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| source I happened to see a Facebook ad today for this start-up/crowdfunding merino-wool travel-capsule project. Obviously a cool idea: merino wool, one of the perfect travel fabrics, in a simple mix-and-match wardrobe, which you can buy à la carte, or as a complete set. I'm interested in capsule wardrobes, even if I'm not interested in boiling down my wardrobe to a single capsule. Specifically, I am interested in capsule wardrobes for travel (as evidenced here). Travel, whether I'm road-tripping, whether I'm flying, whether I'm going short or long or near or far, is a specific instance when I do not want or need a ton of choices. I like to pack light. On the other hand, I do need choices that will prove to be what I want to wear, wherever I find myself, so that I'm not pining for that one thing I didn't pack, hanging forlornly in my closet at home. Ideally, too, the clothes I pack for travel should not be a whole separate wardrobe from what I normally wear, but . . . well, a capsule, a microcosm, of that wardrobe. In other words, a travel capsule should be the best suited of my favorite everyday clothes for the rigors and demands of the circumstances in which I expect to find myself. So, although I have no affiliation with this company and have been offered no kind of deal to review them –– in fact, unless they follow the links, I'm sure they won't even know I'm reviewing them –– I thought that a review of this projected travel collection would be interesting to write. My eye fell on it, first of all, because it looked so appealing, as indeed it is. Again, my ninety-six days (and counting) in a merino dress testify to the superiority of merino as a live-in fabric, whatever you happen to be doing. It regulates your body temperature, helping you to keep warm when it's cold, cool when it's hot. It doesn't hold odors, meaning that you can wear it days in a row without needing to wash it, or even change clothes. You can hike in a merino dress, then go straight out to dinner in the same dress. No need for lots of discrete outfits, just changes of small, easy-packing accessories to dress up or down as the occasion requires. So the idea of a dress as a core piece, with some coordinating tops and bottoms, is a great idea. Again, this is essentially what everyone doing the Wool& challenge is doing, and getting really good at doing. The idea of a package deal, where you could buy your essential merino pieces in one fell swoop, is pretty genius: maybe hit the demographic that hasn't stumbled on the Wool& challenge, or else likes the idea but doesn't like any of those dresses. And the individual items are mostly nice, with some lovely color choices. I love the color of this tank, for example:  And the "early-bird" price is good: $45 ($55 normally). That's cheap for a merino tank. I'm really curious to know what the fabric content is, actually, and haven't yet turned up that information on the site. There must be some nylon or spandex for stretch, and it would be interesting to know percentages. I'm not sure what the threshold is for being able to call something "all-natural merino," in terms of percentages. How little merino can a fabric contain and still be called "merino?" I'm not sure. I'll need to do some further research. But the question occurs to me because these prices –– with the exception of the dress and the leggings, which are on par with other brands' prices for similar items –- seem low. Granted, they're offering crowdfunding discounts to launch the brand, but even so, the tee, tank, and long-sleeve-top prices are quite reasonable, and considerably less than comparable items I've seen from other, more established brands. The array of available colors is nice, with options to flatter, potentially, every complexion.  Unfortunately, not every item is available in every color, and some core pieces, chiefly the dress and the leggings, are available with only limited choices. In the case of the leggings, you get to choose between black and black. The dress is available in black and what they're calling forest green, though on my laptop screen, at least, it looks kind of olive –– in the range of the cool-olive Wool& Sierra. Green is a tricky color under any circumstances, especially if you can't gauge the color accurately on a screen. If you are a person who looks good in either black or that shade of green, then you're in luck. If you're like the rest of us, and you don't want to wander the world like a corpse in search of its resting place, then you're out of luck –– again, since the purveyors of ready-made capsule wardrobes seem to feel that we should all just learn to wear black and like it. Leggings at least you don't have to wear next to your face, but if I'm going to pay $100+ for leggings, which so far I have not done, they had better be in a color I want to wear. Black is not that color. So, a plea to the purveyors of capsule wardrobes: please provide options other than black, or even black and one other color that might be right if you're lucky, which a lot of people won't be. I would conceivably buy charcoal or navy wool leggings at that price. I really don't need a dress, but if I did, I would conceivably buy one in charcoal or navy, though that "wild wind" color . . . to me, that is a good color for a core piece (it looks fairly close to my lapis Camellia), and I could flex all kinds of things around it. I would not buy the available green, and I would not buy black. That's my main complaint, running my eye over the offerings here. If I'm patient, I can collect, for myself, a comparable travel wardrobe in colors I actually want to wear, without needing to purchase a pre-curated collection. Granted, a lot of people would just buy the pre-curated collection because it is pre-curated, and would settle for black, probably, because of course everybody says it's so versatile, and they know they can't wear that green, and so it'll probably be fine. That is not a thought process by which I personally would choose to purchase a wardrobe costing hundreds of dollars, but I guess what any company really cares about is that enough people say, "Well, okay, black is versatile, it'll be fine, I guess," and put their money down. As long as people say, "Well, okay, it'll be fine, I guess," and put their money down, what we'll keep getting is a choice between black and black, but maybe –- since I'm capable of curating my own travel capsule wardrobe –– that doesn't have to be my problem. Still, noted: a major strike-against for this collection in my book. They seem to have chosen one body type to model these clothes, as far as I can tell, so it's really hard to gauge how they're going to look on a normal person. Here, the dress again raises some what-could-possibly-go-wrong flags for me. In the flat-lay photo of the clothes by themselves, it looks like just a simple sheath dress, potentially body-skimming, potentially forgiving, potentially comfortable enough for walking and touring, train journeys, the plane, any situation. Though it's sleeveless, you could layer over it as you needed, and wear the leggings under it. I mean, I guess you could. I thought that was the point, but as I look at their photo slideshow, I don't really see the different pieces layered together at all. What I see is: the dress by itself, the leggings by themselves (another nope for me), the tops worn with . . . a lot of different pants? Which you'd also have to pack? So this is not actually a capsule in the most meaningful sense, but just . . . some clothes? And you still need to pack more clothes to go with them? Uh, okay. Meanwhile, in the pictures, the dress looks a lot more form-fitting than it appears in the flat lay. Hard to know how thick the fabric is, but it looks a lot closer to the fine, thinnish fabric of my Camellia dress than to, say, the Sierra, which is a heavier French terry. I love my Camellia and have not felt that it showed every bump and bulge, but if it were cut closer to my body, it would not be nearly so kind to me, and I would not be loving it so much. The travel dress in this capsule is also slit way up the thigh, as one photo in their carousel indicates. It seems to me that the population of women who would look good in and be happy with that dress is potentially extremely limited. Everything doesn't have to be a trapeze dress, but given that the demographic most likely to be buying $400 capsule wardrobes for traveling is probably my age or older, this doesn't look like reading the room very well. Not, mind you, that younger women, in their 20s and 30s, wouldn't buy these pieces. I guess some would, though it's harder to see. In my admittedly limited observation, the target audience for dedicated travel clothing –– for something like TravelSmith, for example –– is women like my mother, who is 85, and who has trotted the globe a lot, with friends, in the last couple of decades. My daughters (one late teen, one late 20something) would undoubtedly say, "Yeah, that's for rich old ladies," and they would not be wrong. A younger woman, meanwhile, might be looking for the kind of investment dress that would travel well for play and work, and that could be worn to work on a regular basis. A thigh-high slit does not quite fit that profile, either. Meanwhile, a lot of younger women, even with all the advantages which youth has to offer, would still not look their best in that dress. And I can't see hiking in it. By "travel," I guess they mean "cruise." Or "beach vacation." Or possibly "amble about Greece." Now, hiking happens to be my particular hangup, as in I want to do a lot of it. I realize it's not what everybody wants to do. But even if I didn't want to hike, for that kind of money, I would expect a dress that could go on any vacation, anywhere. This one seems, again, kind of limited and limiting –– aside from the fact that the chances of my looking decent in it in any setting are virtually nil. So if we were going to redesign this capsule, what would we change? Here are my ideas: *Core pieces, especially dress, in more colors, to be more genuinely flattering to more people. *At least one other dress option: a shorter, swingier dress, and maybe a longer, looser sheath or A-line silhouette as well, also in more color options than black +1. *A cardigan option. Maybe even two: a long cardigan and a shrug. Again, available in a wider range of colors, so you could potentially make a twin set with a matching tank or tee underneath. *At least one pants option besides leggings. Some merino joggers, say, in at least a choice of black, navy, and charcoal –– maybe that "sand" color, too, for the really warm-favored among us. A wide-leg knit pant would probably be a good seller as well and meet a lot of needs. And paper-bag-waist knit shorts. That way your capsule would really be a capsule, and you wouldn't have to pack other pieces at all. With these options, you would then have a complete capsule: *Your choice of dress *Your choice of bottoms *Your choice of tops to layer over dress (so it acts as a skirt), and wear with bottoms *A third layer for extra warmth when needed *Colors that you really feel great in and would wear any time There could be several options for a curated complete capsule, based on a core color, for cool or warm coloring, high- or low-contrast. And then all pieces could be available individually, so that people could create their own capsule to suit their needs. Once you had your capsule in place, every major item you'd have for your trip would be merino: *roll tightly to fit in a small suitcase without wrinkling *wear for days on end without washing *regulate your body heat whatever the temperature *be ready for any situation, appropriately and flatteringly dressed. All you would need to add would be underwear, shoes, and small accessories. You would literally need nothing else, unless it was going to be cold, in which case you'd take a warm top layer, and that would be it. Anyway, this proposed capsule is a good idea and a good start. Again: can't go wrong with merino. There are some lovely colors in this palette. The available pieces are potentially hard-working and lovely. BUT I think it could be better. I think it could potentially be a lot better in the key ways I've noted. What do you think? If you were going to design a capsule wardrobe for travel, what would you change or add? What would your goals be for that wardrobe? How would you envision wearing it? Doing what? ***OK, I've stripped out and redone this entire post and still can't get the italics to go away. Sorry about that.*** |