Read some tips and tricks from Davis students on how to layer your clothes for the cold season
By BREANNA SANDERS — features@theaggie.org
It seemed as though it was an overnight change: from strutting through downtown in the warm late-summer days to shivering while biking in the cold, each shallow breath accompanied by a thick fog indicating the brisk fall is upon us.
For Davis residents this is just the beginning as fall fades into winter and brings colder mornings and earlier nights. How will we persist? How will we, with all these factors stacked against us, rise out of our warm beds and make it through the day? The answer is simple: learn to layer.
Learning to layer your clothes can be tricky, but these tips should help you stylishly survive. First things first — what does it mean to layer clothes? Putting items on top of each other can create a sense of warmth and allow you to use items in your closet year-round. To allow a versatile and lasting wardrobe, focusing on how your own items allow for layering is a good place to start, rather than trying to curate a whole new collection.
I got the opportunity to interview this year’s Whole Earth Festival (WEF) directors Olivia Hurley, fourth-year design and community regional development double major, and Emma Mele, fourth-year environmental policy analysis and planning major.
Mele explained her reasoning that “if [her] legs are warm, then the rest of [her body] is pretty [warm enough].” In order to achieve the level of coziness to her liking, Mele manages to get up to four layers consisting of tights, leggings, thin(ish) pajamas and finally her signature look of baggy pants. While four layers might seem excessive to some, Mele, who grew up in Los Angeles, is not equipped for the chilly weather that drops into the 50s, 40s and even 30s, expressing that “the lowest it gets [at home] is a cool 65, and even then [she’s] shivering.”
As for top layers, Hurley advised that a long-sleeve can make all the difference.
“A tight long sleeve goes miles,” Hurley said. “If the shirt allows air movement through, it defeats its whole purpose.”
In general, try to throw on a layer of skin-tight clothing as a base. If the weather calls for more coverage than a tight-fitting long sleeve can provide, you can layer with a tank top, long sleeve, t-shirt, sweater or sweatshirt and finally an overcoat.
During the fall months when the days still warm up on occasion, which can create overheating challenges for our highly layered friends, you should have the ability to remove some layers, jacket or long sleeve for example, to achieve a nice and moderate temperature. By staying vigilant on your necklines, length of layers and how your colors are mixing, you can create a multitude of combinations of layers to help you all season long.
Some other accessorizing essentials that will be helpful this fall and winter are gloves, double sock-ing, hats and scarves. Our WEF directors both shared that they prefer to double sock with a normal sock first, and a fuzzy pair on top. Briana Huynh, a second-year biochemistry major and employee of the Aggie Reuse Store in the Memorial Union, emphasized to biking students to “wear gloves when you bike, and [to wear their] hood up.” Mornings, and honestly, entire days during the height of the winter season, are unbearable without gloves.
Our WEF directors echoed the same sentiments and Hurley attested to the warmth that hats give her, she points out that throughout the year “you will always see [her] in a hat.” Mele also added scarves into the conversation, originally forgetting to mention them, showing that we often forget how useful they can be.
Gearing up for the winter season requires more than just layering, though. As the sunset begins to lengthen our evenings and the chilling fog settles on Davis, sometimes all you want to do is lay on the couch, stream a feel-good movie, cuddle up in a warm blanket and enjoy the wide variety of comfort Davis can offer.
Happy fall, Davis! Wishing everyone a warm and cozy season.
Written by: Breanna Sanders — features@theaggie.org
