How to reboot your summer dresses for winter
The midi-dresses have taken over. In my wardrobe, anyway, they’ve vanquished all challengers and their dominion is complete. It was a gentle conquest, to be sure – lots of swishing – but the point is that whole swathes of prime closet space are now taken up not by useful mix-and-match separates, but rather by hanger after hanger of floaty, floral-print chiffon.
These are dresses that beg to be worn with open-toed sandals in a summer breeze. But I’ve discovered the smart dresser’s way to winterise the garments that now constitute 85% of my wardrobe, and it has nothing to do with tights. Repeat after me: Knee. High. Boots.
Beaufille yellow ruffled chiffon midi dress, £610, Net-A-Porter.com. Red leather boot, £565, Joseph.
Wear a midi-dress with a pair of knee-highs, and you’re the beneficiary of a meet-in-the-middle effect with that delivers full coverage, and with no need to resort to another day in the black opaques. All the waft, none of the draught, you might say.
The key is finding the right boots, the ones you’ll want to wear with every dress. Too low and you’re in non-committal Goldilocks territory (it’s too tall to be an ankle boots, too short to offer any real calf coverage). Too high and you get into the thigh-high boots zone, which is another thing entirely.
Long printed dress, £315, Maje. Studded boots, £249, Carvela Kurt Geiger.
Look for a style that stops just over or under the knee-cap, with a heel you trust yourself to stride around in all day. On the optimistic side of that calculus are Joseph’s lipstick-red showstoppers. If you’re not sure, try Stuart Weitzman –-- it’s come autumn, it looks like a one-stop boot shop just now, with high-rise footwear of all stripes. The 5050s are half-suede, half-stretch and render tights superfluous in one thigh-high swoop. I’ve had my eye on them for ages as a tights alternative for shorter dresses for ages –-- never mind that a work friend dismisses them as ‘too flat’.
Floral dress, £69.99, Zara. Flat black knee high 50/50 boot, £495, Stuart Weitzman.
Boots are what we in fashion often refer to as ‘a commitment,’ but a good pair is worth it. The hardest-working footwear in my wardrobe must be the boots I splashed out on at J .Crew in, ooh, must have been 2006. You can rest easy knowing that the added swagger comes free.
The best knee high boots to buy this autumn - and how to wear them
