Dress for Davos in layers, and wear proper winter boots. The town sits at 1,560 metres in the Alps in January — often below freezing and snowing outside — while every indoor venue is aggressively heated, and you will move between the two all day. The working uniform is business or smart-casual clothing under a packable down jacket, with a rubber-soled, weather-appropriate boot. Leave the heels and the evening formalwear at home.
The two most common packing mistakes are being underdressed for the elements and overdressed for the culture. Both are immediately visible.
The central challenge is the differential. Outside: alpine winter, often below freezing, frequently snowing. Inside: heated to the point of discomfort. You will cross between those environments a dozen times a day, usually in a hurry.
The solution is layering — a system you can adjust without looking disheveled:
A packable down jacket is the ideal outer layer: warm enough for outside, and small enough to stow in a bag when you're indoors for two hours. Ski parkas are common at Davos and entirely acceptable — this is one of the few professional settings on earth where a technical jacket reads as competence rather than carelessness.
People who arrive in a wool dress overcoat look appropriate for about thirty seconds, then spend the week shivering on the Promenade.
Davos does not salt its streets. The Promenade and the surrounding paths get icy, and you will be walking on them constantly, often quickly, often in the dark.
Stilettos, loafers, and smooth-soled dress shoes are impractical and will mark you as a first-timer.
The solution most experienced Davos attendees arrive at is a boot with a rubber-studded sole and a shearling lining — it reads as a dress boot, functions as outdoor gear, and does both jobs for the whole week. If you genuinely need more formal footwear for a specific event, carry it and change when you arrive. But be warned: by Wednesday, most people have stopped noticing what anyone has on their feet.
Shoe spikes are worth considering if you are not confident on snow and ice. They attach to any footwear and give real grip on the worst days. WEF includes them in the welcome pack for white badge holders; if you don't have one, buy a pair before you travel.
That last one is worth dwelling on. First-timers routinely pack a separate evening wardrobe and then discover that the return trip to change costs them 45 minutes they could have used for networking and relationship building. One versatile smart-casual outfit that works for daytime sessions and evening events is the correct answer, and it removes a logistical problem from every single day.
Beyond clothing, the items that consistently matter:
There is a cultural point underneath the practical one. Davos compresses status competition in a way most professional settings don't. Roughly a thousand CEOs are in town, all invited for the same reason. Nobody is impressed by an expensive overcoat, and the people who over-dress tend to be signalling that they haven't quite worked out where they are.
What does register is looking like someone who has done this before: warm, mobile, unfussy, able to walk fifteen minutes in snow and then sit down in a meeting without needing to reassemble themselves.
Dress for the walking, not for the room. You will do far more of the former than you expect.
Is there a dress code at Davos? There is no formal dress code. In practice the standard is business or smart-casual, worn under serious winter outerwear. Evening events are also smart-casual — black tie is not part of the week for most attendees.
What is the weather like in Davos in January? Alpine winter. Frequently below freezing, often snowing, with icy streets that are not salted. Indoor venues are heated aggressively, so the temperature differential across a day is large.
Do you need snow boots for Davos? Yes — or at minimum a rubber-soled, weather-appropriate boot with real grip. Smooth-soled dress shoes are impractical on unsalted, icy streets.
Do you need formal evening wear at Davos? No. Davos evenings are smart-casual, and what you wore during the day is almost always appropriate. Returning to your room to change into evening wear costs you time you don't have.
The full packing chapter, the essentials checklist, and the venue guide are in our Davos 101. Download it free.
