds and snow that lies ahead. I highly recommend checking out Charlotte's series on cold weather vintage over at Tuppence Ha'penny. She has some great scans of coats, knitwear and more!

(I was being lazy today and as such did not want to iron or wear a slip so some of these are wrinkly or staticky)



This can get tricky because you have to make sure the skirt on top will be longer than the dress's skirt and is about the same volume (the dress shows more underneath the pencil skirt than the brown skirt. I lean towards using short dresses anyway because that is the number one thing that makes me toss them towards the summer pile anyway (my thighs are very susceptible to frostbite).




 As someone who never likes to show off her shoulders, especially in the work environment, I often wear sweaters or jackets over my dresses or blouses, even if the weather doesn't warrant it. My shoulders and upper arms are particularly ugly or sexy, but I just feel more professional that way. So to stave off the permi-cardigan that I am sure to don as soon as the temperature starts dipping even more, I'm examining the dresses that can go over some of my longer sleeved tops. In this case I chose a low-cut sweater and would tuck/pin it a little better so just the sleeves are showing.

Teal sweater over pink striped dress

Spring 2011

This goes above throwing a cardi on and calling it a day. Of course this works best with tops that have a little give. Wearing a tight blouse on top of a textured dress will look a little strange. This would look better if I had a shorter sweater *hmm*



There is no better way to discreetly layer than with camis and slips. With most of my button up blouses and sweaters I wear a cami or bandeau underneath to cover-up cleavage, but even just tossing an extra layer underneath a collared shirt works to keep you a little bit warmer.

Short floral dress under brown skirt with white cardigan

As seen in NYC when it was blazin' hot out

Of course a combination of any of the tips above works as well. This dress was rather short, very thin (perfect for hot, humid days like we experienced in NYC) and had straps instead of sleeves, so I covered up everything except the floral top.

How do you plan to stretch your summer and spring wardrobe into the colder months?