Learning from my sartorial mishaps

I’m revisiting this series to reflect on a mistake I’ve realised is relatively new to my wardrobe: not thinking about how well clothes will layer.

The mistake

There are two things people in Melbourne can agree on when it comes to clothes: we love black, and – most important of all – you need to layer. The weird and highly changeable weather and temperature makes multiple layers an essential for almost the whole year. You just can’t rely on it across the day: it’ll be freezing in the morning, sweltering by lunch, and raining at supper. So it’s particularly ridiculous that I have fallen into not taking layering into account when making my clothing choices.

What do I actually mean by this? Mostly I mean sleeves. Like the rest of the world, I fell, and fell hard, for floofy, puffy and generally extravagant sleeves over the past couple of years. My wardrobe has exploded with a dazzling array of puffy shoulders, elaborate sleeves, and ballooning cuffs which would send Anne Shirley into fits of envy. But they all suffer from a fatal flaw: they are so difficult to layer! The majority of jumpers and sweaters, which tend to favour sleeker lines, just don’t work, with the sleeves bunching up under them and looking bulky. Not to mention this being genuinely uncomfortable! I’m sure I’m not the only one for whom this kind of low level but constant discomfort is pretty much unbearable. Altogether, not an ideal situation.

The fix

The simplest solution to this mistake is just to make savvier purchases in the first place. I increasingly look at potential new purchases in terms of how many other things I own they go with. Will a piece be a ‘once in a while’ item, do I need special circumstances for it to actually work? Or can I add it to my closet confident in the knowledge that I can work it seamlessly into my regular rotation? This rule goes for all clothes, but perhaps layering pieces most of all – after all, you’re choosing them specifically to wear with other things!

The second solution is to find matching sleeves in your top layers. This isn’t quite as easy – there don’t seem to be as many options for big sleeves in knitwear, and those there are kind of seem to tie you into an aesthetic more than the tops/dresses by themselves. Sometimes there just aren’t options: pretty much nothing larger will fit comfortably under the classic Melbourne down jacket look. However, I have found a couple of knit pieces, including from Princess Highway and Witchery, with suitably voluminous sleeves to fit the bill.

The moral of this mistake is to really assess what you want from a piece – are you happy for it to be an occasional or seasonal choice, or are you looking to get as much wear from it as possible? I don’t think either option is superior, it’s just about what you want to achieve with your wardrobe. As long as you go into a purchase aware of your intentions for the piece, you’re good to go.

---

What clothing fixes do you implement in your own wardrobe? Is this a mistake you’ve fallen foul of? I’d love to hear your tips and suggestions, so please do share in a comment! I hope this post was helpful, and thanks for reading!