Transitional Dressing is Actually the Best

It's spring, chronologically speaking. Meteorologically speaking, it's somewhere around mid October, with the exception of a few anomalous actual March days scattered here and there. So what in the name of Michael Fish are we supposed to wear? A midi skirt, bare legs and ankle boots (a transitional style guide favourite) just won't cut it when we're still sitting comfortably in single figures, but a winter coat feels like accepting defeat. The answer to this twice yearly style dilemma is one of my favourite words in the fashion lexicon: layers.

Sometimes (last weekend) I take layers to the extreme and have to remove one in the nearest fitting room I can find but that only goes to demonstrate their body temperature regulating qualities. If you're wearing one big jumper, you're pretty much stuck with it but if you're wearing layers you can add and remove to your heart's content throughout the day.

In the outfit below, my layers were fourfold: a vest top, a turtle neck, a jumper and a jacket. As it turned out, four was the magic number for a spring-in-the-sun-winter-in-the-shade kind of day.

Jacket: Topshop, Jumper: Vintage: Turtle neck: H&M, Jeans: Monki, Shoes: ASOS / Bag: Monki, Bracelet: Vintage

The weather might be in the midst of an identity crisis, but transitional dressing means we can dress exactly as we want without bowing to the whims of extreme conditions. For those few sweet in-betweeny months, we can wear clothes that aren't 1. the only thing that won't induce sweat patches or 2. the only thing that will keep frostbite from claiming the extremities. We can wear the jackets that are too heavy for summer and too light for winter. We can wear cropped trousers with footwear that isn't ankle boots. We can wear our favourite top without it disappearing under the coat we're sick of seeing in the mirror every day. We can wear pleats without the fear of gale force winds whipping up a scandal. Despite the bad rap, it turns out transitional dressing is actually the best.