Men’s Winter Fashion for Any Budget: Where to Spend and Where to Save
Between December and March, take a look at what people are actually wearing on the street. You’ll see a lot of coats, a lot of boots, and a lot of hats and scarves, and that’s about all you’ll see. The guy standing next to you at the crosswalk could have a $300 cashmere sweater on under his coat, or he could have on the T-shirt he slept in, and you’d have no way of knowing which one it is.
Yes, once you get to the office or the restaurant, you take the coat off and the sweater gets its moment to shine. But out on the street in the winter, the coat is the star, and your boots, your scarf, your beanie and your gloves are the supporting cast. Your coat is out there making your first impression, and it’s what people judge your style on. The other pieces matter, but if the coat is unimpressive, you’ve already been judged.
If you read our fall fashion essentials guide, you might remember me saying that in the fall, the jacket is the least important thing you’ve got on, because half the day it’s hanging over your arm. Winter flips that around completely. In winter, your coat is the outfit, and it’s the piece that should get the biggest share of your money.
But I can’t write a winter shopping guide that’s only about coats. So in this guide, we’re going to spend plenty of time on your coat, but we’re also going to go through the 4 other pieces worth owning for winter, in order of how much they matter, plus the accessories that finish them off. That’s 5 pieces in all, and for every one of them, I’ll tell you what it does for you, what to check before you buy it, and the budget version that’s actually worth the money.
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1. Wool coat that does the talking
If you’re still wearing the puffer you’ve had since college, I already know what you’re thinking. It’s warm, it zips, and it’s lasted this long, so why would you replace it with a wool coat you have to take to the dry cleaner?
Yes, the puffer definitely keeps you warm, but you shouldn’t wear it everywhere, like to a job interview or a formal dinner at a nice restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great puffers that can be statement pieces. But this is an important concept that I talk about in my book, Dress to Impress and Spend Less: don’t dress for your age, and don’t dress to impress other people, dress for the occasion. A puffer looks casual no matter what you wear under it. A wool overcoat looks good over a suit, over a sweater and jeans, and even over sweatpants and the right hoodie when you’re heading to the gym.
Before we get into what to look for, here’s what an overcoat actually is. An overcoat is a long wool coat that’s cut to go over everything else you’re wearing, which is where the name comes from. It’s tailored like a jacket, with a collar, lapels and buttons down the front, but it’s longer and has more room inside, so a sweater or a suit jacket fits underneath it. Most overcoats land somewhere between the middle of your thigh and your knee.
And yes, in the fall guide I told you that a jacket that hangs down to mid-thigh cuts you in half. That rule is for a light jacket you wear over a shirt. An overcoat is long on purpose. The extra length covers your seat and the tops of your legs, and covering more of your body is a big part of why an overcoat is warmer than a jacket.
Before you buy: Here are 4 things to check before you buy an overcoat.
- Read the label inside the coat, not the name on the tag. A coat called a “wool blend” can be one third wool and two thirds polyester. Look for 70 percent wool or more on the label inside the coat. A little nylon in the mix is fine and makes the fabric tougher. But if polyester is the main fabric, the coat will look like wool on the hanger and start pilling a lot faster than wool.
- Try it on over your thickest sweater. Don’t try it on over the T-shirt you wore to the store. Button it all the way, then reach both arms out in front of you like you’re holding a steering wheel. If the buttons pull into little X shapes or the back feels tight, go up a size. You’re going to spend 4 months reaching for subway poles and car doors in this coat.
- Check the length and the sleeves. The coat should cover your seat at the very least, and anywhere from mid-thigh to just above the knee works. With your arms still out in front of you, the sleeves should cover your wrists. If they don’t, cold air gets in through the gap between your gloves and your sleeves. If the sleeves are a little too long, a tailor can shorten them. If they’re too short, a tailor usually can’t make them long enough, so return the coat.
- Buy charcoal or navy first. Both colors go with everything you own, including brown boots. Camel looks great, but make camel your second coat, because it shows every splash of salty slush. Black works too, but it’s harder to pair with the brown boots later in this guide, and it shows every piece of lint.
Where to find a good price and quality: Quince’s Italian Wool Overcoat is about $180. It’s 80 percent wool and 20 percent nylon, fully lined, with horn buttons, a notched lapel and a single row of buttons down the front, which is about as classic as an overcoat gets. Quince cuts it slim through the chest and shoulders, so if you’re broad or you plan to wear it over a chunky sweater, size up. Quince only sells online, so order it, try it on at home over your thickest sweater, do the steering wheel test, and send it back if it doesn’t pass.
2. Boots that can take salt and slush
After your coat, your boots are the next thing people notice. A good winter boot has to do 2 things. First, it has to look good with your coat and the rest of your outfit. And second, it has to hold up to slush and road salt. Most guys end up with a boot that only does one of those things. They either buy a big, bulky snow boot that looks like hiking gear, or they wear their nice leather boots in the slush and ruin them by February. You can find boots that do both, and here’s how to pick them.
3 winter boot styles that look good
There are 3 styles of winter boot that look good and can handle bad weather. Which one you pick depends on how dressed up you usually are.
- Lug-sole Chelsea boot. A Chelsea boot is a slip-on ankle boot with stretchy panels on the sides and no laces. The version with a thick, grippy rubber sole, called a lug sole, is the dressiest of the 3. It looks great with a wool overcoat, dark jeans, chinos and wool trousers, and it’s the one to wear to the office.
- Lace-up leather boot with a lug sole. This is the classic leather work-style boot, and it’s the most versatile of the 3. It works with jeans, chinos, a wool overcoat, a peacoat and a puffer.
- Duck boot. A duck boot has a rubber bottom and a leather top. It handles slush and salt better than the other 2, and it’s also the most casual. It looks great with jeans, a puffer or a peacoat, and fine with a wool overcoat on a weekend. It doesn’t look right with dress pants or a suit.
If you only buy one pair, buy the style that matches what you wear most days. My pick is the lace-up leather boot, because it works with casual outfits and dressier ones, and it holds up to the weather.
Before you buy: Here’s what to look for so your boots look good and last through the winter.
- A slim shape. The toe should be rounded but not bulky, and the sole shouldn’t stick out much past the sides of the boot. A slim boot looks good with jeans and chinos. A wide, chunky boot looks like hiking gear.
- A lug sole that isn’t too thick. You want deep grooves on the bottom so you don’t slip on packed snow and ice. But a thick, clunky hiking sole makes the boot look heavy, so look for grooves on a sole that sits fairly close to the ground.
- Smooth leather, not suede. Road salt leaves white stains on any leather, but smooth leather wipes clean much more easily. Suede soaks up the salt and water, and it’s hard to get the stains out. Save your suede boots for dry days.
- Dark brown first. Dark brown goes with a charcoal or navy coat, with jeans, and with gray or khaki pants. Black is sharper with a black coat and dressier outfits, so make black your second pair.
- A clean design. Pick plain leather with simple laces or no laces. Skip big logos, contrast stitching and a lot of metal hardware, because they make the boot harder to wear with everything else you own.
- The right amount of insulation. If you mostly walk between the train and the office, an uninsulated boot with wool socks is warm enough, and your feet won’t overheat on a heated train. Insulated boots are for deep snow and for guys who stand outside for hours at a time.
How to wear them
Wear your jeans or chinos over the top of the boot, not tucked in. Pants that are slim or tapered at the ankle sit cleanly on top of the boot. Wide pants bunch up around the boot and drag through the slush. The only time to tuck your pants in is when you’re walking through deep snow. And keep your boots clean. Even a great pair of boots looks sloppy with white salt stains across the toes, so wipe them down when you get home. The salt stain question at the bottom of this page shows you how.
Where to find a good price and quality: Your best option depends on your budget and how much style matters to you.
- If style and quality are your top priorities and you can afford it, get Thursday Boot Co.’s Captain with the StormKing lug sole. It’s about $200. It’s a slim lace-up leather boot with a cap toe and a rubber lug sole, and it looks good with jeans, chinos and a wool overcoat. Thursday builds it with a Goodyear welt, which means a shoe repair shop can put a new sole on it instead of you buying a new pair.
- If that’s a little out of your budget and style isn’t as important to you, go with L.L.Bean’s 6-inch Bean Boot. It’s about $140. It’s a duck boot, so it’s more casual than the Thursday boot, but the rubber bottom is waterproof, and it handles slush and salt better than any other boot on this list. L.L.Bean says to order a full size down from your normal shoe size if you’re wearing light or midweight socks, and your normal size if you’re wearing heavy socks.
- If that’s still too much, Steve Madden’s Reid boot is about $120. It’s a dark brown lace-up leather boot with a lug sole, and it looks good. It isn’t as durable as the other 2, and Steve Madden doesn’t say it’s water resistant, so save it for dry, cold days, not slush.
3. Puffer for the days wool can’t handle
A few minutes ago I was making fun of your college puffer, and now I’m telling you to buy one, so I owe you an explanation.
I didn’t tell you to get rid of the puffer. I told you to stop wearing it over everything. Again, dress for the occasion. A wool coat handles most winter days better than a puffer does, but there are 2 kinds of days that a wool coat handles worse. The first is the snowy days. Wool soaks up wet snow, it gets heavy, and it takes forever to dry. A puffer with a water-repellent shell shakes off snow and light rain much better. And the second is the casual days, like the grocery run, the hardware store, or walking the dog at 7 in the morning. A wool overcoat at the dog park looks like you’re about to sue somebody. A puffer with a hood just looks like a guy walking his dog.
If you can only own one coat for now, pick the one that matches your weekdays. If your weekdays involve an office, dinners out, or anywhere with a dress code, start with the wool coat. If they involve a job site, a stroller, or a long walk through real snow, start with the puffer and add the wool coat next year.
Before you shop, there’s one piece of puffer jargon worth knowing, and it’s fill power. Fill power tells you how good the down is, meaning how much it puffs up, and the bigger the number, the more warmth you get for the weight. But fill power only tells you the quality of the down, not how much down is actually in the jacket, which is called fill weight, and plenty of brands print the first number in big type and leave the second one off entirely. A jacket with a high fill power and not much down in it can be colder than a cheaper one that’s stuffed full.
Before you buy: Four things to check before you buy.
- Check for thin spots. Hold the jacket up to the light and run your hands over the chest, back and arms. The down should feel evenly spread, with no flat or empty spots in the quilting.
- Get the hood. A hood is what turns a puffer jacket into a parka, and on the windy, snowy days that you’re buying the puffer for, you’ll use it more than you think.
- Cover your seat. A puffer that stops at your waist leaves a gap every time you bend over or sit down, so look for one that covers your seat.
- Go matte and plain. A matte finish and simple quilting look like a city coat. A shiny shell with big logos and a lot of puff looks like you’re waiting in line for a ski lift.
Where to find a good price and quality: Uniqlo’s Seamless Down Parka is about $180. Uniqlo uses 750 fill power down or higher in its down jackets, and the seamless part of the name means the quilting across the body is fused instead of stitched, so there are fewer needle holes for the wind to get through. The parka has a hood and a water-repellent finish. What it isn’t is waterproof. It’ll shrug off light rain and snow, but don’t expect it to keep you dry in a downpour. And since Uniqlo has stores, you can try it on before you buy it, which you should do over a sweater.
4. Chunky sweater
In the fall guide, I told you to skip the thick sweater, because you can’t fit a jacket over one without moving like a robot. Winter is where the thick sweater finally gets its time to shine. An overcoat is cut to go over a sweater, so the chunky knit that was a problem in October is exactly what you want in January. It’s the most winter-looking thing you can put on, and it’s warm enough that you can take the coat off and still be comfortable at the table by the door.
And while the coat makes the first impression, when it comes off at the office or the bar, your sweater needs to make a statement. It should say, yeah, I thought this outfit through, and it looks really good even without the coat.
Here’s how to pick and wear a chunky sweater so it looks good.
- Start with a crewneck. A crewneck is the easiest chunky sweater to wear, because it goes with jeans, chinos and wool trousers. A shawl collar sweater, the kind with a wide, folded collar, is dressier and looks great on a date.
- Pick a color that works with your coat. Cream, oatmeal, gray, navy and forest green all look good under a charcoal or navy overcoat. A cream or oatmeal sweater under a dark coat is one of the best-looking winter combinations you can wear.
- Wear something underneath it. For the office or a date, wear an Oxford or a flannel shirt with the collar showing at the neck, which makes a chunky sweater look dressier. On a casual day, wear a T-shirt or even a tank top. Either way, a layer underneath keeps thick wool from itching your skin, and you won’t have to wash the sweater every time you wear it.
- Read the tag. Look for wool, lambswool or merino, as close to 100 percent as you can get. Acrylic sweaters look the same on the hanger, but they pill fast, and wool keeps you a lot warmer than acrylic when you get caught in wet snow.
Where to find a good price and quality: Your best option depends on whether you want a true chunky knit or a lighter sweater that costs less.
- If you want the real chunky look, get Quince’s Australian Merino Wool Cable Crewneck. It’s about $80 for 100 percent merino wool. The cable knit gives it the thick, textured look of a winter sweater, but it isn’t bulky, so it fits under an overcoat without making you look bigger. It comes in bone, gray, black and a toffee brown.
- If that’s more than you want to spend, Uniqlo’s Lambswool Sweater is about $50 for 100 percent wool, and it comes in about 10 colors, including off-white, gray, navy, brown and green. It isn’t as thick as the Quince sweater, so it won’t give you the same chunky look, but it’s warm, it fits easily under an overcoat, and it’s real wool for the price most brands charge for acrylic.
5. Turtleneck that does the scarf’s job
Most guys have the same 2 worries about a turtleneck. The first is that it’s going to look like they’re about to give a keynote about a new phone. And the second is that it’s going to itch all day, and they’ll spend the afternoon pulling at their neck like a dog in a new collar.
The first worry is a little overrated. When you layer a turtleneck and pair it with the rest of your outfit, it adds a level of sophistication and polish you don’t get from a regular sweater or a collared shirt. A turtleneck on its own, with nothing over it, might look a little awkward, and the key word there is might. But pair it with the right blazer and you own the room. Wear it under an overcoat or an open overshirt from the fall guide, and you look like a guy who’s warm and put together. The second worry is a real one, and it’s the reason the turtleneck is the one knit on this list where I’d spend a little more on the fabric.
Before you buy: Four things to get right.
- Get it thin. A turtleneck that goes under a coat or a blazer needs to be a fine knit, about as thin as the merino sweater from the fall guide. Save the chunky rollneck for days when it’s the only layer you’re wearing.
- Check the fold. The neck should fold over once and sit there, about halfway up your neck, without sagging into a loose cowl by lunchtime.
- Put the fabric against your neck before you pay. Rub the neck of it against the side of your neck right there in the store. If it feels itchy for 8 seconds in the store, it’s going to be itchy for 8 hours at work. Cashmere and fine merino are the 2 fabrics that usually pass this test, and lambswool and acrylic usually don’t.
- Start dark. Charcoal, navy, black and a deep brown all work. A light turtleneck looks great right up until you spill your coffee, and with a turtleneck, the stain sits right under your chin.
Where to find a good price and quality: Your best option depends on how much you want to spend.
- If you can afford it, get Uniqlo’s Cashmere Turtleneck Sweater. It’s about $100 for 100 percent cashmere, which makes it the most expensive knit on this list, and that’s on purpose. Cashmere is the softest thing you can wear against your neck for a whole workday, and soft is what turns a guy who hates turtlenecks into a guy who wears one twice a week. Uniqlo treats the yarn to resist pilling, but you still need to hand wash it in cold water.
- If you want to spend less, Zara’s Basic Turtleneck Jumper is about $60. It’s made mostly of viscose, so it isn’t as warm as wool, but it’s smooth and soft against your neck, and it won’t itch. It comes in black, navy, gray and an off-white. Wear it under a blazer or an overcoat, and it looks just as sharp as a turtleneck that costs twice as much.
Accessories that finish the coat
Outside, there are really only 3 things anybody notices on you: your coat, your boots, and whatever’s on your head, your neck and your hands. That means your accessories get almost as much attention as your coat does, and they cost a fraction of what the coat costs. They’re also the one place in a winter outfit where you can bring in some color. A charcoal coat with a burgundy or forest green scarf looks intentional, and the exact same outfit in all charcoal starts to look a little like a uniform.
Accessories are also the easiest place to save money. Express, H&M and Zara all sell scarves, beanies and gloves, and Express almost always has a sale running where you can find gloves and beanies for under $15. Styled right with a good coat, nobody can tell what you paid for them.
Scarf. Your scarf sits right next to your face, which makes it the accessory people actually look at, so it’s the one worth a few extra dollars. Look for one that’s long enough to loop, which means around 70 inches, and soft enough that you’ll leave it on for a minute indoors instead of yanking it off the second you walk in.
The easiest way to wear one is a knot that works with every coat on this page, and it takes about 5 seconds once you’ve done it a couple of times. Here’s how to tie it.
- Fold the scarf in half so the 2 ends meet.
- Drape it around the back of your neck, with the folded end hanging down one side and the 2 loose ends hanging down the other.
- Pull the loose ends through the loop.
- Snug it up under your chin, and tuck it into your coat or let it hang open.
Quince’s Mongolian Cashmere Ribbed Scarf is about $60 for 100 percent cashmere, and at 74 inches long, it’s got enough length for that knot with room to spare. If you want to spend less, H&M and Zara both sell wool-blend scarves for a lot less. Check the length, and rub it against your neck in the store to make sure it’s soft.
Beanie. A beanie has one job, which is covering your ears, so it needs to be deep enough to pull down over them without riding back up. Skip the big logo on the front, too. Your hat sits at eye level with every person you talk to, and a big logo turns it into a billboard for somebody else’s brand. Uniqlo’s Heattech Ribbed Beanie is about $20, and it’s plain, ribbed and warm. Express is the other place to look, because its beanies regularly go on sale for under $15. Just pick a plain, ribbed one in a dark color or a color that goes with your scarf.
Gloves. Leather gloves go with the wool coat, and knit gloves go with the puffer. If you’re only buying one pair, buy leather, because knit gloves with an overcoat look like you grabbed them from the lost and found on your way out. Whatever you buy, the cuff should come up past your wrist bone so there’s no gap at your sleeve. Quince’s Cashmere Lined Leather Gloves are about $60, with lambskin on the outside, cashmere on the inside, and fingertips that work on your phone, and they come up about 2 inches past the wrist. If you want to spend less, check Express. Its leather gloves go on sale often, and you can find a pair for under $15. Look for real leather, a lining, and a cuff that covers your wrist.
3 winter outfits you can build from these 5 pieces
You don’t need a different outfit for every day of winter. These 5 pieces cover just about everything, and here are 3 combinations to start with.
Weekday at the office: the turtleneck, dark jeans or gray wool trousers, the wool overcoat, leather gloves and the boots. On a dry day, the brown chukkas from the fall guide work here too. When you get inside, the coat comes off and the turtleneck is the whole outfit.
Saturday errands: the chunky sweater, jeans, the puffer, the beanie and your boots. This is the outfit for the grocery store, the hardware store and a slushy Saturday.
Dinner or a date: an Oxford shirt from the fall guide with the chunky sweater over it, dark jeans, the wool coat and the scarf. The coat and the scarf handle the walk there, and once you sit down, the collar showing at the neck of the sweater is what makes it look like you made an effort.
Notice that the wool coat shows up in 2 of the 3. That’s because the coat is the piece everyone sees, so it’s the piece that does the most work.
When to buy, and when to wait
Winter clothes go on sale in waves. The first real markdowns usually show up around Black Friday, and the deepest ones come in January, when stores are trying to clear out their winter stock to make room for spring. If you can wait until January, you’ll pay a lot less for almost everything on this page.
But waiting has a cost, and the cost isn’t money. By January, the popular sizes and the good colors are mostly gone, and you’ve spent all of December cold. So I’d split this list in two.
If your coat doesn’t fit over a thick sweater, doesn’t cover your seat, or has sleeves that don’t cover your wrists, buy a new one now, even at full price. Do the same with your boots if they leak or your feet are cold in them. Your coat and boots are the 2 pieces you’ll wear the most, and they’re the 2 you’ll be the most annoyed to find picked over in your size in January.
Everything else can wait if you already have something that works, and the second sweater, the scarf, the gloves and the turtleneck are exactly the kind of thing that ends up on the January sale rack. In my book Dress to Impress and Spend Less, I talk about picking your discount number before you ever walk into a store, and mine is usually 40 percent off. The pieces that can wait are the ones where you hold out for your number.
Common questions
Black coat or charcoal coat? Go with charcoal if it’s the only one you’re buying. Charcoal goes with brown boots, black shoes, navy, gray and denim, and it hides the lint and dust that black shows off. Black looks sharp at night and over a suit, which makes it a great second coat.
Can I wear a puffer to the office? In most offices now, yes, as long as it’s a plain, matte one that covers your seat and isn’t covered in logos. Over a suit, though, wear the wool coat. A puffer squashes the shoulders of a suit jacket, and you’ll walk into the meeting looking like you got there folded up in somebody’s carry-on.
What do I do about salt stains? Get them off the same day if you can, because the longer salt sits on leather, the more it dries the leather out. You probably have everything you need for this under your kitchen sink, and the whole thing takes about 5 minutes.
- Brush or wipe off any dried salt first.
- Mix equal parts white vinegar and water in a small bowl.
- Wipe the stains with a cloth dipped in the mix. Test it on a small spot on the inside of the boot first.
- Go over the same spots with a second cloth dipped in plain water to rinse the vinegar off.
- Let the boots dry at room temperature, and keep them off the radiator, because direct heat cracks leather.
- Once they’re dry, rub in a little leather conditioner.
On a Bean Boot, the rubber bottoms only need a wipe, and the leather uppers are the only part that needs the vinegar.
Is a peacoat a good first coat? It can be. A peacoat is a short, double-breasted wool coat that stops around your hips, so it’s a great first coat if most of your life is casual and you mostly wear it with jeans. But a peacoat is colder than an overcoat because it covers less of you, and it doesn’t fit over a suit jacket, so if you wear a suit even a few times a winter, the overcoat is the better first buy.
Do I need to dry clean my wool coat? Once a season is enough for most guys, at the end of winter before you put it away. In between, brush it off after you wear it, and if it gets soaked, hang it on a real wooden hanger and let it dry at room temperature instead of throwing it over a chair.
Prices above are regular retail at the time of writing, and they move around, so treat them as a ballpark and not a quote. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements, and nobody paid to be on this page.
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