Winter Field Outfits
When I wrote about summer field outfits back in July, I was trying to come up with outfits that were sort of cute. These were outfits you could wear in the field and then transition into a professional office. Well, it’s winter in the northeast now. F*** that cute and professional s***. We’re just trying to survive the winter without freezing our a**es off.
Winter outfits are all about the layering, so let’s talk through this layer by layer.
LAYER 1: Underlayer
To retain your body heat, you’re going to want to start your base layer with long underwear. There are several different fabrics on the market designed to keep you warm, but I personally use heattech from Uniqlo. My base layer consists of a heattech long sleeve tucked into heattech leggings tucked into heattech socks. Depending on how cold it is or how much I expect to be moving around, I’ll opt for a regular heattech or an extra warm heattech. I may also throw on an extra pair of socks to protect myself from the icy cold steel toe.
LAYER 2: Outfit layer
Our next layer is just our regular shmegular outfit layer. This is what you’re going to look like when you come back to the office and pull off your outer layers. I generally opt for jeans and a sweater. If it’s really cold out, I pull out my double lined oversized hoodie. This hoodie is made of two layers of thick sweatshirt material and is f***ing awesome. I got mine for free from my sister, but I found a similar one here.
LAYER 3: Outer layer
Now we have our outer layer which, at its simplest, is your coat. I usually opt for something that’s wind-breaking and insulating. Sometimes I even layer my windbreaker over my alternative down jacket. If you can afford it and want to make an investment, you may want to get your hands on a Carhartt jacket and overalls/coveralls for your outer layer. For those of you unfamiliar, Carhartts sort of feel like cardboard pretending to be fabric and keeps you super warm, but it ain’t cheap.
LAYER 4: Accessories
Now it’s time to layer on your accessories. This includes your scarf, gloves, mittens, ear warmers, beanie, etc. Note that with your head and ear warmers, you’ll need to make sure it fits under your hardhat. For very cold and long site visits, I take a page out of Lloyd Christmas’s book. I’ll put on thin gloves that I can write with and slip those under a fleece lined pair of mittens. (You’ve had this pair of extra gloves this whole time?) I used to wear thicker gloves, but had to always take them on and off to write notes. The double layer keeps my hands warm and I never need to expose my bare hands to the elements.
LAYER 5: Extras
We’ve got on a lot of layers now, but yes, there is more to talk about. You may still have trouble keeping warm. Maybe because of your body chemistry or maybe you don’t have the cash to invest in your outer layers. Don’t fret! You can easily get your hands on some heat packs to help keep you from turning to ice this winter. Also, hot tip, if there’s a generator on site, you should stand by it for the warmth.
Keep warm out there folks!