Winter Prep

This past semester was one of the busiest I have ever had as a college student.  I recommend that if you ever take 18 credit hours all at once, just find time to sit back and take it easy.  In my case, I had time to play around with outfits while preparing for the winter.

Now that the Chicago winter is here for sure, there really is no time to play around with what to wear.  Instead, the entire city population has fallen back into the pattern of bundling up in the morning, checking the weather on their smartphones, and dressing as smartly for the day as they could.  However, I don't think that it could be harmful to share some of my winter prep outfits with you, my audience.  I mean, now that I actually have time on my hands, why the hell not?

Early to mid November was not so bad.  It marked Chicago's first snowfall of the season, but overall, the weather was pretty damn bearable.  Bearable enough, in fact, for comfortable and "ridiculous" lounge wear like the one pictured below:

 

I admit it, I have a thing for harem pants.

But it's very chic, no?  The sweater is from my mom, I wear it all of the time in the winter.  The boots are from Brooklyn, and as for the pants, I found them in a thrift store.  They're actually from Baghdad too.  

Eventually, it moved into December, and the wind started to pick up, which required more layering and more sweaters.  Don't worry guys, I had it covered.  Especially, when I went to the Christkindl Market with one of my best friends...

It's the return of my mom's sweater.

I really think I chose the perfect outfit to enjoy hot spiced wine in.  Besides the mom sweater, the leggings, and the Brooklyn boots, I found the cream camel sweater in Francesca's this past August.  I normally am not a fan of Francesca's, but I made an exception for this comfy sweater.  As for the hat, my mom threw it at me over Thanksgiving break and told me to make an outfit out of it.  Being the loyal fashionable daughter that I am, that's exactly what I did.  

Finally, the rest of December proved to be quite muggy and rainy.  Therefore, in order to protect a majority of my shoes, I broke out the rain boots.  It s still fun to come up with cute outfits involving rain boots though, and sure enough, this is what I came up with:

Winter prep?  More like winter "preppier than I intended."

Layering is as important in the rain as it is in general cold weather.  That's how I feel anyway.  Would you believe that the black sweater and leopard print leg warmers were hand me downs?  As for the fur hooded vest, I received it as a Christmas gift some years ago.  The rain boots are courtesy of DSW.

Well, if this winter is truly supposed to be as mild as predicted due to El Nino, then I hope this post is inspirational enough for mixing patterns and layering playfully.  I also seriously recommend getting a pair of harem pants, they are AWESOME.

  Maddy Thiers