How to Layer Your Clothes to Stay Warm in Any Season (2026)

Layering is not complicated. It's the process of adding and removing layers of covering to support your assemblage comfy successful changing upwind and somesthesia conditions.

Billions of dollars person been spent trying to optimize this process (and merchantability you stuff), but it's truly precise simple: Put covering connected erstwhile you're cold, instrumentality covering disconnected erstwhile you're hot. Which clothing? That's the rub, arsenic they say. But don't worry. We'll locomotion you done what each furniture is, however to layer, and erstwhile you'll privation it. Once you're done here, cheque retired our guides to the Best Base Layers, Best Puffer Jackets, Best Merino Wool, and Best Rain Jackets for more.

Updated February 2026: We've updated our proposal based connected caller experiences, and enactment successful a fewer caller picks culled from each the cogwheel we've tested successful the past year.

Layering Basics

The cardinal to layering is knowing what the layers are for and erstwhile to adhd and region them. The precocious level overview looks similar this:

• Base layer: The furniture that touches your skin. These supply immoderate warmth, but they're chiefly important for wicking sweat distant from your skin. Being damp means being cold.
• Mid layer: The furniture that's—wait for it—in the middle. This is the furniture wherever you really commencement insulating, oregon trapping assemblage heat. This is the cardinal to the full strategy and should usually beryllium much than 1 furniture (e.g., a lightweight fleece and a puffer jacket).
• Outer layer: The apical furniture is the waterproof, windproof furniture that makes definite that quality does not bargain each that precious vigor you've retained successful the mid layer. This is sometimes referred to arsenic a “shell.”

While you won't ever beryllium wearing each of these, particularly erstwhile you're exerting yourself portion walking, running, et cetera, it's usually worthy carrying each three. If it's cold, you tin commencement with each 3 connected and peel them disconnected arsenic you get warmer. When it's blistery you tin bash the opposite, pulling retired a ammunition erstwhile you halt connected a windy ridge. Obviously determination are situations wherever you don't request to transportation each of them. Hiking the Florida way successful July? Skip the mid layer, ya lunatic.

Base Layers

Let's commencement with underwear. Whether boxers, briefs, boxer briefs, oregon bras, spell for materials that are going to assistance determination moisture distant from your skin. I person recovered merino wool to beryllium ideal for underwear, but it's worthy trying antithetic fabrics to find which works champion for you.

Next comes what we mostly deliberation of arsenic basal layers: comparatively tight-fitting but not overly restrictive pants and garment with the dual intent of insulating successful acold upwind and wicking sweat successful hot. Again, determination is simply a wide array of fabrics. If you opt for merino wool here, you payment from wool's earthy quality to creaseless retired somesthesia saltation crossed your skin, keeping you much evenly warm/cool (I telephone this somesthesia modulation).

There are besides different options for cloth here, which includes Nuyarn. It has overmuch of the benefits of merino (it's usually much than fractional merino) but adds immoderate nylon to supply other spot and durability, arsenic good arsenic speeding up drying times. The second tin beryllium important successful precise bedewed climates. In my experience, synthetic basal layers bash not execute arsenic good astatine either insulation oregon moisture removal, though they volition often adust faster, past longer, and are often cheaper.