My Travel Wardrobe

I have a heap of travel related posts I keep meaning to write, but I never seem to find the time to take photos. Instead, today I have spent my lunch break on Polyvore putting together a travel wardrobe that looks very similar to the one I have packed at home (I'm not joking, everything is set aside and waiting!).

I'm planning on taking only one carry on sized bag and actually intend to carry it on my flight over to Europe. I'm flying Malaysia Airlines, so that means keeping it to below their 7kg limit. I should manage it.



My wardrobe looks like this:

As you can see, the colour scheme I have gone for includes a coral/red colour. I based it around the red leather jacket I already own which is a little bit pinker than the one I found on polyvore. You get the idea though. I love my leather jacket for it's warm and cooling abilities (always seems to be the rigth temperature adjuster) plus it's water resistant so it should cover me for small showers. Rather than take a full on rain jacket, I intend to buy an umbrella over there if it looks like rain.

The rest of the wardrobe includes: 

Three tank tops (coral, black and white) bought from Jeans West and Target (no links because you can find similar anywhere).

Three scarves, the grey and black are jersey knit scarves from Target. I love jersey scarfs because they are so soft and blanket like. The other one I picked up at a junk-style shop and is more pashmina style, it's just the perfect colour match.

[I'm not a fancy scarf wearer, I'm a practical one and these babies double as sarongs/blankets/towels etc. Also great for sun protection, or a sun shade in the car and I will be using these to cover my shoulders/knees when entering churches etc. in Europe as well. I have no issues taking three even with my reduced baggage, I'll wear all three on the plane if I have too (I'll end up using them as blankets anyway!). Though I'm not into Hermes scarves tied in fancy knots, I have been looking at my options and love this video by Wendy's Lookbook. Definitely a few I can try.]

A little black dress. The one I have is from ASOS (see it here) and reasonably cheap. It's made from a viscose/elastane blend. More on this later. I also have a skirt and a pair of shorts (that are more cullottes) from ASOS. Again, both viscose. If I really wanted to cut down further, I could probably cull the dress and pair the black tank with the skirt instead, but I'm not. I like the dress and I like the way it makes me feel, plus sometimes you just don't want a waist band.

Two buttoned shirts, colours a little different to what I've shown but basically sand and grey. The only part of my travel wardrobe that doesn't 'match' but I won't be wearing them together so it should work okay. I think I got these from Valley Girl and again, not very expensive. Also again, has a viscose blend. These shirts are great, they have sleeves that can be rolled up and buttoned at the elbows so they can be worn long or short. I can also wear them open over a tank, or open belted over a tank, or belted or just tucked in or tied up over a tank..lots of options there.

I'm not taking any pants (the cullottes don't really count), instead I'm taking footless fleece lined tights (and maybe ordinary ones? still deciding). I find fleece lined tights to be as warm as jeans but more comfortable. Jeans are heavy and I wouldn't wear them much, I am going in summer after all.

Accessories wise, I have a thick stretchy black belt and colourful necklace (that matches obviously!) and a few other little bits and pieces (cheap gold bangle, possible long dangly necklace etc.). The belt will be handy to dress up the cheap shirt/shorts when I have tucked in one of the tanks, or for belting the buttoned shirts.

So that only leaves shoes. The ones I'm taking differ quite a bit from what I've shown. First up, pump wedges actually look like this:

A little less pretty but a lot more pratical. They are Pumps by Robert Robert which I picked up from Styletread (only size 7 left). They have a decent sole on them, so I shold be able to manage most surfaces and they are leather and quite comfortable. A very slight wedge, mostly because I get heel pain from walking all day in flats. The criss-cross straps are good for keeping the shoe one, but I'm tempted to cut them off...

My sandal wedges look like this:

And, as much as I hate to admit it, they are CROCS! They only pair I own (none of those clogs for me) and really comfortable. The heel may look a little large for many girls, but for me they are quite perfect. I've had a test run in them for day out in the city and had no leg/foot pain whatsover. I actually found that when I stood still I balanced my weight much better than I usually would, rather than shifting from foot to foot constantly. So a definite winner in my books. Anyway, they're called the Crocs Leigh Wedge and you can get them in an oat colour online, I found the red/coral ones in store though.

So I think that covers what I'm taking, just for fun (and since I was on Polyvore) I put together a few outfit ideas:

This is the sort of outfit I'll wear on a cold day (or on the plane), tights, dress, buttoned shirt, jacket and enclosed wedges. Actually on the plane I probably will have all three scarves on.

This is likely to be my usual travel day uniform, tank, skirt/shorts and buttoned shirt. Probably with the shirt open or tied in front.

This is more of an outfit for a hot day (like on the Isle of Capri), the scarf will be used more for sun protection than to keep me warm.

And a simple 'going out' outfit.

I'm also taking a grey, cross body camera bag (more on that in another post) that I will probably have with me everywhere, so I should consider that a part of all my outfits too.

I have been wondering how many outfits I could put together using this wardrobe, any guesses?
Excluding shoes and accessories (inc. the scarves), I have four outfits for the dress (jacket, each of the shirts and plain) and eleven each for the skirt and shorts (three tanks, two shirts, then each of the shirts with each of the tanks). That's not counting wearing the buttoned shirts open or tied or with a belt or including the jacket (though I probably won't team the coral tank or scarf together or with the jacket).

So with some rough calcs that comes to somewhere around the 220-250 mark, not counting wearing alternating shoes...or the tights, forgot about them. So I can proably safely assume I could wear close to 500 slightly different outfits from this wardrobe?

I'm only gone 40 days...