fall has arrived: the best cold-weather outerwear.

Coat. Jeans. Shirt. Similar Scarf. Shoes($100 knock-off). (designer version here.) Bag. (c/o) Necklace. Sunglasses.

Fall comes quickly in the Pacific Northwest, but you’ll never hear me complaining about it.  I live for layers.  In fact, when we moved from Arizona to Seattle the first time, almost 6 years ago, the first thing my sister said to me when she found out we were moving was: “Oh yay!  It’s like always fall there, you’ll get to wear layers all the time.”  I think I tipped my hand, haha.

One of my favorite layers to wear (and buy) is outerwear.  When you live in a colder climate, stylish coats are a vital part of your wardrobe.  Since I have a January birthday, I almost always get a new coat with my birthday money (a tradition I started when I was a teenager) and I always pick up a new one at the beginning of the season as well.  The great thing about buying outerwear, is that if you stick to good quality and classic style, you will have and wear these pieces for years and years.  I love buying coats because I know I’m going to enjoy my investment for a very long time. Hashtag: costperwear.

Outerwear is also the trickiest thing for me to purchase, because buying a coat when you’re petite is a real pain in the booty.  Don’t even get me started on how many long arms have killed great coats for me…

I thought it would be fun, since we’re still at the beginning of the season, to round up my favorite coat styles for the colder months and then give you some of my go-tos for finding great outerwear for petites.  You know, the ones that actually fit us girls on the very-petite end of the petite spectrum, not just the girls in the 5′ 3.5″ range. ;-)

 (Just for reference, I am 4′ not quite 11″ so if they work for me, I’m betting they’ll work for you if you’re tres petite as well.)

The Wool Parka.  Such a versatile coat.  This is a style I will be adding to my closet this season.  The hood is perfect for our wet fall and winters.

The Classic White Coat.  I bought this exact coat right after Ava was born almost four years ago and it is still one of my favorites, still looks beautiful and I wore this baby all around NYC in the dead of winter and let me tell you, it is warm.

The City Coat.  It’s just your perfect, neutral, goes with everything coat.  I got this one last year and wore it so much.  I recommend getting it in tan, because hello versatile.

The Tweed Peacoat.  It’s like a peacoat, but less boring!  Also I totally prefer a gray tweed over black.  More interesting but still covers that color family.

The All-Weather Parka.  If you want to look chic whilst skiing, or in any snowy, rainy, slushy, uber cold situation this is the coat style for you.   You can see how I wore mine for a snow day last year here.

My biggest piece of advice if you are petite and looking for a coat is learn to love online shopping.  Pretty much no one is going to carry your size in-store.  But never fear!  Because there are some seriously awesome brands who are knocking it out of the park for petites.

Favorite brands for petite outerwear:

J.Crew.  By far my favorite.  So many great classic styles, such high quality, and their petite sizing is legit and runs usually down to double and triple zero.  And now that Nordstrom carries J.Crew you can take advantage of their super fast free shipping and returns.  Boom.

J.Crew Factory.  They carry petite sizes online!  The quality is still pretty great and the prices are killer.

Banana Republic.  Another fantastic classic brand, great quality and they’re petites run, well petite.

ASOS.  Thank heavens for UK sizing!  ASOS has an entire petite line (such a great place to find dresses and skirts too) and the fit runs small so it is perfect for extra petite ladies.  The sizing can sometimes be tricky (because things do run so small) but ASOS has amazingly easy and fast shipping and free returns so I usually order 2 sizes and just send back the one that doesn’t work.