What to Wear in Tallinn in November

Dress for a month the sun mostly skips. The Estonian Weather Service records 29 hours of sunshine in Tallinn across the whole of November, against 88 in October, with afternoons at 4.1°C, nights at −0.2°C and 66mm of rain or sleet over about 13 days. Wet and freezing on the same night calls for a hood overhead and a sole that grips. Estonia's folk calendar has its own reply to the grey. On mardipäev, 10 November, mummers go door to door in dark clothes; on kadripäev, the 25th, children follow a Kadri-mother in light ones, and the folk calendar starts winter. So the capsule runs charcoal and oatmeal, with one warm colour between them: a rust lambswool crew, plus mittens knitted in a parish pattern.

The capsule

1. 
   01

   Charcoal short hooded puffer, hip length

   Put a hood on your coat this month. Rain or sleet falls on about 13 days and nights sit at 0°C / 32°F, and a hip-length charcoal puffer traps heat in its quilting, pulls up over your head between Town Hall Square and Toompea, and leaves both hands free. Charcoal is the dark half of this capsule, the colour of the mardipäev mummers on the 10th.

2. 
   02

   Rust lambswool crew

   Twenty-nine hours of sunshine across a whole month leaves the Old Town grey from a late breakfast to a mid-afternoon dusk, and rust is the warm colour you carry through it. Lambswool holds heat at 4°C / 39°F under an open puffer and sits smooth under the oat overshirt, so you can take the jacket off in a heated cinema without looking half-dressed.

3. 
   03

   Oat wool button-down shirt, chest pocket, worn open as an overshirt

   Black Nights runs from 6 to 22 November, and a screening is two hours in a heated room with your coat on your knees. An oat wool shirt worn open over the rust crew is the layer that stays on in there, and it adds warmth under the puffer on the walk back afterwards. Oat is the pale half of the palette.

4. 
   04

   Heather-grey Donegal tweed trousers, pleated, straight leg

   Wool on the legs, not denim. Donegal tweed is a dense, flecked cloth that stays warm when sleet wets the hem, and the heather grey hides the splash a wet cobble throws up. Pleated and straight, the leg falls over a lace-up boot without bunching, and it looks as right at a festival screening as on the climb up Pikk Jalg.

5. 
   05

   Black waterproof lace-up boot, padded collar, lug sole

   By the last week the sun sets about half past three, so most of your walking happens after dark on cobbles that sit near 0°C / 32°F. A black waterproof lace-up with a lug sole grips wet stone on Lühike Jalg, and the padded collar closes the gap where sleet gets in at the ankle. Lace it firmly for the steps.

6. 
   06

   Oatmeal long wool scarf, fringed

   Wind it twice and tuck the fringe inside the zip. A long oatmeal wool scarf closes the neck a hip-length puffer leaves open, and the Estonian Weather Service puts November's mean wind at Tallinn-Harku at 3.6 m/s, which you feel on the Toompea viewing platforms. Oatmeal is the light note beside the charcoal, the kadripäev half of the palette.

7. 
   07

   Olive structured leather crossbody, flap front

   Wear it across the body so your hands stay in the mittens. An olive leather crossbody with a flap front holds a phone, a card and a festival ticket, and sits flat under the open puffer. Olive is a second colour darker than the knit, so the rust stays the one people notice across a grey square.

8. 
   08

   Red, black and white patterned knitted mittens

   Mittens beat gloves at 0°C / 32°F because your fingers share one pocket of warm air. Kodukäsitöö, the Estonian Handicraft House at Pikk 22, whose society dates to 1929, sells mitten kits in parish patterns such as Kirbla and Rannu. A red, black and white pair is the one piece in this capsule with a local pattern in it; wear it at the Christmas market from the 20th.

A suggested look — charcoal hooded puffer, rust lambswool crew, grey donegal tweed trousers, black waterproof lace-up boots, oatmeal wool scarf.

What to avoid

• Canvas sneakers or smooth soles — wet cobbles near freezing after dark
• A coat with no hood — rain or sleet on about 13 days
• Thin gloves alone at the Christmas market — 0°C / 32°F at a stall from the 20th
• Saving Toompea for a sunny afternoon — 29 hours of sun in the whole month
• An afternoon plan that ends after four — sunset near half past three by the 30th