Taking on the cold and winning
I recently spent a weekend wandering around the stunning Scottish capital, while the 900 year old city is famous for its impressive architecture my eyes were otherwise occupied with my favourite thing to do when travelling to a new place (aside from eating) people watching.
The first thing I noticed on my arrival further north is that its true, the temperature drops a couple of degrees and it's really noticeable especially a this time of year, even for someone who is accustomed to a northern winter. The second thing i noticed is that the women of Edinburgh embrace the cold by dressing for it, I witnessed expert layering, chunky knitwear with collars and shirt cuffs exposed, cardigans under oversized jackets, overhead fleeces, and a myriad of excellent socks mostly bridging the ankle gap between great trainers and dark barrel leg cords or jeans.
Accessory wise scarves weren’t an after thought but built into their looks in complementary and clashing colour ways and often doubled up and worn over an upturned coat collar or these teeny tiny little triangle scarves that are popping up everywhere. Then coats, coats need more space, because I saw an awful lot of great coats. Smarter coats were longer, charcoal, camel, navy, and calf length at least, I loved the play on proportion when worn over wide leg trousers with trainers. I spied some amazing shorter wool jackets, which are perfect if you are more petite or prefer to wear a tapered trouser, the trick to them looking expensive is to size up, the more roomy and slouchy the better.
Obviously where there is cold weather there is rain so smart wool coats weren’t the only choice, padded, puffa, quilted were all on the menu. I kept noticing a shorter length of puffa coat, so not cropped or short, below bum but not long, again slightly oversized and with a hood, a great option if you feel drowned by a puffa coat but need a coat that is going to keep you warm and dry. Branding was minimal and colour ways I spotted and liked included, petrol blue, dark olive and mustard.
Given I was in Edinburgh it feels only just that I give the nod towards brands home grown there, and it will come as no surprise the first of them is cold weather appropriate, you may have spotted the “wee triangle scarf” from TBCo on Instagram as it appears to have gone viral, so be ahead of the game for £45, while you are there check out their stripe pyjamas which are perfect for the season coming up.
This round up wouldn’t be complete without the only luxury accessories company to come out of Edinburgh, Strathberry bags are at a premium price point but they are incredibly good quality with lots of interesting design details, plus buying from a brand that’s independently owned means more of the money you spend on the bag goes into the making of the bag, not the marketing campaign.
Cities of the UK, you have style competition, Edinburgh might be cold, but its fashion is red hot, Just one question, where shall I go next?
