https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:20:10 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900367 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 23:56:14 +0000 Angie 1900367@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>FLATS. Get fun sneakers. Denim jackets. Minimize the heels. Wear your dresses and skirts with flats, sneakers and denim.&nbsp; </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900215 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 15:39:36 +0000 always trying 1900215@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I live in southern ca, but visit central frequently, and further north occasionally. Everywhere in California I find the temperatures the biggest challenge. It is always 10 to 15 degrees cooler on the coast ( the 5 mile zone). There are no real seasons here. It can be 90 in January, one week and as cold as 40's the next week. Just this week I am in wine country central, it has been raining and colder than normal 37 in the morning and 50'sin the afternoon. One thing I have found so perfect is a light weight pack able puffer I bought it just roomy enou to go over a sweater or sweat shirt. There will betimes when you have to sacrifice comfort for fashion. Also it is touristy. so people from everywhere,. you see a big variety of styles in the more touristy areas. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900208 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 15:15:05 +0000 texstyle 1900208@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I haven't lived there but I've been to visit quite a few times. And many Californians have moved to Austin. I think this blogger in particular seems to showcase what I see as young "California style" - which to me is individual with touches of boho, athletic and natural influences. Laid back but not sloppy.</p> <p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://pursenboots.blogspot.com/">http://pursenboots.blogspot.com/</a> </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900198 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 14:33:46 +0000 JAileen 1900198@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I don’t live in California anymore, but I grew in the Bay Area, and lived in the Tahoe area for several years. I return to the Bay Area frequently to visit family. The women I see are very stylish in a casual way. It does look effortless. It’s very different from where I live now. </p> <p>As to earthquakes, I never felt one the whole time I was in the Bay Area. The first one I felt was at Tahoe, and the biggest I felt was in Nevada. We’re third in line for seismic activity. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900168 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 13:30:02 +0000 Helena 1900168@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>So interesting, and I have no great advice except perhaps to pick a style icon or two who do 'west coast style' well and take some cues from them? Jennifer Aniston springs to mind, although I know she's not everyone's cuppa. Good luck with the transition and enjoy the beautiful weather! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900128 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 11:21:22 +0000 Staysfit 1900128@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I lived in Los Angeles county for one year. I took my first job there after my residency because DH did a post doc at Cal Tech. Moving from Michigan, was a big culture shock, mitigated by picking a college town with as close to a midwestern culture as we could find (Claremont). The dress code at my workplace was remarkably formal. The women wore suits, heels and gorgeous dresses. They went to thrift stores on weekends and shopped high end stores as well. I wasn’t used to that type of wardrobe and I spent time shopping with one of the other new doctors. I loved my work environment. The people in the office were great fun, and I was sad when we moved on after only one year. The college community where we lived was relaxed and diverse, and more in keeping with what I was familiar with in Michigan. When we moved from California to Central New York, I found my formal work wear was too much for the very casual community we now call home. I ended up using my work clothes for formal wear and holidays, but when I did, I didn’t feel special because it felt like work clothes, so I ended up giving most of it away. I definitely choose to dress on the more formal side for my community. Maybe it’s because of my California experience. Maybe it’s just because I like what the way I feel when I dress in a certain way. My best advice is to take some time to figure out not only the community, but also what you will feel happy with, and then do your shopping. </p> <p>By the way, I can still remember everyone in our conference rooms deciding where they would go if there was an earthquake. It was all very quick, but if you have never experienced it, the process seems odd, and disconcerting. Hearing someone say, “I get the doorway, you go under the table, she goes to that door frame,” etc. is strange! In any case, I never noticed any earthquakes the year I lived in California. The Cal Tech seismologists certainly recorded small ones while I was there, although they were never big enough to be perceived when I was awake. I consider myself lucky, because I have experienced a Tornado, a flood and a fire. So, it’s one natural disaster I’ve skipped, although, not really, I have felt earthquakes here in CNY, and once also in Michigan. Ugh! Rachy made me think about it because I remember securing all our shelves and filing cabinets to the walls so they wouldn’t tip over in a quake. I was most worried about DD who was less than 2 yrs old at the time. She’s 24 now! LOL! Time flies! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900067 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 03:25:24 +0000 nancylee 1900067@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Thank you all for the very helpful advice!</p> <p>rachylou, I agree on the "no black" rule! I joke with my east coast friends that they make you turn over all your black clothes at the CA border! The only (minor) earthquake so far happened while I was driving so I didn't feel it. ;)</p> <p>krishnidoux, thank you for your very insightful advice. I agree 100% that I can't quite "see" the style here yet. I was out with a group of women recently and they all looked very CA cool, yet I couldn't quite put my finger on why. There's a casualness here that seems effortless yet is clearly intentional. Your advice to not shift totally to gear but instead find some essentials to base my wardrobe around is really helpful.</p> <p>Vix, the move was very intentional. I purposely chose a beautiful place to live (Monterey) and am very happy here....if only real estate wasn't so expensive! You are totally on the mark regarding&nbsp;"little casual nothing outfits" being the norm. Likewise your advice on consignment shopping. A friend of mine (who always looks CA cool) confided to me last week that she finds a lot of her pieces in consignment shops.</p> <p>Joy, investing in good quality year-round basics is great advice.</p> <p>Greenjeans, Kathie, bonnie, and Runcarla, thank you for sharing your experience and insights. I'll figure this out yet! ;)</p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900061 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:51:07 +0000 Carla 1900061@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I can't advise you on style specific to your location, but I went through a similar experience when I relocated from a frontier resource based community in Canada's north to a quaint historic town in the south with a daily commute to a job in Canada's largest city! The relocation really messed with my sense of style as I tried to mesh my fashion persona with the cultural norms of my new communities.. It took about 3 years before I sorted things out and settled down a bit. In the interim I did make some mistakes. Quite a few actually.</p> <p>So my advice to you is to give yourself time to figure out your style in your new community and what works for your daily activities. Use the opportunity to experiment. Check out independent shops in your new community. Be kind to yourself when you make mistakes. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900052 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:17:08 +0000 Anonymous 1900052@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Plan on layering and build layering options into your wardrobe. West coast is casual and trendy but people pay premium prices for their casual. Since you can probably wear much of your wardrobe year round, it is worth it to pay more and invest in trends, which stand a better chance of getting low cost per wear when they don’t need to be packed away for months while on trend. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900049 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 02:10:09 +0000 Bonnie 1900049@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I agree that it depends on where you live. I lived in Morro Bay on the Central Coast for three years and I mostly wore turtlenecks, jeans, and flannel shirts year round. Twenty miles inland in SLO was a totally different climate with warm/hot summers. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900046 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 01:57:39 +0000 Kathie 1900046@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I went east to west, lived in Seattle for 21 years, and then moved back. Lifestyle and climate have definitely been the bigger factors in my clothing, since in both locations I've lived in/near large cities, take public transit to work, etc. For example, I do the same kind of work now, that I was doing when I left Seattle, and my colleagues dress with the same degree of formality. As for managing the transitions, I did let my high summer wardrobe grow smaller through attrition when I moved west, and am now building that back up. I'm in the mid-Atlantic area, so haven't felt the need to change my winter and transitional wardrobes. I did have a few heavy wool sweaters that were more indoor winter wear, 20+ years ago on the East coast, and then became transitional "outerwear" (when I didn't feel like wearing fleece) in Seattle. Interestingly, those are now languishing, but that could be because they're 20+ years old. </p> <p>And, I totally agree with Vix's comment that "People are more chill..."- which makes it easy to wear what you want, and be more dressy if you feel like it. We have a dear friend who always wore heels to a huge party we threw every year in our back yard in Seattle, and she made it work. So, if you want to pull out your dressier items, just do it, and wear them with a smile!</p> <p>I think you're on the right track to add the pieces that work for your lifestyle now, but take it slow. Give yourself another 6-12 months to see if your "East coast" clothes are part of this stage of life, and also try them in different combinations with some of your newer items. Enjoy the transition! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900029 Tue, 20 Mar 2018 00:01:40 +0000 Greenjeans 1900029@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Another East to West transplant here. &nbsp;</p> <p>The main difference for me was to adjust my eye to a softer color palette. &nbsp;More color, more neutrals in the brown/taupe family, and way, way less black.</p> <p> </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1900013 Mon, 19 Mar 2018 21:54:35 +0000 Vix 1900013@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Yes, but I can only give you the advice in person. ;)</p> <p>SUCH a gorgeous area, I'm fully envious and hope the move was down out of desire vs necessity.</p> <p>Speaking as a former ECer / long-term PNWer / SoCal wannabe, you don't have to default to what's around 100%. You can choose to do casual-for-you / dressy for them. People really are more chill than the EC about how others live their lives....</p> <p>If you want to wear skirts or dresses, go more casual via cut, fabric, print, and/or color. If you want to wear heels, same basically applies.&nbsp;</p> <p>Also: people with disposable income spend a SHOCKING amount on "gear" and/or "little casual nothing outfits." Think about IRL or online consignment shops if the sticker shock is too great (I just can't spend 200 on a tank or T but often that's what's giving something that California Cool vibe...so I buy other's "trash.") </p> <p>ps if you're in a zone where it gets foggy, have at least one fleece jacket for loungewear if nothing else. I fought it for a long time and still swear by wool and unlike my beloved don't consider fleece appropriate for workwear&nbsp; but...so cozy hahaha.</p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1899963 Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:37:04 +0000 krishnidoux 1899963@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p><b>Nancylee</b>, what you are experiencing is normal. I went through this myself in one time of my life. There is a West Coast stylish way, but beleive it or not, your eye isn't seeing it just yet. Anyway, not as well as you see the Northeast style.&nbsp;Don't get rid of your former dresses or heels, but do put them away for a while.&nbsp;</p> <p>There are external factors for what you are experiencing: First, there is a lot more wind on the coast. Second, because of the layout, walking associates more often to serious trekking than urban peripatetic actions. Third, lifestyle is different and leaves less time for iddle moments during action (like waiting for a bus or metro, sitting at a café on the way to somewhere else, stopping along our way to look at the inside of a building, a store, a restaurant, sitting a few minutes on a bench): Instead, one drives to a place in order to lounge once there. Sceneries are breathtaking, sunshine is often so pleasant, it makes you want to excercise or meditate or do other activities that are not easily performed in a full Prada suit and heels.</p> <p>So to us Northeasterners the normal automatic response to these factors is initially to reach for our "gear". Then you find you are reaching for your "gear" everyday!&nbsp;</p> <p>So one way of doing it is to <u>up your gear wardrob</u>e, and put a lot of care in it. Another is identify those occasions that ARE indeed NOT exercise oriented and fully dress for those. I chose personally to identify one or two <u>essential pieces</u> (in regards of weather and activity) and build outfits around them. For me those two items were sneakers - I got all kinds of super cute ones - and a good slimfit sporty jacket or denim jacket that could go over lots of other things but that had a stylish weastcoast flare to them. On hot days I loved the tee + oversized scarf look too.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1899960 Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:21:30 +0000 rachylou 1899960@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Yes - no heels, no black in Central California. For Safety reasons, hehe. And bolt your bookcases to the wall. And keep your showers under 10 minutes (ok, that’s very serious; we have no water). Have you felt an earthquake yet?</p> <p>Are you in farm country or on the coast-coast? </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/so-west-coast-style#post-1899950 Mon, 19 Mar 2018 16:40:54 +0000 nancylee 1899950@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Hi all,<br />About 18 months ago I relocated to central coast CA after a lifetime spent on the east coast and have been on a fashion "pause" as I reassess my new climate and lifestyle.</p> <p>Overall, things here are SUPER casual compared to what I'm used to in the northeast US and my collection of dresses and heels have largely gone unworn (although this is also due in part to a lifestyle change). My flat footwear stash is growing, as are my layering pieces like vests.</p> <p>Does anyone have any advice on making this transition fashion-wise? </p>