My Winter Micro Wardrobe

Embracing the darkness, distilling the formula. Plus, my last giveaways of '24 (!!) including 2 of my FAVE crossbody bags:)

In the spirit of giving + getting glorious things this month, I’m wrapping up the year with a tiny discount—when you subscribe now, all new annual paid subscriptions to A Tiny Apt. will be 40% off. That means a huge glittery✨ chunk of our wonderful little world here is up for grabs for just $30. More epic thrifting, more style and design discoveries (like today’s “Micro Wardrobe” series), more life lessons on doing a lot with a little…join us?

For the past few years, while we’ve been building our tiny modern cabin upstate, we’ve been learning to garden with our local friend Susie. I am not a natural-born gardener, but over the years Susie has become like family and has shown me that gardening is less about skill and more about paying attention. Not just to what we see but what we can feel when we’re actually seeing it.

One of our favorite things to do when she’s passing by is to roam around the land together, what she calls a “walkabout,” and note all the latest/greatest developments, mostly the very quiet ones relating to plants/shrubs/trees/critter poop, etc. Lately though, as winter and frostier temps have been settling in, she’s been teaching me about wintering—the ritual of covering up all the plants with fallen leaves, cutting back what is dead and needs to be discarded, and honoring this necessary stage of the life cycle…as well as a new chapter hidden away underground.

I’m sure many of you have read Katherine May’s wondrous book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat During Difficult Times, an essential text on the annual rhythms in our lives when going down and inward isn’t just a seasonal routine but an act of self-love…and also survival.

Funny enough, though, it occurred to me this weekend as I clomped around the cabin in my winter boots and down quilted pants (more options for you down below) that this is kind of how I think about winter dressing, too. Following along with a rhythm, stripping away the dead stuff, revisiting a simple strategy and distilling it—once again—with fresh eyes.

Because winter dressing can be a real mind fuck. Dressing for weather that absolutely no one wants to venture out into. Weather that is mostly bone-chilling, WET, and diabolical as it relates to both driving and hairdos. And yet, HERE WE GO….every morning, waking up, slowly, to dark skies and cold floors. Rooting through our closets like a squirrel raiding a secret seed stash, looking for things that don’t just work for gloomy skies, but makes such cranky conditions a little more pleasing. Pieces that are cozier, slightly rugged, probably a little oversized for your 🤡 layering pleasure. And maybe, too, a few pieces that are shiny, even a little weird/industrial to bring some much-needed wit to the party.

I’ve begun to not just see—but feel—how winter days can be transforming both in how I dress and also how I think about dressing…for shitty weather and also shitty attitudes. So, I suppose, think of this as a tiny winter survival guide. A salve! For dressing yes, but also for having some fun/adventures in the coming months, too. Here are few more reminders about what to wear when it’s cold + yucky outside: