I'm going this weekend to visit my mother, whom I haven't seen since she was sick in the fall. I realize I'm luckier in many ways than lots of people, who haven't seen family members in over a year. Anyway, my mother has bought a new car and is giving us her old one, so I'm flying to Memphis on Saturday (cheap flight; six-hour layover) and driving the car back here next Tuesday or Wednesday.
I decided to challenge myself to pack in a small carry-on to save the cost of checked baggage. I'm a congenital overpacker, and when I drive, which is how I travel most of the time, my MO is just to throw it all in. I end up packing more or less my whole closet, because there's anxiety attached to not having something I might want to wear, even though I inevitably end up wearing only a tiny fraction of what I've packed.
This capsule attempt represents a fairly low-impact exercise in several ways.
One: it's spring, and it's going to be pretty warm in Memphis while I'm there, so I don't need a lot of layers or a coat. I can get away with fairly minimal shoes.
Two: I'm only going to be gone about four days. Five at the most. In that time I will be going out to dinner with my mother, taking care of car-title transfer, visiting my mother-in-law, and having a glass of wine with my cousins. I'll also go to Mass on Sunday. We might go for some walks – I'd like to walk the Harahan Bridge walk across the Mississippi River while I'm there, if I can. In other words, I don't have to dress for too many days on end, or for too wide a range of potential activities.
Core items I'm choosing to pack for this capsule:
1. My Old Navy jumpsuit.
I know I like to wear it; I have worn it several ways and felt really good about it. It's comfortable, cool but layerable, wrinkle-free, and quick-dry. I'll probably wear it to travel in on Saturday, especially as we'll be going out to dinner as soon as I get where I'm going. (yes, it's kind of a pain in the bathroom, but not too bad).
2. Old TravelSmith dress.
I've had this A-line midi-length dress for I forget how many years. A long time. Maybe even ten. Definitely at least eight. It's that sort-of-weird bathing-suit-ish "travel" fabric, but it fits nicely and flows nicely, and I've always gotten a lot of compliments when I've worn it. It's also comfortable and wrinkle-free. The neckline is kind of low in front, so I have often opted to wear it backwards. The waist is loose, so I'll almost certainly wear a belt (like the one pictured above, though I plan to pack three, since they're small).
3. My little swingy t-shirt dress, just for something short, instead of shorts.
Also tried-and-true, also comfortable and wrinkle-free. All these items pack down really small, which is good when space is limited.
Secondary/layering items:
1. Blue duster cardigan.
I've done this look. I know it works.
Less sure about the blue/teal here, but it's not terrible, especially with a high-contrast belt.
I do know that I look GREAT in these colors. It almost doesn't matter how well they work together. They will work with my face, and I will look radiant, and nobody will care that it's a slightly off blue-on-blue situation.
I didn't take a picture of this cardigan with the t-shirt dress, and I'm not sure I've ever worn them together, but again I think it'd work if it needed to. And again, I know the colors look good on me, so that *I* will look good even if my blue-layering is a little edgy in not the best way.
This cardigan also has the advantage of being light and easy to pack. The long line tends to elevate anything I wear it with. I'll probably wear it with the jumpsuit (belted) to travel, so we can go straight to dinner and I'll feel put together.
2. Light-blue silky shrug/cropped-length cardigan
This is one of the oldest items in my wardrobe. I've had it maybe fifteen years. It hasn't gotten a lot of wear lately, but I like it. I've often worn it with this dress, but I think it works well with the jumpsuit, too.
3. As you can see above, I'm also packing a basic white tee.
This is one that I cut off, because it was too long to wear without having to stuff it in at the waist. Now it's like a half-tee for layering, which is the only reason I was wearing it anyway. It also works under the dress with or without a cardigan layer:
4. A sleeveless under-layer option: pale-blue microfiber tank
This is probably my most questionable inclusion, and I might take it out, since both these items can be worn sleeveless as they are. On the other hand, it could be nice if I want to wear the dress front-way round but sleeveless. And I like the little neckline detail on this tank.
5. I'd debated packing my denim jacket, but it's really bulky. Instead I've opted for my collarless denim shirt as another top-layer option.
I've worn it recently with my jumpsuit and liked it, but I think it works with the dress as well. With the t-shirt dress it's probably a little too monochrome, but then I could just say I was going for a monochrome look, leave the shirt unknotted, and wear a tan, pink, or silver belt for a tiny contrast.
Shoes:
Again, luckily, it's going to be warm, with highs in the 70s and 80s Farenheit. I plan to rely mainly on my Crocs thongs:
I mean, they're rubber. But they have sleek lines which mean that they tend to dress up an outfit in the kind of casual-outdoorsy way I like, more than a pair of Birks would. I will also pack my Floridas and probably either the EVA Birks or a pair of gray sneakers, depending on how much room I have, for walking. I'll most likely wear the Crocs on the plane, again since we're going out to dinner straight from the airport, at some nice-ish restaurant where my mother is making a reservation.
Note to self: cut toenails.
Just add underwear, nightdress, toiletries in travel bottles, basic jewelry (which I'll wear to travel and just wear with everything while I'm there), and hair-ties/clips, and I'm ready to go. Oh, and masks. I have a lot of masks. I have masks to go with all my outfits – which is easy since all my outfits, with few exceptions, include either blue or pink. I don't have to have a lot of masks, just blue and pink ones.
We'll see how this plays out. It's still more clothes than I can realistically wear in four days, but I like having some choices, among clothes I know I will wear and look good in. Theoretically, depending on the kind of trip I was taking and what I planned to be doing, I think I could depend on this very capsule to take me through a week or two of warm-weather travel. If I were going to be doing a lot of sight-seeing on foot, I'd probably buy some Keens or some other kind of fisherman's-sandal-type walking shoe and leave the Birks at home. The Crocs are so thin and light that they would pack well for a dressier option in the evening.
I'll do a debriefing once I've put this wardrobe to work next week, but I'm kind of proud of myself for planning it, rather than just panic-strickenly throwing everything I own into a big duffel at the last minute (and paying to check it), which would be my usual method. This is the kind of detail-dense task that I lie awake worrying about, so at least in part what I'm doing here is some pre-emptive mental-health care. I'm also proud of myself for making use of the teal dress, which I haven't worn in a while but haven't gotten rid of. It was made for situations such as this, so we'll see how it plays.
I am also really happy to see how I can make a versatile small capsule wardrobe for a specific situation – and it includes exactly zero black items. "Capsule" doesn't have to mean "a lot of black." All your personal best colors go with each other, and with a lot of other colors. Just substitute colors you like and look good in* for the black, white, and gray of the standard capsule wardrobe, and you're good to go.
*This is assuming that black isn't one of your best colors. For some people, it is. But the truism that everyone looks good in black is not a truth, and a wardrobe based on a color you don't look and feel your best in is not a wardrobe you're going to enjoy wearing – which means you won't wear it, which means you've wasted time and money creating it. Figure out what you DO look good in. If not black, then what? There is an answer. You just need to know what it is. Once you do, you can build a versatile little set of clothes that will take you through a range of situations. Of course this applies to your wardrobe overall, but you really feel it when you're traveling and have to make decisions about what's in and what's out of your suitcase.
EDITED TO ADD:
Thrifted items: blue t-shirt dress, denim collarless shirt, pale-blue tank. This capsule actually doesn't at all represent the percentage of thrifted to non-thrifted items in my overall wardrobe.
Older bought-new items (owned longer than a year – in the case of the dress and the shrug, MUCH longer than a year): teal travel dress, light-blue shrug, Crocs sandals
Newer bought-new items: jumpsuit, blue duster cardigan, white tee
What I have not at all felt the need to do is go out and buy new clothes for this trip. Granted, if I were going to Norway or something (as my husband wants to do next summer), I'd probably make some additional investments in good travel layers and walking shoes. I'm making a note to myself to be looking for those things in my thrifting over the coming year, just in case. It's not like I wouldn't use them anyway. But really, for normal travel and vacations, I don 't need new stuff. I have enough in my existing wardrobe to cover just about any conceivable base.
Now I'm thinking about our week at the beach, upcoming in June. We'll be driving, so I can take a larger bag – but how much larger a bag do I really need to take? I've bought bathing suits, but don't need anything else. I'll see how this short-hop capsule plays, and consider that in planning my packing for the beach, so that again I hope not to overpack, and to wear what I do pack.
Talk to me about what you'd put in a travel capsule, if you were making one.