Now that winter has arrived, challenging myself to wear skirts and dresses to church every Sunday has resulted in me digging much deeper into my closet. Last Sunday morning, the temperature was -10ºC (14F), a strong wind was blowing, and it was snowing. Clearly, dressing warm was a priority. 

I started with a camel coloured pencil skirt that I bought in early 2013, just before we left for a teaching term in China. Named for it’s long, slim shape, a pencil skirt is a timeless garment that never goes out of fashion. It’s a basic wardrobe piece that many different outfits can be built around. In addition to this one, I have navy and grey pencil skirts that both date back to my teaching days. 

I wore the same tall brown boots and patterned top that were part of last week’s outfit. Though only barely visible in the photo, I wore a pair of dark brown leggings under the skirt, partly for warmth, but also because the skirt wasn’t quite long enough to cover the top of my boots and I didn’t want a sliver of bare skin breaking up the look. Next, I added my cozy Checkmate Jacket from cabi’s Fall 2019 collection which you’ve seen on the blog a couple of times before. 

Costume jewelry can be a fun and inexpensive way to finish off an outfit. The name dates back to the early 20th century and simply reflects the use of the word “costume” to refer to what we now call an “outfit”. To complete Sunday’s “costume”, I chose a pair of dangly earrings and a simple bead necklace. The beads are made from coconut shell. We spent the summer of 2011 as short term missionaries on the Pacific island of Saipan and it was there that I purchased the necklace from a Chamorro woman who made them to sell to tourists. The Chamorro are the indigenous people of the Northern Mariana Islands. 

Now that winter has arrived, I’m not sure that I’ll continue wearing skirts and dresses to church every week, but it’s been fun digging deeper into my closet and coming up with new ways to style some of my older pieces.