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All About The Layers

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The Autumn/Winter season is officially upon us. With six or so months of coats, scarves, gloves, hats and layers to come, it's time to throw on the cashmere, swaddle up in some shearling and relish all the good things that the cold weather brings to our wardrobes.

To best prepare you for the Autumn/Winter collection, we sat down with our designer Mathias Jensen to talk about the trends you will meet this season. It came down to six specific focus points for you to welcome into your wardrobe.

1. Learn to layer

    The last thing you want is to be caught short on a cold day wearing one of Spring/Summer 2018’s fishnet tees. Nor do you want to head out in a thick cashmere jumper and nothing else and find yourself being tickled down the spine by the cold, wet finger of sweat on the metro.

    The key is multiple thin layers, which can be added or removed throughout the day. An ideal autumn outfit, for instance, would be a thick white Oxford shirt worn beneath a thin navy wool sweater and a clean Mackintosh coat. A scarf (ideally in stone or orange), could be worn with this too, to add extra warmth when needed during the day.

    Another option would be to wear a simple white crewneck T-shirt beneath a fine gauge wool or cashmere jumper in brown, and a thin rain jacket or car coat in a green tone.

    2. Invest in merino wool

    Merino wool is one of nature’s most intelligent fabrics. Taken from the pelts of big, burly merino sheep (most commonly found in New Zealand or Australia), the fibres of the wool are long, smooth and hollow, which means that the resulting fabric has a dry, crisp feel, insulating you when it’s cold while remaining breathable. Invest in a couple of crewneck merino wool jumpers now and they’ll keep you comfortable all the way through to early summer 2019.

    3. Embrace the power of a jacket

    Not a coat, not a blazer, but a good-quality transeasonal jacket. Something thin enough to be layered up, but insulating enough to be worn on cooler days. My advice would be to opt for something single breasted, with some room to allow for layers, in a thick cotton or thin wool. Opt for a neutral shade so it can easily be adapted into lots of different outfits. A jacket such as this can only be worn for a short time each year, so you want to invest in one that is as versatile as possible.

    4. It's all about the checks

    And the more clashing the patterns, the better. Adding checks to your stable wardrobe creates new life to the basics you already own, giving you an effortlessly new and cool look for autumn.

    If you're cautious, I recommend just going for a scarf to dip your toe in the water. If you’re a bit braver and more fashionable, go for a check coat which will most definitely wow people wherever you go. If in doubt, match a classic plaid shirt with a check fisherman over-shirt for a classic look.

    5. Thicken everything up a bit

    If in doubt, just buy the stuff you’ve been wearing religiously over summer, only in thicker, autumn-friendly fabrics. If you’ve been wearing silk or poplin shirts in the warm weather, opt for a shirt in thick cotton, denim or a wool-cotton mix in the autumn. Been wearing thin blue chinos all July and August? Buy some thicker wool takes on the same shape and shade for the autumn. Grey sweatshirts on summer nights? Grey merino wool crewneck sweaters in autumn... I think you know where I’m going with this.

    6. ’90s Sportswear Revival

    Stepping out onto the street, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d fallen through a rip in the fabric of space and time and ended up slap bang in the middle of the 1990s. If it weren’t for the mobile phones, of course. After lying dormant for a hot minute, sportswear brands from the era are having a second crack at glory.

    There’s more to it than simply sticking on an Ali-G shell suit, mind. You’ll need to employ some subtlety to ensure you’re more street than street corner. For novices, stick to one piece of retro sportswear such as a branded anorak as a nod to the decade. Those with heavily rose-tinted specs can amp up the nostalgia by opting for a full tracksuit, but should look for a slim cut and some discernibly modern sneakers.

    To sum it all up

    This Autumn/Winter period, there are a lot of current trends which you can easily adapt components of it into your wardrobe in a natural way. Whatever your style of dressing, the principles of layering, merino wool, checks and the ’90s sportswear revival can be incorporated into your style.