Alice Catherine

If there’s one aspect of winter that I welcome with open arms, it’s the chance to play around with layers and be more experimental with my outfits. I love nothing more than creating the perfect look to sit underneath a longline coat, then piling up the accessories until my hearts content. I could spend hours coordinating bags, shoes, and autumnal tones to create something I’ll wear over and over again. This year all I want to wear are long layers teamed with masculine ankle boots and cross body bags – this is where I’ve decided that some of my key summer pieces can come into play…

Throughout the month of October, I usually find myself packing away my whole summer wardrobe in preparation for the season ahead – out of sight out of mind until the arrival of warmer weather. This year, I have tried my best to pick out pieces that I can style all year round – midi skirts and long dresses being the ideal examples. I recently received this dress and rushed to my full length mirror to try it on – my heart immediately sunk as my brain automatically registered it as strictly summer attire. At least it will be amazing for next summer I muttered to myself…

It features a really low cut front detail and a low cut back too – how can I make this work for right now? There’s nothing worse than having your style dictated to by the weather (okay there are lots of worse things, but bare with me), it becomes increasingly harder to feel good about yourself under a million bulky layers, and I’m definitely guilty of just relying on jeans seven days a week. I looked around at some of the new statement coats I’d acquired and threw a check one over the top – I love how the rusty orange colour of the dress suddenly makes sense as an autumnal piece, and the coat stops me from feeling like I have too much skin on show. Throw some chunky ankle boots into the mix and it’s a look that could easily be switched up for both day and night – I could even add a scarf and some sheer black tights for added warmth!

The great thing about midi dresses is that they are pretty much made for crop jumpers – an ideal way to get past the low cut details of this dress when it’s really to cold to handle any skin exposure. I’m vowing to keep my summer dresses out on display for as long as possible this year, particularly the ones that I can work into my autumnal palette with ease like the one above. A floaty dress underneath a masculine coat or blazer will forever be one of my favourite looks – there’s just something really romantic about that juxtaposition of pieces, almost as though they have a story of their very own to tell…

Alice x

Photography by Adriana 

Dress – AFRM Clothing | Coat – 12Storeez | Shoes – French Connection | Bag – Russell And Bromley (similar here)

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