Winter Layering in Trenery

Hey Achmat

Summer sucks.

Okay, that seems a bit harsh, but it’s next to impossible to appear dapper in summer, I sometimes think you can achieve smart casual at best. You wanna know why that is? Layering. Yep, layering can really help push your outfit to another level, but you can really only get away with it in winter.

As with all things, the art to layering is in the details. There is of course a wrong and right way to do it. So, with the help of this outfit I picked up at Trenery I’m gonna try help you get it right as we start heading into the middle of winter here in the Southern Hemisphere.

I speak about ‘the art of contrast’ in pattern maxing a fair amount with my Fancy Friday posts, and layering falls under the same rule – as do most rules in mens fashion. For your layers to work, they need to stand apart from each other, and this is where the contrast comes in. Make sure that if you’re layering in solid colours (like I am in this outfit) that you keep within the same tonal range to avoid looking like a christmas tree. A misplaced pop of colour when layering can draw all the attention to one item and make the layering appear less like layering and more like you just couldn’t work out what to wear so you just wore everything you had.

Layering is not just about looking good though (or great in some cases) but it’s also the most practical way to dress for our climate. It’s cold outside, then it’s warm in the car but then cold in the parking lot and warm in the office again and it goes on like that all day for a couple of months. Cape town can be even trickier with a freezing cold morning and a summers afternoon in one day. Layering helps you adjust to the climate without having to dress down completely. The simplest and most practical thing for this is knitwear, not only does it add warmth, but if you choose smartly, it can add texture and colour to your outfit too.

As always, you want to avoid synthetic fabrics, they will literally give you no breathing room between the hot and cold spots so where you can stick to wool during winter. The outfit above features both a Brushed Merino wool Trenery blazer and a Merino Wool Trenery V-Neck, not only did they add great texture, but they had me feeling like I was walking around in my duvet the whole day – yeah, it’s that cosy.