winter fashion week secretly runs on uniqlo heat tech
it's more common than you would think.
Hi hi! I’m back home from my first New York Fashion Week and god it feels amazing to decompress.
The trip was a blast…but also the most sleep deprivation I’ve had since probably freshman year of college.
In many ways, it felt like replay of my undergrad days: you pull up with your luggage, get your press pass ID, figure out wtf you’re going to wear for the “first day of school,” pull up your “syllabus” of events, hop around venue spaces like it’s an urban campus, run into internet girlie “classmates” you recognize at La Cabra, and take lots of silly disposable camera photos with your new friends. I’ll be writing more about my time at NYFW, but similar to my Thom Browne show recap, it won’t be focused on runway stuff!
It’ll be about vintage shopping wins, where I ate my best solo dinners, and style inspo from the streets/parties. I’m also working on a “demystifying fashion week” AMA newsletter where I answer your questions about the invites and the social politics of it all from the POV of a fashion week freshman.
Paid readers get the full scoop, so upgrade today if you don’t want to miss out :)
The single most important thing I did to prep for fashion week was buy a bunch of heat tech.
New York is having an especially cold winter, which spooked this fair-weather Californian! Friends and newsletter readers alike all gave me the same advice: you need heat tech, or some sort of thin thermal base layer. So I went to the Emeryville Uniqlo two days before my flight and picked up:
the “cashmere blend” turtleneck in red and dark gray
the heat tech leggings in dark gray
the ultra warm t-shirt and leggings
Fit note: based on the store samples, they felt very very stretchy and long, so I’m wearing an XS instead of my usual S in all the photos below.
I didn’t have any ideas on how to style or layer them yet. Because I was focused on getting logistics ironed out for my trip, I just threw all my heat tech in a big suitcase and decided I would figure it out on the fly. Part of me worried that heat tech was so…functional that it wouldn’t be conducive to cool outfits.
Could you wear heat tech to a fashion show and still serve a look???
The answer is YES. Little did I know, heat tech was actually quite ubiquitous at fashion week. Brendahashtag posted an IG photo of herself wearing a heat tech cashmere blend turtleneck (in black, ofc) along with pieces from Celine and Helmut Lang. Sabrina Fenster, a street style photographer I met outside the Anna Sui show, said that among photographers working during fashion week, heat tech is “definitely our uniform of the season.” I saw fashion girlies coming and going from events with the telltale flash of heat tech legging above their ankle socks.
So, here’s how I wore my heat tech at fashion week.
Look 1
Upon arriving in New York, I was pleasantly surprised that the low 30 degree weather didn’t feel as horrid as I had imagined. Bay Area folks, we are stronger than we think!
There’s actually something about the SF marine layer chill here that feels worse…like a “base note” cold that turns your body into damp towel that never fully dries out. On the East Coast, it feels more like the frosty “top note” of an open freezer—cold, but doesn’t permeate as quickly through your organs if you know what I mean.
Here’s a heat tech outfit I loved, which I wore for a day of events in the downtown area. I started with my base of red turtleneck and gray leggings, and a triangle yak wool scarf worn as a makeshift bonnet.
Added this striped button-down layered over (sold out but purple colorway still in stock). I think the key is to wear a loose-ish, slight slouchy button down instead of a formfitting one. You want enough loose shirt fabric around the neck opening so it frames the turtleneck peeking out.
And then I wore a double-lined vintage trench coat that covered my baggy Levi’s jeans. With the red tinted sunglasses, I felt like Brigitte Lin in Chungking Express.
Look 2
Gray turtleneck and gray leggings. No matter how cool or flashy an outfit looks, just know this is what’s going on underneath. I feel like an exclamation mark.
