How does the climate change our personal style?
By Florenne Earle Ledger published 12/06/2024
The excitement of all the new outfits and items you can wear before each season approaches is a familiar feeling. Whether you’re ready to layer up in your favourite coat or feel the sun on your skin for the first time, there’s a clear distinction between our seasonal styles.
I’ve been thinking about the difference between my summer and winter clothes and realised comparing the two is an easy way to pinpoint what defines my personal style.
With practicalities like weather conditions dictating what we can and can’t wear, the similarities between the winter and summer version of our fashion sense expose the core elements of what makes our style unique to us.
I wanted to look into the extent to which seasons and temperature changes impact what we wear, in order to think about just how useful comparing our outfits in different seasons can be when trying to understand more about our style. I talked to members of our community worldwide, each with their own experience of seasonal styling, and heard how it’s impacted their fashion journey.
Speaking to our users, it became clear for many of them that the climate they grew up is a key factor in forming their personal taste. Maisie, a 25-year-old lab researcher and Whering user born in Texas, agrees. She made a conscious decision to take the weather out of the equation to express herself.
Meet: Maisie
The constant heat and humidity can kind of put some barriers on my style. If I'm choosing to not let that restrict me I just kind of have to accept I'm always going to be a little bit sweaty and not always feeling the greatest which is kind of a bummer. It is just so hot here for so much of the year that typically most people kind of just dress for comfort.
Lots of us don’t think about the impact that temperature has on our styling choices, but it changes what we’re able to wear comfortably, and therefore what we’re more likely to reach for. Most of us have developed a sense of style somewhat conformative to the weather conditions we live in, unless we’re committed to an aesthetic enough to accept we will feel less comfortable like Maisie.
Maisie also shared how the weather has impacted not only her styling choices but those around her. When asked if she’d noticed any trends in her city, she replied saying:
In my city that's kind of hard to say because like I mentioned it is just so hot here for so much of the year that most people kind of just go for comfort. So maybe just a t-shirt or tank top and shorts which is honestly kind of what I resort to at least half the time just for the sake of comfort.
As well as seasons and weather impacting what we can wear on a personal level, it has a knock-on effect on what the people in our local communities wear as well, limiting the styles we come into contact with and further “restricting” our styling choices to the parameters of our environment.
It’s not all restrictive though– as well as steering us towards certain items in a limiting way, it can also push us out of our comfort zones and allow us to wear something we wouldn’t normally go for. It wasn’t until 24-year-old Gwendellyn moved from the Philippines to a ski resort in Colorado, that she learned about layering as a new way to experiment with style:
Meet: Gwendellyn
Thank God I moved here because now I know how to layer different types of clothes. Whether it's hot, whether it's cold, or whether it's just something to spice up my outfit.
The colder weather also encouraged Gwedellyn to move away from crop tops, something she’d been wearing her whole life as in high school she learned ‘the more skin you show the prettier’ you are. Since moving to a colder climate, she’s unlearned this false narrative and started layering more and dressing more casually. It’s funny to think how we might dress completely differently if we lived somewhere else.
Our understanding of clothes and what is "socially acceptable" to wear is entirely made up of our environment. Polina, an artist based in Frankfurt, explains how growing up in a warm climate skewed her perceptions of practical clothing in colder weather.
Meet: Polina
For the first 17 years of my life I wore mostly summer clothes because it was a good climate for it. After I moved to Saint Petersburg, I was so confused about wearing winter clothes. I wasn't even thinking that you shouldn't be wearing T-shirt when it's minus 30. I thought ‘It’s okay I can wear this super warm will jacket and there is no problem’ but a few years later I talked with my friend about my style and she told me she was so shocked when she saw me in a T-shirt in winter.
Our understanding of what is in style and what is practical is constructed by the weather conditions and the seasons we experience day to day. That’s why, stripping your styling choices away from the weather can be interesting when thinking about how your personal style would look without ‘limits’ or ‘guidance’. This abstract way of viewing your style can help us all learn more about what we enjoy wearing, and why.
So, if you’re looking for a way to pinpoint your style, you could start by thinking about the following:
- Do you gravitate towards a similar colour palette across seasons?
- Do you continue to wear the same fit in winter and summer? E.g do you always reach for baggy clothes, or like to wear something form fitting?
- Is there a pattern you’ll always be excited to wear, no matter the time of year?
- What kind of cut do you go for? Do you seek more statement pieces in winter or summer? Does it change at all?
Let us know what you find and join in the conversation on our socials @Whering__.
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