I always figured that they were designing primarily for the California residents. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense with a lot of designers being based in NYC.

What, you don't sit by a frozen lake with a cute suede mini skirt and high heels tall boots, wrapped up in your poncho in January ? Shame on you.

Jokes apart, I used to love dressing for winter when I could go with a wool blazer as outerwear for most part of the season or a cute long coat for extra cold days.
With winters as long and cold as we have here it is difficult to keep the love for our puffer coats and gloves and scarves and snow boots.
I guess as in many other things what is sold is a concept. In this case that you live in warm houses and commute directly to garages in your warm car.

I'm one of those praying for fall, since it was +100 here yesterday! But yeah, it gets frustrating. Like joy, I grew up in the Midwest which doesn't cool down at night in the summers, and it wasn't until I moved to the west coast that I understood why denim jackets existed. In my world, if it was cold enough for a jacket, you needed one a lot warmer than that.

A lot of bloggers are as bad about this as the fashion magazines - I remember the shots of people in town for spring NYFW last year when it was still mega-winter temps and a foot of snow on the ground and they were wearing little dresses and opentoed shoes. Ridiculous.

I do think the status thing holds weight - if you go from place to car and never have to suffer through a frigid Uninsulated office or a house without air conditioning or walk any instance or take transit, you really can be seasonally inappropriate, assuming you're willing to suffer, and are healthy enough to do so. I guess i don't find that that interesting, because for me dressing is about the combination f aesthetics and practicality. Fashion mags and catalogs are like sculptures, whereas WIWs are like a chair - a sculpture just has to be beautiful or striking while a chair can be both pretty and useful.

Having moved to California last year from the East Coast, I can confirm that fashion designers are targeting CA climate for some unknown reason. I never understood the point of 3/4 sleeve sweaters, as someone who perpetually runs cold, until I lived here. And I can wear closed-toe shoes without socks through December, if I'm willing to let my feet be a bit chilly outdoors.

On the other hand, I miss seasons! Crisp fall, the warming sun of spring. Even humid summer nights, because it's rare that I can go out in a thin silk dress here without dragging along a coverup for evening.

After a lifetime in VA and one winter in Boston even my DD24 is getting practical and giving up requesting any additions to her boot collection as she is resigned to wearing snow boots all season.

If this post had been posted a few months from now, I swear I'd be outside in the snow, wearing pumps and bare ankles, posting some OOTD's

One fairly common theme here, which I have honestly never fallen victim to, is this hatred of winter coats and boots. I've always dressed for the indoors... I love sweaters, scarves, layering etc... and throw on my coat as a purely serviceable way to get from indoors to indoors. Sure, I have several pairs of boots, you have to. And several coats. And I change purses and scarves to mix things up a bit. But if my coat looks good and keeps me warm, I truly am happy to wear it constantly... with my need for variety just waiting to reveal itself once I get where I am going.

You made me laugh! I was just talking with a friend about a similar thing.

Where I live now is temperate. I have several lighter jackets (denim, leather, trenches, light down) and I wear them a lot. I have one heavy coat that I wear only in the deepest winter.

But where I grew up winters were much colder. Almost everyone I knew had one or two lighter jackets and two or three deep winter jackets: the heavy down one(s) and the heavy wool dress one. And no one would bat an eye at someone showing up to a fancy party with a full length down coat. But I also had a heck of a lot of wonderful heavy woolly sweaters, warm boots, scarves and gloves! So not better or worse--just different!

Oh Thistle - I know what you mean! It's that 'blogger outfit' phenomena, isn't it? You know, those that post pics of their "winter" outfits, standing outside, bare-legged in heels, and a cute "winter" coat thrown over their shoulders. Drives me crazy! - and I live in So CAL where you could actually dress like that in the winter. However, I have spent the last 2 winters staying with my mother back in the midwest and Oh My Gosh - fashion is quickly thrown out the window - and survival is my primary motivation for how I choose to dress!

We do NOT have harsh winters, I'm in NC and I can't tell you how many times I've swooned over fur lined boots - More specifically, Sorel Joan of Artic boots. I mean, if you're going with fur...may as well go all out, true? But alas, it will NEVER be cold enough to justify fancy boots I could wear 5 days per year when we have snow or ice! (We wear rain boots or old tennis shoes in the snow!)

The flip side is we have horrible summers, high humidity always, and what you see on blogs as "summer fashion" around here is laughable! Every fashion blog doesn't cater to everyone's true seasons. Spring/summer wear for a CA blogger = my fall/winter outfit ideas.