093/ Beyond Outerwear: Three Ways I'm Leveraging My Utility Jacket
Warmth isn't its only virtue...
With coat season behind us, last week I pulled out my trusty utility jacket which has served me well over the past couple of seasons:
But as I was throwing the jacket over yet another neutral outfit (coming up in the next instalment of What I’m Wearing), I felt an urge to find a more creative way to wear it. Don’t get me wrong, I felt great in these outfits. But there just isn’t a lot of variation between them.
And so began an afternoon of playing in my closet. And guess what? In the process, I came up with three practical uses for the jacket which I’ll be sharing with you today!
My jacket is from Riand28, but yours doesn’t have to be for the principles in this newsletter to apply. Maybe you have something similar already. Also, two weeks ago, I recommended a handful of parka-trench hybrids, a few of which I could see working with the outfits I’m about to share with you.
1) Utility Jacket As A Longer Blazer
With diaphanous fabrics continuing to float down runways, perhaps you’ve acquired a sheer piece or two over the last year that you’ve struggled to wear IRL — if you’re not inclined to show your skivvies, that is.
The easiest fix is to wear a top that’s long enough to cover your bum and then some. The problem is, I don’t own such a piece.
I do have two “tops” that qualify — Tibi’s Liam blazer and an R13 sweatshirt dress — but I haven’t been able to make them work with my sheers just yet. Aside from those two pieces, none of my tops, even my longer blazers, are quite long enough. And so, I’ve been wearing my sheers over leggings or biker shorts, like this:
Imagine my surprise, then, to discover that my utility jacket was the piece that would fill this hole in my wardrobe! It’s comfortably long enough to wear — and walk (so key!) — with my sheer skirts.
And yes, just in case, I’m still wearing bike shorts. They may peek out from time to time as I walk, but they’re not a prominent feature of the overall look as in the outfits above.
One the features of my jacket is that the width of the wrist is adjustable. As a variation, I undid all the buttons, switched out my bag, and added a striped sock: