Here are some ideas on how to dress for a holiday party that calls...
derek guy@dieworkwear
120 views
Dec 14, 2025
~2 min read
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Here are some ideas on how to dress for a holiday party that calls for "winter chic." 🧵
McKay Coppins@mckaycoppins
@dieworkwear The dress code for The Atlantic's holiday party is "winter chic." What does this mean/what should my confused male colleagues and I wear?
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First, what is winter attire? Fundamentally, it's about heavy woolen, cotton, or rustic materials such as tweed, corduroy, or flannel. It can also mean certain knits, such as Fair Isle or Arans.
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How do you make an outfit "chic?" One way is to go back to when men's wardrobes were divided between town and country. To dress "chic" means to wear city attire. However, this is in contrast with the earlier description of how winter attire is often based in country materials.
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You can resolve this by wearing country fabrics in city colors. So instead of brown tweeds, choose grey herringbones or Donegals. Instead of brown suede penny loafers, choose black.
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Another way is to wear everything in the same color, but vary things by shade, sheen, and texture. Normally, you want your pieces to contrast, but contrast can come through in other ways than color. You can do this very easily with a suit and tonal turtleneck
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You can also do it with casualwear: black lambskin leather jacket (which will look more chic than its calfskin or goatskin counterparts) with black jeans. Or a grey overcoat with grey flannel trousers and grey Shetland knit.
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Here we see all three ideas combined: a rustic material (corduroy) in a city color (black) combined with a tonal shirt turtleneck, muffler, and beanie. Dark colors like this work best in the evening.
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It's probably too late to get a new suit. But if you're up for something extra fun in the future, you can get a brown, grey, or navy mohair suit for evening festivities. Or a tartan dinner jacket (technically black tie, but no one will bat an eye at holiday parties)
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If none of this is possible for you, at least "upgrade" your usual attire. Instead of blue jeans with t-shirts, try higher-waisted gray flannel trousers combined with a collared shirt and textured sweater. Or try to find a navy sport coat—it will be handy later.
