Star News
What clothes are warmer for winter. Fashionable options for winter outerwear for women, how best to choose. Review of models of famous brands
Text: Anya Krotikova
The popularity of street fashion and the course towards comfort per last years turned the choice of winter clothes into a truly fun entertainment. A leopard coat, a voluminous down jacket and a toe-length sheepskin coat - today you can find outerwear for every taste both in the mass market and from expensive brands. We tell you which models you should pay attention to this winter.
Sheepskin coat
Zara, 7999 rub.
Joseph, 99 000 rub.
The Arrivals, RUB 80,844
Topshop, £795
Acne Studios, £2000
To sheepskin coats, unloved clothes of many Russian children, popularity returned a couple of years ago. The classic Acne Studios model is still the standard, but in the new season, similar (and more budgetary) versions have been released by many brands - from Arrivals to Zara and Mango. A sheepskin coat from the mass market is unlikely to warm in cold weather, but it is quite possible to wear it with a liner jacket with a moderate minus. For a short jacket, it is better to choose warm sweatpants made of knitwear and a fluffy sweater with a high collar, and we recommend wearing a knee-length sheepskin coat with massive boots resembling trekking boots or flat-soled boots.
Faux fur coat
Zara, 9999 rub.
Alice + Olivia, £663
Shrimps, £595
Topshop, £129
Mango, 9999 rub.
Faux fur is now being made indistinguishable from real fur, which is great: responsible consumption goes hand in hand with the rejection of real fur. In the new season, there are no restrictions on either the color scheme or the style: designers produce long-haired candy fur coats, imitation astrakhan fur coats, long vintage-cut models and fluffy printed coats. Fur coats themselves have long ceased to be outerwear for going out: you can wear them with camouflage print trousers, and with a sweatshirt and a pair of mesh sneakers.
Wool coat
I AM Studio, RUB 17,900
Petar Petrov, £1000
Acne Studios, £959
Vetements, 126,000 rubles.
Topshop, £150
A coat with a high percentage of wool in the composition and a warm lining is quite capable of replacing a parka and even a down jacket. At the same time, it is better to choose an oversized model or a bathrobe for the winter (Vetements turned out to be a literal interpretation of this idea), a large-knit sweater or down vest will fit under it. You can complement the multi-layered image with a knitted dress, over the knee boots and a balaclava.
Parka
Vetements, 226,000 rubles.
Topshop, £59
Zara, 7999 rub.
Monki, £120
Calvin Klein, £1800
The park is the best choice for those who, even in the cold season, do not miss the opportunity to walk from home to work on foot. Really warm models can always be found in specialized brands like Canada Goose or Woolrich, but the mass market does not fail either. Zara, Monki, Topshop and others produce their own version of the classic silhouette with a huge hood.
Down jacket
Zara, 7999 rub.
Monki, £70
Balenciaga £2000
Uniqlo, 9999 rub.
Marques'Almeida, 73,000 rubles.
The triumphant return of down jackets happened a couple of seasons ago. Now smartly tailored models are not shy about releasing expensive brands like Balenciaga or Marques'Almeida. The optimal ratio of price and quality can also be found in mass manufacturers: Uniqlo has been releasing a straight-cut model for several years, changing only the color palette. In the mass market, you also need to look for the funniest down jackets: with a leopard print, from metallized materials or with a large print.
lining
The liner jacket has long been transformed from an addition to warm winter clothes into an independent wardrobe item - you can wear it over a lace dress, a sequined top or a knitted suit. For those who are constantly freezing in winter, this thing will help to survive the next six months. Such jackets are most often made with a thin layer of down or synthetic filler - this provides warmth, but does not add volume to the silhouette, so the liner can easily fit under a coat or sheepskin coat.
Illustration: Dasha Chertanova
Photo: Zara, Monki, Mango, Net-A-Porter, Farfetch, Topshop, Shrimps, I AM Studio, Matchesfashion, Uniqlo, Kixbox, Need Supply
In order to survive in the Arctic, people had to repulse the main enemy of man in these latitudes - a terrible cold piercing to the bones. But human ingenuity and resourcefulness made it possible to tame the cold cruel North. And in this article you will learn how the equipment of polar explorers has changed over the years.
Eskimo traditional dress
Canada consists of two fur suits worn one over the other. The skins of the upper suit are turned with the fur outward, and the skins of the lower suit are turned with the fur inward. Each costume consists of a parka with a hood, pants, gloves and boots. Thus, the double layer of fur perfectly protects the whole body from the cold. The Eskimos do not wear belts, so both parkas hang loosely to provide ventilation. The boots are made of reindeer skin, which is sewn with fur on the outside so that the foot does not slip on the ice.
Deer skin clothing not only provides excellent thermal insulation. It can also become the only means of salvation in the event that the hunter accidentally falls through the ice. Since deer hair is hollow, this allows a person to stay on the surface for a long time, sometimes up to several hours, which significantly increases the chances of salvation. 
It was for all these qualities that the first polar explorers fell in love with the traditional clothing of the peoples of the North and took it as the basis for the manufacture of polar explorers' costumes until the 40s of the last century. Here is how Arctic researcher Nikolai Urvantsev describes a typical polar costume of the 1930s: “I dressed quite warmly and at the same time lightly. I was wearing simple knitted and woolen underwear, a woolen sweater, a fawn fur shirt with fur inside; fur pants with a bodice where the shirt was tucked into; on the legs - simple and woolen socks, long, to the waist, stockings with fur inside, and, finally, fur, also to the waist, "bakari" boots. The boots had a thick felt insole. For protection from the wind, a "wind" shirt with a hood and trousers made of thick parachute silk were worn over everything. I put on my kukhlyanka only during a particularly strong blizzard. 
But since the type of activity and life of the participants in high-latitude expeditions often differed greatly from the traditional way of life of the Eskimos, clothing local residents did not always meet their needs. The problem was to maintain a balance between seemingly two mutually exclusive qualities - high thermal insulation and good ventilation.
Therefore, until the mid-1960s, polar explorers experimented with costumes made from the fur of various animals. Quilted clothes on eider down or wadding were also in use. The polar explorer's outfit of those times included silk and wool underwear, eiderdown or camel wool trousers, a woolen diving sweater and a quilted short jacket. A woolen balaclava, a hat with a leather top and a fur hood protected the head from frost. This attire was completed by a woolen scarf and woolen gloves and shoes, whose assortment has not changed so far: high fur boots, felt boots and rubber boots. Outerwear was sewn from dense windproof fabric. 
With the start of work in the more severe physical and geographical conditions of the Antarctic highlands and with the change of activity in the Arctic from expeditionary to predominantly industrial, the polar explorer's suit required serious improvements. Thus began the search for new materials and work on the study thermal state person in different conditions. So in the USSR appeared the best way a proven model of polar overalls - a KAE suit. The costume consisted of a jacket with a hood and a wind-shelter valve covering the lower part of the face, and overalls. Served as a heater camel's wool, laid between two layers of gauze, and a nylon windproof film. Cotton fabric was used as a top material for a long time, until it was abandoned due to numerous shortcomings. 
In the 1980s, fabrics made of textured polyester yarns began to be used as top materials instead of cotton fabrics, which retain elasticity at low temperatures, are soft and wear-resistant. In Europe and the USA, attempts were made to create polar overalls from synthetic materials: nitron, polyvinyl chloride, polyester and others. However, clothing made from these materials did not give a satisfactory heat-shielding effect. 
A new impetus in the production of equipment for polar expeditions was given by the invention of membrane fabrics and materials. Due to their structure (their pores allow moist warm air to pass through from the inside and prevent the penetration of moisture from the outside), membrane or “breathable” materials combine excellent wind and moisture protection properties with good ventilation and thermal insulation. 
A modern polar workwear set has three layers: thermal underwear, wool or fleece, down overalls or jacket. main function of each layer is to preserve heat and transport moisture to the overlying layer and then bring it out. To achieve these goals, the latest membrane materials are used.
As a filler in a down jumpsuit or jacket, not only down (duck or goose) is used, but also synthetic materials such as Thinsulate, Thermolite, Daune and Quallofil. They compete with natural insulation and provide reliable thermal protection combined with good ventilation.
The coolest insulation is the down of waterfowl. No synthetic insulation can match the insulating properties and lightness of down. That is why climbers who climb the peaks of 6000-8000 m use clothes and sleeping bags with down filling. Down is the perfect insulator for dry and cold weather. It is not suitable for conditions with high humidity, as it absorbs moisture from the air. Wet fluff warms worse and can deteriorate if it stays in a humid environment for a long time. Synthetic insulation is more practical. He does not need special care, like fluff. He calmly endures humid climate and dries quickly. But in the ratio of weight and warmth, synthetic insulation loses to fluff. If you do not have the opportunity to bother with the care of down clothing, or you often have to wash your winter jacket. Take clothes with synthetic filling.
fluff washable in water 40°C special means for washing fluff . During the drying of the product, it is necessary to break the lumps that form wet fluff several times with your hands. It is important that downy things dry quickly, then the smell of wet chicken from the jacket will not appear. Therefore, it is better to wash downy things in the summer, when the weather is sunny outside. Then everything dries quickly naturally, without batteries and hair dryers. Do not wash down clothes very often, this affects the quality of the down. But once a year, washing downy things is required if you have actively used the product.
Synthetics. Unlike down, clothes made of synthetic insulation are much easier to wash. Each synthetic filler has its own washing characteristics, but there are general principles. Clothes can be washed in ordinary powder, wrung out, dry-cleaned and dried on a battery (if the product is not made of a membrane).
Both synthetics and down should not be washed with bleach and all sorts of rinses.
LessThe nights are getting colder and colder: the thermometer sometimes drops to -25 ... -30 degrees. “Dress warmly” - such advice we have been hearing literally from everywhere lately. What is "warmer"? And what is the warmest clothes? "Komsomolskaya Pravda" conducted its own experiment, and found out which clothes retain heat better.
The very first thing you need to know is that it is not clothes that hold heat, but air. That is why clothing should be multi-layered, but at the same time should not be tight and squeezing - this will impede blood flow, and blood is the main supplier of heat from the inside. The more layers of air, the better.
Shoes should also not be tight. If the shoes are tight, then the blood circulation in the legs slows down, and this is a sure way to frostbite. Fingers should move freely. Before leaving the house, you need to polish your shoes with a greasy cream - it will prevent the shoes from getting wet. Put on woolen socks, insert thick insoles - even if they get wet, they will absorb moisture. A prerequisite is gloves: through bare hands, you can lose up to 17% of heat! By the way, mittens will be a better option - they are warmer.
It is better to choose a hat loose and do not cover your ears. Protect your neck and even your face from frost with a loose knit scarf. It is important to remember: the danger of frostbite is created not only by sub-zero temperatures, but also by factors such as air humidity and wind strength. The higher the humidity, the stronger wind the more likely you are to get frostbite.
How did we measure?
For the experiment, we chose four types of winter outerwear: a sheepskin coat, a ski jacket, a down jacket and a fur coat. We placed the sensor of the electronic thermometer in an empty plastic bottle. To prevent the sensor from touching the edges of the bottle, we fixed it strictly in the middle of the bottle. And we inserted the bottle itself into the sleeve, which was tightly twisted on both sides with adhesive tape. It was shaped like a candy. We exposed each wardrobe item to frost for 15 minutes, and measured how many degrees the air temperature in the bottle would drop during this time. It was -13 degrees outside.
Initial temperature (оС)
Final temperature (оС)
Temperature difference (oC)
Sheepskin coat
Ski jacket
In our experiment, the fur coat won. Sheepskin coat and down jacket were almost equal and share the second place. Surprisingly, the ski jacket, which seemed to be made from the most modern materials, lost in our test. However, if you look in more detail - it becomes clear why. Firstly, the sleeve of a sports jacket is much thinner than its main part. Secondly, it is not the material itself that provides warmth, but special flap fasteners at the bottom of the jacket, on the sleeves and on the hood. Thirdly, those very famous membranes that sportswear manufacturers are so proud of are not designed to retain heat at all, but to remove moisture from the body into the outer layers of clothing. And the drier inside, the more comfortable and warmer. Finally, we did not take into account the ability of clothing to withstand gusts of wind, and this is also an important fact.
In severe winter conditions, warm winter jackets are the best choice for women leading an active lifestyle. At the same time, down jackets occupy a leading position in the winter clothing market: they are warm, do not hinder movement, and allow you to experiment with looks. But when there are questions about the style, quality and type of filler. To answer them, you need to study the products of leading brands and a series of fillers that are used in tailoring.
Fashionable puffs for a cold winter
How to choose a good down jacket for winter
Jackets and down jackets hold a leading position in the winter clothing market. They are fashionable, light and comfortable, in addition to being practical. This clothing meets the requirements of the cold climate of the middle zone, protects from severe frosts, wet snow and strong winds.
Down jackets with fur trim
There are budget options for down jackets, but if you weigh the pros and cons, then the scales lean in favor of quality clothing that can last for more than one year.
Criterias of choice:
- A weighty argument when choosing clothes for the harsh winter of 2019 is the quality of the material and the type of filler. But, before going to the store, it is necessary to study the advantages and disadvantages of each of the presented samples;
- Until recently, the only alternative on the winter clothing market were mixtures of down and feathers in different proportions. But innovative developments do not stand still and worthy substitutes with significant advantages have come to the alternative to natural components;
- When choosing clothes, you should take into account the individual characteristics of each material, appearance products and their own feelings when trying on.
Down jackets “blankets”
natural fillers
They are filled with eiderdown and swan down, while the price of such a product may not be affordable for the townsfolk. To reduce the cost, some manufacturers use duck, goose and chicken down. At the same time, the cost is reduced, and the product after the first wash leaves much to be desired.
Original models of designer puffy jackets
Cheap substitutes go astray, acquire an unpleasant odor and lose their attractive appearance. And high quality natural fluff does not break out at the seams of the product, does not creak, and quickly returns to its original form when crushed.
artificial fillers
Every year the range of artificial fillers increases significantly. But with high performance, the price of the product will be relatively low cost.
Practical models of the mass market segment
When deciding on a model, it is necessary to take into account the purpose of the product:
- for long hikes;
- for short walks;
- for ski holidays.
These factors will depend on the type and percentage filler.
Beautiful, but not practical in snowy weather, a down jacket made of velvet
Sintepon. Brand manufacturers practically do not use synthetic winterizer, preferring innovative materials. This material is relatively cheap, retains heat well, but has significant drawbacks:
- clumps up;
- thins out after washing.
Buying a jacket on a synthetic winterizer is justified when the product is purchased for short walks or for driving a car.
Cheap Chinese jackets on synthetic winterizer
The most popular filler materials are: isosoft, insulation, holofiber, sintepukh. Consider the features of each separately.
Isosoft. The modern membrane-based material from Libeltex is light, airy, retains heat well. Compared to other materials, it:
- does not lose properties when machine washed;
- has high insulating qualities;
- withstands low temperatures;
- suitable for daily use.
Fashion down jackets coats. Due to the turn-down collar, they are good for warm winters.
Important! When purchasing a product from isosoft, it is necessary to take into account the only drawback - for some people, the material causes discomfort - it bites.
holofiber. Ergonomic lightweight filler with a number of distinctive features:
- hypoallergenic;
- has high thermal insulation properties;
- maintains low temperatures to -15 °C.
Among the shortcomings of the material, low moisture-absorbing properties can be distinguished, so it is not recommended to use it for sportswear.
Fashionable long down coats made of shiny fabrics
Insulate. A specially developed material made of ultra-fine, spiral-shaped siliconized fiber, which is rightfully considered a worthy replacement for swan down. The properties of the material are suitable for the conditions of the Far North, it is used in the space and military industries. It has advantageous qualities:
- repels moisture and dries quickly;
- does not absorb foreign odors;
- does not lose shape when worn and washed;
- has low deformation properties.
Classic models of down jackets without a collar are interesting, but impractical for a cold winter.
Insulate jackets can accumulate static electricity and cause overheating of the body - these features must be considered when choosing a product.
Sintepukh. A worthy replacement for expensive natural fillers. Consists of polyester fibers treated with a special silicone emulsion. This prevents fiber deformation, improves ergonomic and thermal insulation properties.
Warm cropped models of down jackets
When choosing a down jacket, it is necessary to take into account some features of the materials:
- for allergy sufferers, preference should be given to artificial fillers;
- thinsulate is suitable for ski suits, and holofiber is more suitable for urban conditions;
- when choosing ovens with natural materials, preference should be given to a down / feather mixture - it is stronger and more durable than down analogs.
