TRAVEL CHIC: Low stress and high style when flying afar

I enjoy dabbling in the world of fashion from time to time. I know what I like to see, and I know what I like on me. With that in mind, I also know what I don’t like, and I see that a lot at perhaps one of the best people-watching spots anywhere, the airport. I asked a lovely young lady that I depend on as my own fashion consultant to pen a guest post for me on this subject as she travelled from South Carolina to Hawaii and had the opportunity to see lots of sartorial faux pas and create a few good tips for you.

Sara Wise is the person I use as a perfect example of the fashion trifecta- looking great, being comfortable, and dressing affordably. I’m serious too. She always looks great, even after running a triathlon. If I were a woman, it would make me sick.

So, here’s Sara…

TRAVEL CHIC: Low stress and high style when flying afar

Three-fourths of the way through my connecting flight from the east coast to Hawaii (Charlotte to Phoenix to be exact), it occurred to me that I could complete a marathon within the length of the flight. A long, painful, grueling feat. Which is pretty much synonymous with long-flight travel.

Every friend who heard I was traveling to Hawaii expressed the same sentiment: Oh man, that flight is brutal. No mention of the beaches or the waterfalls or the food. Just how much it sucks to be me on that plane.

I reminded myself every hour that all of the terminal sprinting and butt-numbing boredom would be worth it when I finally received my welcome lei in Hawaii. Aloha.

I rank long-flight travel third, behind a root canal and colonoscopy. I rank it more painful than a marathon. In short, long-flight travel sucks. Here’s how you can make travel day and living out of a suitcase, a little more bearable and a little more stylish.

Before you Leave Home…

Create a travel clothing capsule. Give a little thought to what goes into your suitcase and carry-on and the airport shuffle won’t be as cumbersome. Last summer we visited California for a week with just our carry-ons. You really can travel light if you create a capsule.  And if the word ‘capsule’ sounds intimidating, I apologize. Simply put, play the mix-and-match game.

Let me preface with this: I’m not Type A. I’m not a super woman who makes living life look effortless. But my naturally scattered, creative brain demands that I be organized when I travel or up go the chances of arriving at my destination without underwear or a bathing suit. That said, for Hawaii, I created a chart to coordinate outfits, just to make sure I didn’t leave off that one bra that my backless dress requires or the neutral metallic earrings that go with everything.

Ok, so I probably had a Type A twin that was bumped off in utero. In my everyday life, I’m a mess. But travel? I’ve got this.

When creating your clothing capsule, start with essentials for your destination and stick to a color scheme. When colors and patterns play well together, you increase the mixability of your pieces. I made 16 outfits from just 13 pieces of clothing, using mostly navy, red, green and white. Consider black, white, and gray with pops of teal, mustard, or red. Or camel, brown, peacock blue, and hunter green. Or olive, cream, raspberry, and burnt orange. For more choices, simply refer to your nearest box of Crayolas.

If the exercise of brainstorming outfits overwhelms you, don’t stress. Break it down. Maxi dresses can be worn alone or topped with a button down shirt (pop the collar and tie it jauntily at the waist). Colored skinny jeans go great with solids, stripes, and dots. A striped top also pairs well with crisp white shorts. White shorts go pretty swell with a polka-dotted button down. Dotted shirt goes great over maxi dress. Five easy outfits later, and we’ve come full circle. See there? Not so tough to do. The key is the color palette. I can’t stress that enough.

Keep it light. Heavy ponte de knit dresses weigh more than lighter cotton. Ditto for denim. Try wearing your jeans on travel day to keep your suitcase nice and light. (Wearing comfortably snug jeans on travel day will also keep your appetite in check so you don’t overindulge on airport Cinnabon)

Notice on my chart that all outfits orbit around two pairs of shoes (technically one pair, since I only wore the wedges with my maxi dress because I had it hemmed for heels versus flats). Trust me when I say this is the way to go! Hubby will be impressed. Friends will be impressed. Your suitcase will not teeter past the allowable weight limit. Repeat after me: I do not need a different shoe for every outfit. Liberating stuff.

For the sake of saving space, fill a clutch with your undies, stack hats inside each other and stuff the inside of the hat with socks or a couple of rolled up tees. Ditch all full-sized toiletries too, even if you are checking them. You don’t need thirty ounces of shampoo for a week’s vacay. I dare you to only pack dry shampoo and enjoy the extra vacation time you score when you skip hair-washing.

Keep it all together…

Make sure you have travel tools. On travel day, it’s critical to stay organized. Plenty has the potential to go wrong, so best to hold up your end of the serenity prayer by having together what you can control.

Enter the travel wallet. Perfect for keeping necessities you’ll need all day long: boarding passes, identification, plastic and paper currency. Tuck this in your carry on and it will be handy each time you need it.

Speaking of the tricky devil that is the carry-on, my choice is an expandable tote from Thirty-one Gifts that can double as a beach bag. It’s vinyl, wipeable, durable, and neutrally patterned to keep from waxing obnoxious. Upon arriving in Hawaii, I stored its plane-ride contents in our room and loaded the bag with beach essentials. On the return flight, I unzipped the extra compartment to accommodate souvies.

Within my carry-on, I use more cute sub-bags and Ziplocs to keep things orderly.  (FINE. Maybe I really am Type A.) The bags contain items like meds, toothbrush, iPad (pre-loaded with movies, ebooks/ezines), snacks of dark chocolate and protein bars, and TSA-approved cosmetics that can’t be easily replaced.

On that note, my favorite travel hack is to buy $2 Wet-n-Wild lipsticks and leave my top-shelf tubes at home. It just plain hurts too much to lose MAC or Aveda to the airport-hotel-vacation dance. (See? Messy and forgetful. We’re on the same team I tell you.)

Lastly, don’t forget to add to your carry-on a complete change of clothing and one swimsuit so that if your plane touches down without your luggage, you can snorkel while the airline tracks down your bag. Assuming you’re going somewhere tropical. Perhaps a jersey fabric LBD and kitten heels or wrinkle-free khakis and loafers would better suit your plans.

Make it Look Good…

The airport is not your living room. You can achieve a stylish and comfortable travel-day look without rocking a panama hat or being fully-cloaked in cashmere a la supermodel Gisele and Oscar-winner Charlize Theron. Can you imagine the pressure of having your airport attire pinned, cover-splashed and possibly don’t-listed? It’s great not being famous!

Speaking of gratitude, let’s take a moment to be thankful that we don’t still travel like this.

Just because we’re excused from wearing a hat, gloves, and pumps (to coordinate with our Louis Vuitton trunks, mind you), we should still maintain some sense of decorum when traveling by way of public transportation.

Don’t. Just don’t. Travel day looks ought NOT to include the following seen-in-real-life offenses:

• Actual pajamas. The recent cultural embracing of lounge pants makes this one tricky.  A good rule of thumb: if one article of clothing is baggy, make the other pieces more tailored. Don’t wear a top and bottom in a matching print. Or flannel. And never wear a smoking jacket.
• Sky-high heels or mega wedges. I used to insist that they were comfortable too. Blah, blah, blah. There is nothing comfortable about an ankle sprain from tripping over an illegally parked carry-on.
• Rhinestones. Please limit sparklies to cocktail events. Don’t want to blind the flight attendants.
• Boxer shorts as outerwear and cheeky-revealing jorts. Because cooties. A girl in a skirt that barely covered her lap non-ironically shared her hand sanitizer as we landed in Phoenix.
• Body-con dresses. Unless you’re on a date in the airport. With a rock star. But why would you be? Right. (And because Cinnabon.)

For the comfort of yourself and those around you. I hope I have not offended or embarrassed anyone. As retribution, I offer up my favorite travel day pieces.

• Dark-colored jeans, capris, or leggings that do not go sheer when you stoop plug in your iPhone charger.
• Lightweight jackets. Not a hoodie. Unless it’s cashmere.
• Body-skimming tees. Preferably without cheeky slogans but there’s an exception to every rule.
• Arch-supportive ballet flats or kicks. Closed-toe is the way to go since you never know when someone may roll over your tootsies with their carry-on (the kind that you know won’t actually fit in the overhead bin. Who do they think they’re kidding?).
• A funky necklace and cuff bracelet for style points.
• If there’s a chance of going from airport to dinner, a comfy and stylish wrap dress will take you there.

Here’s a picture of a gal who’s got it together for travel day. Heck, she even looks relaxed.

Are we there yet?

Home away from home. YES! After landing, claiming suitcases, and rental car joy riding, it’s time to unpack. Seriously. Don’t spend your far, far away travel week literally living out of a suitcase. Instead, hang everything in the hotel closet so you can see your options and let gravity negotiate the wrinkles. Use drawer space to separate swimsuits, undies, sleepwear, and work out wear. (No judgment if you don’t exercise on vacation. Some of us have slower metabolism and have to work out every day.)

I use yet another Thirty-one Gifts organizer for my jewelry and hang this in front of my duds. See below. This one has secret pockets for the real deal and clear pockets for costume baubles.

Oh, by the way. If like me, your goal is to re-wear pieces, skip expensive resort laundry service and spritz clothing with Febreeze after wearing.

If, also like me, you enjoy overindulging on vacation, then I recommend wearing your tightest clothing (skinny jeans and curve hugging dresses) early in the week, as excessive sodium and increased alcohol intake will make these pieces a little less comfy by the end of vacation.

Come back soon, now…

Pack, check, repeat. I confess that on our return flight, I insisted on wearing a souvenir tee with a giant pineapple on it. I knew it wasn’t the chicest look. Neither was the lady’s that consisted of horizontally striped palazzo pants and matching oversized tee.

Reload your luggage with less concern for wrinkling since you’re homeward bound. Throw away anything you can live without. Unless resort toiletries are stellar, don’t even think about packing them. If by some island curse your suitcase weighs a lot more on the return trip, consider shipping items home or adding some items to your lighter-packed traveling companion’s bag.

So I wore the pineapple tee. I still paired it with a white jacket, jean capris, and a newly acquired necklace. Not a bad look. And my carry-on was reloaded with the essentials and freshly stocked with snacks, newly downloaded movies, and a comfy travel pillow. I was able to spend the day traversing multiple time zones relatively stress-free, knowing that everything was in its place, and telling myself that the jet lag and airplane seat sores would be so worth it.

Sara Wise is a wedding planner, slave to fashion, and career coach.

The Sanctimonious Sartorialist Strikes Again

It’s time. Time again for another fashion post.

I came across this David Yurman ad in Vogue on the same night I was watching the last episode of Vikings. As such, I wonder to which Earl the model pledges her loyalty by wearing those armrings?

I just finished some academic research on the myth of the seven sisters, which is represented nicely in this ad (almost). Love those tights, too! Tights always get me. What’s your noticeable thing that always gets your attention? Boots, red hair, short hair, skirts, etc?

I’d like to say I have a favorite pair, but it always comes down to the woman wearing them.

We may be a minority, but one of these days the gingers will rise up and take over the world!

You know, in the military, we called this either brown or coyote. I suppose camel makes it sound more exotic than naming it after a varmint.

And I’ll end with a word of caution. Anytime you clip something hair-like into your mane…you’re wrong. The only exception is cosplay.

*Disclaimer- Everything I Know About Fashion I Learned from the Military, Watching Porn, Stealing My Wife’s Old Fashion Mags, Reading Comic Books, and Ron Swanson.

This message was written by Dr. David Powers. You can always find me at www.drdavidpowers.com. Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

Sexy Toothpaste and Batwoman’s Bootsole

Welcome to another edition of my sartorial musings.

Is it weird that I find this toothpaste ad to be extremely sexy? Seriously, how can toothpaste be sexy? Doesn’t matter. It is here.

It’s hard to really care about Batgirl’s injury with her standing there in her underwear like that.

From a sartorial manufacturing point-of-view, I find myself wondering where Batwoman has her boots made. She’s a vigilante (although government sanctioned now). They leave tracks. It’d be easy to track her down through her boot dealer. Maybe Batman’s guy makes her boots too.

There is just no way that Red Sonja’s top is staying on when she’s in battle-mode.

It’s hard to choose which outfit I like best, but the ginger near the middle always wins in the end.

*Disclaimer- Everything I Know About Fashion I Learned from the Military, Watching Porn, Stealing My Wife’s Old Fashion Mags, Reading Comic Books, and Ron Swanson.

I Read Cosmo for the Articles

My wife subscribes to Cosmopolitan. She allows me to read her old issues once she’s done, so I still get to read them, although sometimes it’s a few months late. She just left me a pile of this year’s issues so I’ve been on a sartorial bender this weekend. Here’s a few thoughts to help you refine your fashion skills.

The Sex Articles. The sex articles sell issues with those flirty headlines that you wish your kids wouldn’t read out loud. Funny thing is, all those articles are the same. Read a few issues in a row and you realize that all they do is change the title on those for new issues. Huh. Turns out that all the knowledge about sex that Cosmo claims is so new and cool is the same old stuff that’s been around forever. Think Fifty Shades of Ancient Egypt.

Quiz Time. I took the quiz Do You Know When to Go With Your Gut? I didn’t score top billing but landed right in the middle with “In Sync With Your Senses”. It’s hard answering some of those questions from a dude’s point-of-view.

Fashion Time. There was an article titled The Clothes He Can’t Resist. I thought I’d go through it and see how much I agree.

1. Which is sexier…Pointy toe or round toe heels? I agreed with the round toe heels. Pointy shoes make me think of a wicked witch for some reason.
2. Which is sexier…A plunging v-neck or a bralet? Yup. The plunging V. Let me caution here though. Like spandex, a plunging V is a privilege and not a right. Some of you might be bearing skin that just isn’t fit for public viewing.
3. Which is sexier…Cotton lace or sheer chiffon? I agree once again with the cotton lace. Sheer chiffon is just so often done very wrong.
4. Which is sexier…A snug minidress or one that’s soft and flowy? Yup. The snug minidress. Soft and flowy just makes you look bigger than you should and also carries the danger of creating a hippie vibe. With the snug minidress please read the v-neck caution above.
5. Which is sexier…A chic blazer or leather jacket? Yeah, go with the dead cow. The word blazer conjures images of Milli Vanilli style shoulder pads.
6. Which is sexier…Bare shoulders or a bare midriff? Definitely the shoulders. Although a bare midriff can be incredibly cute at times, there are just so many time and places it’s simply not appropriate.
7. Which is sexier…Supershort shorts or a micromini skirt? This questions assumes that for either that you have legs worth showing off. If you don’t, well…don’t wear them. If you do, the skirt adds a certain level of elegance that you could never achieve with shorts.
8. Which is sexier…Skinny or boot cut jeans? I’m gonna side with the magazine again and go with the skinny’s. They’re so effortless to make sexy. Boot cut jeans run a huge risk of making you look a little too manly. Pair them with brown Timberland’s, and I’m running the other direction.

Last Minute Fashion Tip. While there are some incredibly sexy garments that have shiny beads, bedazzles, and scales on them, please buy clothing that doesn’t shed the shiny things at first glance. From a guy’s point-of-view, we hate finding little shiny things all over the house, in the car, and wherever else they migrate to.

*Disclaimer- Everything I Know About Fashion I Learned from the Military, Watching Porn, Stealing My Wife’s Old Fashion Mags, Reading Comic Books, and Ron Swanson.

Book Review- The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman

I was first amazed by The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman as I passed by it in the Market Common Barnes and Noble. Three things caught my attention. First was the size of the book. It’s a squat very thick book measuring 5×7 inches. Then I simultaneously noticed the title and the very attractive young lady on the cover. In case you’re wondering, a sartorialist is a person interested in matters of or related to the tailoring of clothing. I picked it up, leafed through it, and had to know more.

Schuman is a world-renowned fashion photographer most well-known for his work with celebrities and models in many of the most popular fashion magazines. He started one of the first photoblogs to exhibit his desire to showcase the fashions and styles of ordinary, that is to say ‘non-celebrity’, folks. The Sartorialist is an outgrowth of that blog and represents many of Schuman’s favorite and most popular blog entries. There are a few celebrities photographed from time to time but always in daily clothes and according to Schuman’s terms (i.e. his lighting, placement, and pose).

The book is heavily illustrated with photographs along with Schuman’s comments on many of them. Many of the styles represented are unique, not the cookie cutter style of a television show or store chain. That is what drew Schuman to these individuals instead of the people found on a runway or at a magazine photo shoot. In fact, he enjoys photographing the same people over time to see how their style changes or is represented by a variety of clothing.

As a What Not to Wear television show groupie I am greatly interested in fashion as it both affects me and appeals to my eye. As such, I enjoyed this book immensely and would heartily recommend it if you’ve ever given any thought beyond the norm to your own personal style. This is a book you can learn from and have fun with. Page through the book slowly. Make a list of individual style elements that appeal to you and slowly incorporate these into your own life. Then, just for fun, pick out your two favorite photos. Pick one in your own gender that you would most like to emulate. Then pick one in the opposite gender that you find the most attractive. Try not to look so much at physical characteristics, but the personal style exhibited. Maybe you’ll find a style you like worn by someone you love.