Mindful Dressing For a Rainy Day

It’s that time of year where a perfectly blue sky can mutate into a charcoal tempest at a moment’s notice, which can make dressing mindfully feel like an exercise in meteorological clairvoyance. 

Dressing for the often erratic—but nearly always wet—British weather as winter shifts into spring is undoubtedly difficult, but it doesn’t have to be dull. 

It’s a lot easier to romanticise the drip, drip, drop of spring showers if you happen to be in luscious, mossy nature, where the effects of the nourishing rain are plain to see. Unfortunately, all of the toxic positivity in the world can’t make standing in a drab cityscape while gutters overfloweth into your brogues seem magical. 

Image Credit: sorryblondie.tumblr.com 

Soggily spending the afternoon in the small lake pooled on your leather office chair is one of the perils of a return to commuting for many of us, but dressing mindfully for the weather can make this seasonal transition less of a damp squib. 

As most of us don’t anticipate the rainy days of Spring with excitement, this can transform into wardrobe fatigue around rainy days where we don’t have a collection of exciting weather-appropriate garms to reach for on an ominous grey day. 

Planning some go-to rainy day looks which make you feel fresh and enlivened, as opposed to resigning yourself to that perpetually damp old dog-walking mac, can really help. 

Spring is the season where pops of colour naturally seem to crop up in our dressing habits, and combining lively prints with thin, fast-drying fabrics is perfect for days where you might get caught in a shower.

Image Credit: Our Fleur Dark Navy Floral Shirt is a perfect early spring piece with its pretty print and lightweight fabric. 

Thinking mindfully about which fabrics in your closet are the fastest to dry is a smart strategy for potentially rainy days. Although they can get a bad rap, polyester blend fabrics are often great rainy day contenders to avoid the agitation that damp denim and the like can bring. 

Image Credit: The soft crepe fabric of the Agnes dress makes it a spring stunner which performs well in the damp

A sleek pair of boots (or some proper clodhoppers, depending on your style) can take you deep into spring and can make all that puddle-dodging a little less perilous, especially if you invest in some good waterproofing treatments and to make your rainy day favourites look their very best. There’s something grounding about looking after shoes properly and a buff and polish before slipping in some boot shapers can be a great mindful rainy day activity to step into the new season. 

The main secret to mindfully dressing for the rain is accepting you’re going to get a bit wet and working with it to get the best out of the situation. Investing in a couple of technicolour dream ponchos that enhance, as opposed to detract from, your best outfits can make venturing out into the damp unknown way less miserable. 

Image credit: Rain Kiss make gorgeous, environmentally conscious ponchos to make rainy days much more colourful.

Of course, because we are in the UK, an umbrella is practically an essential item and buying a high quality umbrella which is built to last can make the rain seem something to look forward to… at least, until the novelty wears off! 

James Smith & Sons has been making umbrellas in London since 1830 and their beautiful handmade umbrellas can also be repaired if they break, supporting local craftsmanship and the environment in one fell swoop. Plus, the way the stunning handles will accessorise with your outfits make you way less likely to leave it in a cab!

Image credit: James Smith & Sons

As the song goes, “March winds and April showers make way for sweet May flowers,” but that doesn’t mean we have to rush through the early seasons of spring without enjoying their own unique treasures. 

Header image credit: flickr.com/photos/hernanpc