Cold Weather Gear
 

My daughter will be transferring to a university in Nebraska in the fall. We're from Texas. What's the best cold weather gear for the winters? Mind you, she has nothing for cold weather because we just don't need it. I'd like to start shopping now while winter items are on clearence. She did visit the university last week and ask several girls about clothing which didn't yield very good responses. All of them have grown up in that climate and just wear light jackets. Specific brand names will be extremely helpful.

I can't speak for Nebraska - don't know what brands are popular there, but Northface is a pretty popular jacket/parka brand up here. They're pretty light but really warm.

Columbia jackets are nice because they have a jacket and then a windbreaker zipped to it - which you can zip apart to wear each on their own - so it's three jackets in one. They are sturdy, cute and WARM.

Also, make sure she has a WARM pair of boots. Cute doesn't cut it. Walking to class with cold feet is not fun.

My oldest attends the Univ of Wisconsin and my youngest will attend either Indiana or Colorado in the fall. We love Northface.

She'll need some warm boots (sherpa lined are best). Also, 1 or 2 hooded zippered sweat shirts are great for layering along with a warm down vest. Nebraska can get pretty cold like Minnesota.

I'm a big fan of Patagonia's Capilene-brand long underwear. She might not need them that often but they last FOREVER. LLBean and Lands End have good, durable, inexpensive (but not cheap--see below) winter gear. Other brands that are good for weather stuff are SmartWool (thin, but warm, socks and hats), Spyder, and NorthFace.

This is the thing NOT to go el cheapo on. When I left Florida to go to school in New England, my mother bought a lot of my winter stuff on the cheap and I definitely suffered for it the first few weeks of winter. To be sure, it was cute but not at all durable. I ended up buying almost all new winter stuff.

Think about some Cuddl Duds while you're at it. It's been a mild winter this year (so far!), but there were several days I wouldn't have survived without them!

Don't forget coordinating gloves, scarves, and hats, and lots of hand cream!

She needs to be prepared with layers, a good set of hat, scarf, mittens (probably 3 sets since she's bound to lose probably all 3 sets by the end of her first winter), and a good pair of boots where fashion is not the thing. They don't have to be godawful, but winter boots with heels are just silly. Also, StaticGuard is your friend. And tights.

One item I wish I'd have known about back then was a good pashmina. Not a fancy silk one that can't be washed, but a good functional scarf that can be tied onto a bag, thrown over your shoulders, wrapped tight around your neck or even tied over your head when the weather turns from beautiful to cold and grey to outright blizzard.

Warm boots THAT ARE NOT UGGS. Uggs don't have proper traction for icy/windy weather.

Heavy socks, lots of them. More than 2-3 weeks worth. If her feet do end up getting wet, she'll have plenty and won't need to do laundry so often.

I like to wear really thin gloves under my heavier gloves when it gets really cold. Scarves, scarves, and more scarves. Pashminas are great because they keep you reasonably warm when worn like a scarf but can take the chill off if your daughter is in a cool classroom.

Long sleeved shirts to layer under everything in various colors. They could be the waffle-cut "long underwear" style but I find those don't keep me much warmer.

It's not super trendy or fashionable (and wasn't even at the time) but when I was in college in a windy place my parents got me a Columbia jacket that covered my butt. I was mighty appreciative the first time I fell on my ass on a student walkway and my butt didn't get wet.

Really, she's going to need things to layer with, so that she's not frying when inside but can handle the cold outside.

I knew I could get excellent answers from here. Can you elaborate on the boots? I'm telling you, winter weather is truly a foreign concept to us. Would underarmor work or would something like the cuddl duds be the preferred? My poor baby is going to turn into a popcicle next winter. Where can I look for a pashmina online? Had to google what that was, lol.

NOT the Denali. Yes, they're super popular (I love mine for fall), but they're not warm enough for winter, especially in Nebraska. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Northface TriClimate jacket, however. I have a Columbia that I love as well.

And ditto on all of the advice above.

Underarmor would work particularly well for layering, but the cuddl duds are good, too. I really prefer lightweight long-sleeved t-shirts.

Try amazon for the pashmina scarves - if you find a decent deal it might be good to get a couple of different colors - they're just thin (but not see-through) scarves that are really really wide. You might also be able to find them at your local Nordstrom Rack (I was at mine today and they had about a billion in a bunch of different colors). Here's an amazon listing which is prime eligible if you have Amazon prime - http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Pashmi...2467288&sr=8-2.

For boots, you need something that has at least semi-decent traction - maybe like this? http://www.zappos.com/sorel-joan-of-arctic-black

I'm partial to waterproof but that's because I live in Chicago where people don't feel the need to shovel their *#$%&@ walks, they throw down ice melt instead which makes it slushy.

LL Bean, Lands Ends, Columbia and North Face are all excellent choices and high quality.
I will sound like a hick for saying it, but I LOVE my Carhartt winter coat. Its sherpa lined, pink and not too ugly. Ditto some heavyweight hoodies and zip up hoodies. Smartwool for socks, SO soft and worm and awesome. And ditto on the CuddleDuds! I wear them under my jeans and Carhartt coveralls.

http://www.carhartt.com/webapp/wcs/s...uickView=false This is what I wear for work in the winter months.

Coats like north face metropolis or transit or similar, hunter (or hunter style) rainboots with liners, patagonia better sweater jacket or vest, under armour cold gear (fabulous, daughter swears specifically by them, they are not cheap, but they last, and keep everything nice and warm) - seem to meet style and warmth requirements at the universities (midwestern and mid atlantic) that my daughter and high school friends attend. Of course each campus has its own campus style culture, but hard to go wrong with these.

I have a pair of silk long underwear bottoms which are awesome on really cold winter days. I think Lands End has them on sale right now. They're lightweight so they layer well. They also dry fast if you need to rinse them out to wear the next day. Might want to get at least 2 pairs.