Lookbook (What I Wore in September in Alaska)

Visting Interior Alaska in September? Or just curious what Alaskan wear at that time? This post gives you the answers.

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post.

September Weather in Interior Alaska

In the mornings, there is often some fog that is caused by the nighttime cooling close to the ground. Most trees have lost all their leaves except those that live in symbiosis with some nitrate producing soil bacteria. These trees are always the last to loose their foliage. Typically, when the first snow comes that will last until spring. Fall is very short in the Interior. Often less than three weeks.

What Does Weather and Climate and the Change in Seasons Mean for Fashion and Style?

A lot, when you do not want to freeze, and nevertheless look stylishly. It determines how many clothes you need for a season and during the change of seasons, and you have to follow the weather forecasts to not get surprised by the first cold snap.

Short after I immigrated to Interior Alaska I overheard someone explaining to a visitor that Alaska has four seasons: June, July, August and winter. One day in mid September, the weather switches from one day to the other to winter with the first flurries flying.

How Did I Prepare for It?

Layering. In the short time between August and winter, I usually dress in such a way that I can go to lunch with something like a cardigan, a blazer (see photos), or a light leather jacket. On the way to work, I throw over a leather, trench or other light coat. Together with the “lunch outerwear” doing so provides enough insulation to stay comfortable. At work, the insolation thru the south facing windows of my office and the turned down AC allow me to still wear my short sleeve cashmere sweaters (photo below). While before winter is “switched on”, I cane wear the coat unbuttoned, I button it once winter arrived. About a week or so later, it is usually so cold that I switch to wearing wool blazer underneath the light coat or wool coats. Since the time between wearing summer and winter clothes is so short (usually less than 2 to 3 weeks), layering for the summer-to-fall transition is more efficient than buying items especially for fall.

September Lookbook

Given the nice Indian Summer, most of my outfits still scream summer, e.g. the look in the photos above. Morning temperatures were around 40F (4^oC) at around 6 am local time with respect to the Sun. Why could I still wear summer clothes when temperatures only climbed into the ?? during the day?

First, I am living here since more than 20 winters, i.e. my sourdough status is 20. I am probably already acclimated and won’t feel cold at temperatures people from warm climate areas experience as slight cold stress.

Second, because of the continental location of and the low relative humidity as well as calm winds in the Interior it feels warmer than the actual air temperature. My longtime followers know that in the Interior you fear wind more than 40 below zero. Another reason why summer clothing was still possible is that the Interior experiences still strong insolation prior to September 23 because of its high latitude location. Actually, it is more than in the Lower 48s. However, since then we loose daylight much faster than those of you who live at mid and low latitudes on the Northern Hemisphere.

The September looks

In the first look of this post, I went for a blue, green and white color combination inspired by the top.

The second outfit shown here was inspired by the scarf that has a paisley pattern in purple, lavender, olive, brown and beige. The skirt that I had made from several of my hubby’s shirts has olive, brown and beige as well. Thus, it’s a nice mix of prints in similar colors with purple as grounding color.

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The third look is another White after Labor Day theme. Old-fashioned style rules have to be broken, right?

This last look features another of my new sunprotective clothes (see the link for a review). Here I went for a blue and white September look. We took the photo with the delphinium that blossomed the second time this warm season. A maritime-inspired color combination is an eternal classic not only for summer, but also in fall like wearing black and white together year round is in Europe. Which color combinations did you wear last month?

Interested in more awesome on trend fall style outfit ideas?

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Top of the World Style Linkup party No. 227

Welcome to the Top of the World Style linkup party! Thanks for coming. Here are the awardees from last week’s party.

My favorite look was the colorful skirt with black top outfit that Carrie’s daugther of Curly Crafty Mom linked up. I wish they had that skirt in just above the knee length in my size. It’s so calling my name.

Congrats Ladies! Grab your buttons for your awards page or sidebar.

Gateway to the Top of the World Style party

Photos of me: G. Kramm

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