There is a particular cold that arrives in Islamabad in the last week of November. It comes down from the Margallas in the evening and stays until March. It is the cold for which a good overcoat was invented, and it is the reason a winter wardrobe deserves more thought than any other.
The instinct, each season, is to buy more. We would suggest the opposite. Seven pieces, chosen with care and made properly, will carry a man through a northern winter with more grace than a wardrobe three times the size.
Begin with the coat
Everything else is worn beneath it, so it should be the best thing you own. Choose a single-breasted coat that falls below the knee, in a mid-grey or camel that sits comfortably over navy, charcoal and Eastern formal alike. Cashmere if you can; a dense wool if you cannot.
Buy the coat first. Then buy nothing for a while.
Then the knit
A heavy shawl-collar cardigan for evenings at home, and a fine crewneck to wear beneath a jacket. Both in cashmere, both in colours that will not date: charcoal, oatmeal, navy.
Add two flannel trousers, one grey and one charcoal. A pair of oxfords in dark brown calf. A raw silk waistcoat for the wedding season, which in Lahore never really ends. That is the wardrobe. Everything after it is pleasure.
