TL/DR: years ago, I learned to dress for winter in a way I didn’t hate. Now I want to help my mom do the same, so I’m looking for updated guidelines for her apple-shaped body so we can shop together for things that she can wear with white stompy boots.

Many years ago, I couldn’t stand winter dressing, because I felt like a box in my jeans and sweatshirt/sweater formula. The tops were welted just below the waist, made of bulky fabric, and most often crew neck. It’s a formula I learned from my Minnesotan/Wisconsinite mom, and I figured it was the only way to stay warm through the winter. In springtime we finally got to shed those layers and discover that we did indeed have bodies and weren’t shaped like boxes or lumps (I cannot explain how one can be straight and lumpy at the same time, but that’s how winter dressing felt). My occasional reprieve from this was midi-length wool skirts, worn with flat loafers and tights. They were pleated A-lines and would swing when I walked.

Then one day, a colleague revealed to me the secret of wearing warm tights in the winter, and a new world opened up. I got a suede mini-skirt to wear with cream-colored tights, a cream T-neck sweater, and my newsboy shoes, and wore other skirts with warm tights and boots too. My whole world shifted because of that conversation. It was my first intentional style shift, and I loved it. Not long after that, I bought the black lace-up lug boots I’ve posted on here. These days I’m back in the cold, and winter tights have a solid place in my arsenal for battling the cold and feeling like myself.

For the forseeable future, my parents will spend winters in the Midwestern/Appalachian town where I grew up. My mom feels trapped there. Part of it is the clothing. She filled her Florida winter closet with bright colors as snowbirds are wont to do, with sundresses for Sundays and evening get-togethers, and crops and pedal-pushers and a variety of summer styles. Back North, she dresses in the same winter formula she taught me. She isn’t about to jump on the miniskirts bandwagon with me, and I think she would feel silly wearing a midi without an occasion (I disagree with her there, but it’s her life). We need to find items that work for her the way those did for me.

She’s an octogenarian, and has dealt with breast cancer, but any style adaptations she’s made are shutting down earlier styles, not adding new options. One bright spot is that she has embraced the bright white hair that grew in after the chemo, and keeps it in short, spunky cuts. She often wears crisp blue and white combos that look great with it. Red raspberry and pinks also work well for her. Really, our colors are very similar. Another body change that came with the meds is that she’s now apple-shaped. Her winter style, stompy boots chosen purely for practicality, pragmatic jeans, and those same boxy sweatshirts & sweaters, feels ugh and blah to her.

White boots are everywhere this year. Just getting a pair of them would perk things up, but she might hesitate to wear them. I want to put together outfits with her that will take advantage of the bookending effect of the boots and the shocking white hair.

The trouble is, I don’t know style guidelines for apple-shaped women in their early 80s. There are women close to her age on here whose style I admire, and some ylfer’s mums sound awfully stylish, but she’s got a different enough physicality that I can’t just copy them. I’m sure advice in Angie’s post on apple bodies still applies, but I’m looking for an update.

Can anyone suggest current shapes and formulas that would work for an older woman in the depths of winter? Please and thank you.