October 18, 2023
Finally! She found the perfect painting… Maybe nobody else in the world would feel this way about this work of art, but to her it’s just right…
The Simplest Suitcase Possible
She’s got to travel. She wants to have available a range of dressiness – nothing TOO casual, nor nothing TOO dressy. But still, a sense of choice…
She decides to work with black inner cores – black tee shirts and other tops, with black pants and skirts. Her accent colors will be worn as 2nd layers, scarves and jewelry.
Her first outfit, for travel, is the most casual – jeans and a corduroy jacket!
Earrings – SoleilAlexandre; corduroy jacket – Lands’ End; black tee – L.L.Bean; jeans – Lands’ End; black & brown scarf – Echo; boots – Mephisto; weekender bag – Longchamp
Her second outfit will include her favorite denim skirt, and purple accents!
Purple cashmere cardigan – Lands’ End; amethyst earrings – Giani Bernini; black cotton turtleneck – L.L.Bean; denim skirt – J.Crew; scarf – Kargede; riding boots – Johnston & Murphy
She also packs a third outfit – arguably the most dressy of the three – with wool pants, a black blouse and a sweater-jacket. The sparkly earrings, dazzling brooch and velvet flats add to the feeling of dressy, without being uncomfortable or overwhelming.
Blazer sweater – Lands’ End; earrings- Kurt Geiger; brooch – The Met Store; blouse – Halogen; wool blend pants – J.Crew; crossbody bag – Landa; black velvet loafers – Birdies
Here’s where she finds herself – she literally could wear these 9 garments in 27 different combinations:
She still has a bit of space in her bag, and a real longing for another few options and accessories, so she tucks these extras into her bag:
Tipped cardigan – J.Crew; earrings – Preeti Sandhu; heart scarf – Claudie Pierlot; pearl necklace – Nordstrom; clutch bag – Nina; black tee – L.L.Bean; blue scarf – Elizabetta; bead-embellished flats – Patricia Green
When she arrives at the hotel and unpacks, this is what she finds that she has with her:
Her plan is to dress as quickly as possible, and to not wring her hands or strain her brain in putting together outfits! And she has so many options…
Would you pack this way? Maybe with a different color solid inner column?
I have traveled with this kind of wardrobe, and found it to be delightfully undemanding!
love,
Janice
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Janice I think this heroine is you :) Love it too.
She absolutely IS me – the question came from someone else, but the solution is entirely the way I’m dressing these days, when I’m out of the house with my mother EVERY DAY. I don’t have time to think too much about what I’m going to wear, so a stack of black tee shirts, a bunch of black jeans and pants, and all of my favorite cardigans are in heavy rotation!
hugs,
Janice
I love this concept. Would have to tweak it a bit for myself – navy instead of black, skip the skirt and add another pair of pants, probably cut down to two pair of shoes I’m guessing. Using the neutral core is efficient and yet still offers a variety of outfits. Thank you!
Yes, out with the black, in with navy and some adjustments to the scarves and we are good to go.
Really lovely, especially the brown and black Echo scarf.
I love this concept, but having just returned from a week-long trip to New Mexico, I am not certain about packing the tall boots and two additional pairs of shoes. I wore ankle boots on the plane, and packed a pair of tennis shoes/sneakers. I took five tops and an extra pair of jeans, and had a very hard time managing both a carry-on and a personal bag (when did the aisles shrink????). I have two trips planned for 2024, and I am DETERMINED to get down to one bag. I am concerned that a “weekender” bag that will hold the footwear featured in this capsule will be too unwieldly to handle, especially on the smaller planes.
With the packing list you had, may i humbly suggest : LL Bean backpack with bottom zip (my FAVORITE for a short trip). toiletries and sneakers would squash into the bottom of the bag for easy access, but I’ve managed a week out of this bag. the other main trick is to use a packing cube to put the clothes into to get them to all fit nicely into the backpack (i could just put them in, but for some reason it “icks” me out.
For the list above, i would wear the tall boots and eliminate the ankle boots (or vice versa). I’m a big fan of getting things down to 1 bag – my standard is “carry-on and backpack”, although I can often get it down to just one or the other.
I’ve never used a backpack, but at this point I am willing to try almost anything to get down to only one bag to wrestle with. I do use packing cubes, and I have rather small feet so my tennies easily fit in a bag. My other issue was my packable jacket. I hooked it on the outside of my personal bag, and it bounced around terribly. Luckily, my next two trips are in warmer weather, so I can leave that item at home.
I recently returned from a week long trip to NM too! I also had just a carry on and backpack (and yes, I struggled too!). I had 4 pairs of shoes including a pair of suede ankle booties and the leather slip-on sneakers I wore on the plane (really could have done with 3) but no way I could have fit tall boots. I will be traveling more this year, and I honestly can’t decide whether I prefer checking a larger suitcase and flying with a lighter personal item or wrangling the 2 heavy carry-ons. Either way I think I need to purchase new ones.
I really like how you included the chart for casual, mid, dressy . I sometimes wish you would show how to wear the amazing scarves you include. Thanks for your hard work with these capsules!
I second wishing for illustrations with the scarves!
Emilio Pettoruti surely spends his nights in a city where the streetlights and traffic throw shifting angles of shadow throughout the darkened rooms of street-facing apartments on the lower floors. I love the painting.
The classic pieces in this capsule absolutely sing to me. I’m constantly on the hunt for clothing that can move from at least one level of dressy to another. If I could achieve this using chocolate brown as my core, I’d definitely do it. Alas, retailers keep offering up black-brown or brown-burgundy 😱. My rollaboard case could never accommodate all the shoes, lovely as they are. On the bright side, one can find lots of little spaces for the magical accessories, which alter the moods of many outfits.
nice picture.
For me, that completely black inner pillar is nothing… people always ask if I’m on my way to the funeral.
I can well imagine it with a different color. I would also like a collection with brighter colors in the picture: gray lilac, purple, blue
I think some warm tights would be necessary for outfit no. 2, that slit is VERY high!
Otherwise, I love the concept of a neutral core with varying levels of dressiness. The cohesiveness and versatility is inspiring.
I will be using this idea to put together a ‘temporary’ cool weather capsule this
year to accommodate unwanted weight gain due to an injury last year.
Thank you for the inspiration!!
I think this approach could work very well for a short trip with a lot of need to tweak the dressiness level of outfits. For some reason, this specific collection is not quite working for me, and I don’t know if it’s just too much black/dark colors for my taste or what. The outfits with so much of the dark color look flat to me, though I would expect that they’d have more interest in person due to varying textures. The blue sweater jacket and light blue/white scarf are really pretty but don’t feel quite right with the black, producing somewhat disjointed outfits.
This is an idiosyncratic reaction but I see black as such a common, expected default that outfits built around black that don’t have a sense of strong harmony or a particular energy or a feeling of “this black is here for a reason” or *something* seem a bit drab and can come across as effortless in the wrong way. I don’t feel this way about other neutrals, but with the ubiquity of black and the starkness of it, I think I need black-based outfits to “justify” themselves to some small extent. That said, of course some women can make black-based outfits work better than others due to their own coloring or personality, and some black items are so dramatic/arresting that you almost need to blankness of black to keep them from being visually overwhelming. But these items/outfits seen in isolation are making me realize that I do have some personal bias against black, particularly when it can be interpreted as the boring default choice. There’s a little bit of “OK, you’re wearing black like everyone does all the time, so now prove to me in some small way that you thought about this” to my reaction. I’ll need to think about this.
The first two black and white outfits actually are among the most successful because the repetition of the touches of white from the tipped blazer in the earrings, necklace, shoes, and scarf very much solidify a tight color story in the outfit and don’t seem accidental. The third outfit with all black except the blue blazer and scarf is not as successful to my eye because there is no sense of integration or relationship between the black and the blue/white. It gives me a “aren’t my blazer and scarf pretty, now please just let the rest of me fade into the background unnoticed” rather than a “this is truly an outfit” feeling.
However, I think the addition/substitution of a couple ivory/white tops would go a long way to improving this capsule for me. I like a black column and I like a white + black column, and sometimes an outfit would work with either one, but not always. I can also imagine preferring a corresponding capsule built around basically any other neutral color to black (even though I don’t personally wear white or beige pants). For example, I think grey would be nice here. But isn’t pretty much every other neutral much harder to shop for, to get this kind of variety in dressiness levels in a small capsule of coordinating pieces?? So there we go.
On a similar note to others, I too admit to being astonished by how much heroines are able to pack into carry-on luggage with some of these posts. Of course my carry-on is burdened with a lot of medication and other necessities that are expensive and/or cannot be purchased at my destination, but surely even an empty carry-on can’t accommodate these tall boots and everything else we see here (let alone PJs, undies, etc.). But who wouldn’t enjoy the fantasy of owning Tardis luggage that’s bigger on the inside? :D
This was SO helpful. It never occurred to me to block out casual, more dressy, and very dressy for a trip. I’m going on a short trip for a very dressy wedding and will plan this way. Thanks!
I love the block outs for casual, semi, and dressy – what a great idea! I personally don’t do full columns very much, but in keeping with your theme… I think 3 neutrals that played well together would work really nicely here. For example, if you like navy, grey and caramel together (I sure do!) I would do a casual column in grey, semi in caramel, and dressy in navy; with any accent color toppers that go well with some/all of these colors (mustard and teal for example). you can do columns; you can mix neutrals – i would wear a caramel top with navy bottom & teal accent, or grey/caramel/mustard; and satisfy color magpie while keeping the packing list tight. (It helps that I have caramel leather sneakers and grey ankle boots). A really fun exercise!
Ezzy,
I really like your varied 3 different neutral columns concept and pack very similarly to this idea, with the addition of accent colored tops and toppers. All 3 tops are black here in this post and would make me feel like I was looking as though I was wearing the same exact top all week, save for the difference in collars.
Color magpie — that’s me !
While it might take a while to find the specific pieces in the 3 neutrals that vary across the dressiness levels and can be mixed-and-matched successfully, I think this is a brilliant idea that would be worth putting the time in to create. I’ll need to think on how this would work in my wardrobe. While I admire the simplicity of a limited palette capsule, I definitely prefer having more colors to work with.
I loved this post. The painting is very cool and I like the colors and different levels of dressiness. The Echo scarf is Devine!
I love this painting! As to the all-black column – Sally, I have heard other people suggest that it’s a bit lazy. But as you also said, it is by far the easiest neutral to find in the stores.
I personally love a black column/black neutral for many reasons, even though I adore color and live in a tropical climate. Black goes with everything and makes every other color look good. (So does white, but it has other issues.) The main reason I like black is that it is the least noticeable neutral. I wore the same pair of black pants to church with different tops for months on end and I don’t think anyone noticed. It wasn’t an intentional experiment, it was just that they were the most suitable pants, but it’s sort of like those wear one dress for 30 days challenges. I do think it would’ve been noticeable, had I chosen olive, or gray, or tan – maybe even navy.
I really like the wardrobe as is but I think I would want to substitute maroon for brown and bring in the deep lavender.
You make a great point that the somewhat “invisible” nature of the black column can be as much an advantage as a disadvantage, depending on the situation. I agree 100% that it’s much more noticeable to repeat any color but black in a short period of time (holding everything else constant). I definitely came at it from a “would I get bored and give a stylistically lazy vibe in this” vs. “can I wear this on repeat without other people noticing: Oh she’s wearing that X again.” Both are totally valid perspectives, and how you weigh them can definitely vary between people or between situations. This makes me think that for travel situations where you’re going to be around the same people (like a work trip to the home office, etc.), black might serve you well as people will notice that your accent colors/pieces are different day to day but not that your core pieces stay the same. Thanks for sharing this perspective!
First reaction – OMG great idea to bring in dressiness levels to the magic charts. I love charts and formulas. Second reaction – tiny letdown to see this done in black. Could you do a 16 piece with varying levels with either ivory or warm med brown as the neutral? I’m thinking of something to carry through November to end of January. Thanksgiving, holiday parties, Xmas and New Yrs. Could be quite helpful exercise to see not black. Sally, I love your thoughtful comments. I tend to read everything and then re-visit your comments and go back to Janice’s post again. Thank you too for noting my concerns how we define quality. That is looming large for me due to shifts with my job and trying to position myself for 2 promotions within the next 3 years. It is a balance to be known for quality of work, but also visually appealing in the right way so the bosses who are men decide that they want me in those positions representing their units. Too slick and they reject you. Too frumpy and you get shuffled out of sight. A woman can’t just be good at the job, but has to be window dressing too…at least where I work. Not as bad as Japanese firms dictating heels, but a pale whisper of that.
There are still offices with strict dress codes for women, including skirts below the knee and shoes with at least a one inch heel. A lot of these are for staff that have to appear in court, or other “official” proceedings… Sheesh! I had hoped that we were past that…
hugs,
Janice
Kari! Good luck with your promotions :) You are definitely right about the balance of being known for the quality of your work but needing to project the right “visual image” – it’s such a challenge…
With the background you provided about the frumpy/slick balance and cheap/expensive look, I had a few more thoughts. (The cut and how it hangs on you is everything for the frumpy factor, but we were talking fabrics). In a nutshell: shine vs matte. Natural fabrics tend to have more of a matte finish, or if shiny (silk for example), a sheen rather than a shine. So for your synthetic materials, in addition to fit & cut, I’d look at the level of shine. A polyester/acrylic blouse that looks like sateen and is highly reflective? tends to look cheap. Same blend of synthetics, but in a weave that mimics crepe? more expensive. Shiny white shell vs matte white shell? The matte always seems to look more “work appropriate/expensive/luxurious”. Shiny somehow reads more “party” or “trying too hard/ too slick”. I hope that helps a bit. There is something to be said for solids/neutrals vs patterns, classic patterns and scale of print that suits your features, but I’m certainly not an expert there… I think going all neutral/ no personality pop throws you too far towards the frumpy side, so I wouldnt remove all color; but that’s just my opinion.
Ugh, I understand what you’re saying about trying to find that spot between too frumpy and too slick so that you can be taken seriously as a candidate for a new higher level role. It’s definitely harder for women since we are judged more on appearance and have such a wide range of clothing styles that we pick from. (Men rarely have to decide between dress, skirt, and pants, for example.)
I liked Ezzy’s suggestions re: too shiny looks wrong for the office. I don’t have a lot of experience with your situation, but I keep coming back to the idea that fit/tailoring of clothing and clothing maintenance will probably be important for having the desired level of polish required for women in leadership roles. And as much as I hate it, grooming for a polished look is important here as well. I personally get a lot from Bridgette Raes blog which targets dressing for professional roles, even though I do not have to dress at that level of professionalism in my job/industry.
Just when I thought there could not possibly be something new to learn from Janice, she comes up with this genius idea! Personally, I don’t care what color she is showing or if it has boots or if it has skirts, etc. The CONCEPT itself is so dang useful!
Yes, that is what I was thinking too… great concept! For me this could be denim/navy for my core… jeans and a navy tee with my wine colored corduroy jacket, then a denim skirt and navy rayon shirt with a colored cardigan (I have many!) and for the dressiest navy ponte pants with a nice chambray shirt or navy sweater and a plaid ruana. Same concept, just fit for me! :)
Yes! All of my neutrals and my beloved purple. I could work with this for a long time. Although I agree that two pairs of shoes and two pairs of boots is a non starter for packing light. I’m trying to get my shoe wardrobe to one or two pairs per season. I find I never really travel with more than one pair of sandals that I wear and possibly a pair of flip-flops.
As far as the column look goes I think what Sally is saying is that while we may want to be able to get dressed in the dark we don’t want to look like we got dressed in the dark. We spend a lot of energy around making sure that deciding what to wear is as easy as possible, but we don’t want to look like we took the lazy way. The black column has that connotation for some reason. Although I find that matching blacks (or navies) is far from a slam dunk. Still we want there to be a certain intentionality in our outfits. Maybe that comes up front in our acquiring accent pieces or accessories that incorporate our column colour. For me the easiest column is a maxi dress. Black or otherwise.
Your phrasing around the “black column = lazy dressing” was so eloquently written. thanks for that! It highlights the issue without being judgmental (a problem i have when expressing myself, unfortunately). It’s interesting – I’ve heard the “black column” described as “lazy way/ boring”… I’ve also heard it described as “sharp”. I wonder what makes the difference? Is it the cut of the clothes, or the figure of the woman wearing them, or the choice of accessories? I think whether or not black suits the woman certainly plays a role, although not one that is consciously noted by the observer. Is the same outfit in navy or charcoal or chocolate brown (dark neutral, but toned for the wearer) considered in the same way?
Just musing out loud…
Allison, thanks for re-stating what I was trying to say with greater clarity and focus!
I love this! The only thing I would change would be to swap out the black for charcoal gray, as I think it would work better with the blues and purples, at least for me.
I love this new chart with the 3 levels of dressiness. Very helpful! I just came back from a week in the mountains of NM helping out my mother, and this is almost exactly my color palette for my travel wardrobe, but replace the brown corduroy with denim and add more purple. I knew it would be mostly casual, but with one semi dressy evening and with changing weather. I decided to try to travel with just a carry on suitcase and a backpack for the first time so I had to be concise with what I packed. Next time will be in winter so I will probably check a larger suitcase to have room for coat, hat, winter scarf and gloves, sweaters, layers and boots!
I had 3 pairs of pants – black stretch trousers (look dressy, feel comfey), black straight-leg jeans and dark wash boot cut jeans, 3 second layers – a med wash chambray button down, black sweater/blazer and black, white and purple plaid flannel, and a collection of graphic tees, long sleeve tees and a black sleeveless mock-neck top. I took 4 pairs of shoes but really could have done with 3, black leather slip-on sneakers, black suede booties, black suede slip-ons and black slip-on house sneakers (very flat, I could have done without them). I also brought a black sweater dress (plus necessary shapeware!) worn with tights and the booties, belt, chambray shirt and jewelry to dress it up for the one nice evening I knew we had. Normally I would bring a skirt, to get more outfits with it, but I really liked having the dress for a change, and I knew I wouldn’t want to wear a skirt any other time. I took too much jewelry, as I usually do (have to work on that too!), and 4 scarves that I did not use at all. Maybe just 1 next time, to wear with an all-black semi-dress outfit.
It was a successful capsule but I realized I dont have much pattern or color in my long sleeve selection. Need to work on that. Also I could have used a pair of real sneakers. I think a better shoe selection would have been actual sneakers, every-day black flats or loafers (more useful than dressy suede ones), and the booties.
I also need to be realistic about what accessories I actually will use. I did not need the scarves, since I was doing a lot of physical labor and needed to be unencumbered, but was thinking in terms of adding color and pattern when I packed them. I will keep this all in mind for when I go back. Though my next trip will be during winter, and that’s a whole other ballgame!
I do think we tend to focus on wanting to see more of the colors we personally use, and think that not enough posts use them. Personally I hate navy, and brown hates me, and whenever the wardrobe features either I think, “oh no, not again”. OTOH, black is catnip and I think, “finally!” Chacon à son goût.
Janice, I want to re-iterate how much I love the beautiful posts you provide. I am looking at 9 trips to 9 different cities in the next 2 months. I will be attending several multiday conferences. I love the mix and match ideas and the concepts to putting outfits together.
I also like the themes… a bit of whimsy in one’s outfits helps break the monotony of work travel.
Thankfully, i will only fly to a few of the trips, but i check a bag. I have to travel with too much work stuff- so that eases some constraints.
THANK YOU!
I like this capsule. Some really pretty pieces shown. Personally, I don’t ever consider levels of dressy when packing. More like three levels of warmth. I’m always freezing. I only travel with a personal size bag. I’m low maintenance and cheap! People are really hating on black here. I think nothing is easier, always appropriate and chic.
I am unable to reply to the specific comments, so I’m writing this here.
I like the question about black being “sharp” vs. “lazy” and want to address the sense that people are hating on black. Let me clarify that I am definitely not hating on black; I like black, wear black, and like the black-based capsules/outfits Janice puts together the majority of the time! This particular capsule had some aspects that didn’t resonate well for me, which I described in a stream-of-consciousness manner that wasn’t very clear. But I certainly was not intending to hate on black in any categorical way.
The way I see it, black can be worn with intention and a high degree of well-thought-out and developed personal style and look extremely “sharp,” “appropriate,” and “chic.” But it’s also easy for a black outfit to look stylistically lazy because it’s so common. Because there are a lot of stylistically lazy black outfits being worn by women who don’t prefer/know how/care about how to put together outfits that look finished and intentional, black as default gets a bit of a reputation for being “lazy.” From this arises the dual stereotyping of black as both “sharp” and “lazy.”
And the fact that a lot of women just buy and wear black because it’s easy, expected, commonly available, etc., is just fine. Many women just want to be appropriately, acceptably clothed and aren’t putting a lot of time in geeking out over the style details. I do assume that many readers here care about their outfits than that (although I also understand that some readers are really only here for the excellent travel templates and advice), so we are discussing our reactions in that light.
I’m also not sure that die-hard lovers of black clothing understand that for those of us for whom black is not our best color or our preferred color, it can be a bit tiresome to hear that black is THE color for looking chic and to encounter 100 black options for every other option in the marketplace. And a lot of women react to that by just wearing black and not thinking too much about how they do it, leading to black’s mixed reputation as the color for both the most chic and style-concerned women AND the least stylistically-oriented women.
Sally, excellent way to put it re black. I would like to add that my comment re a not black example in ivory or brown was prompted by being one of those women who cannot wear black and wanted to see the example of something that is harder to find. When I was a 00 or 0, the only option that I could find in a dressier look was available in to quote Henry Ford, any colour as long as it was black. As a rule, if I am dressing up, I do not want to be asked if I am sick. Ezzy and Sally, I think you got what I meant re dressing for a promotion. It’s hard to explain, but I can try. My work is for military and around pilots. Most women are in uniform roles, but a handful can wear civvies. The ones in HR & HQ need to conform more to the conservative look Janice discussed. A few are in a position where sweatshirts are appropriate. Currently I can wear dark indigo boot cut jeans and sweaters. But, I want to move out of a group administrative pool to a single admin role at a higher level which places me so I can become a supervisor to that group pool. It would mean sharing office space with pilots who can be a bit too friendly in the wrong way. I want to dress for the position, but not have people wonder if I am trying to catch the eye of a pilot. If I tried to save up for and wore the luxury fibers, it would give the wrong impression as well as not practical for my budget, etc. I have to keep to a middle ground and can indulge my personal likes only to a point. The next hurdle is going to be the holiday events – pumpkin carving, Thanksgiving potluck, Xmas party and a potluck. Wives will be present and that means that they need to like me. If wives don’t like the admin, the men doing the hiring pass to a different candidate. Long winded & sorry for that, but a lot will be riding on the wardrobe’s impression in the next few months. Thanks to everyone here!
Gosh I hear you – I found myself in the a new role I had no idea how to dress for a while ago & it definitely was a problem. Looking back now, I can see that I needed to have had Janice’s advice about upgrading to crisper shapes & finer (looking) fabrics – there are some really good “promotion” posts in the archives. But I also note that self-confidence – really, truly being comfortable in your own skin – is HUGE, no matter what clothes you happen to have on. It’s all about body language!
PS – Black columns for the business-packing win! 😊
Kari, I kind of get what you are saying. My son is a pilot in the Marines and I really cannot recall ever seeing a women on base who stood out as different; meaning they all conformed to some sort of dress code. I might suggest moving from denim pants to neatly pressed khaki styles in a neutral color with collared shirts and either a cardigan or pullover sweater. You could stick to this formula for the holiday events but add a holiday scarf, brooch or wear a shirt or sweater in a color associated with the holiday, such as orange or red. Many of the wives are far from family and appreciate a kind and sincere soul. Look them in the eye when talking and offer a smile.
Or even keep the jeans (dark bootcut are a great uniform base), upgrade the sweaters slightly, and add a scarf :)
That is a rough situation to be in from a fashion perspective. Trying to blend in and cut above without standing out…
I suppose another option is to go full “Steve Jobs” and dress in a civvy uniform – all neutral column (black or other); white top + jeans (with seasonal color earrings?) ; just vary the weight of the top to the weather? (winter: navy turtleneck, navy trousers. summer: navy short sleeve blouse, navy capri’s. that kind of thing).
I would pack like this. Definitely.
My best packing ever was a drive from Philly to Boulder last June. Somehow, I managed to pack exactly what I needed, and I had plenty of options from just five tops, two bottoms and two dresses. Oh, and two pairs of shoes besides my hiking shoes.
Haven’t repeated that success, but this post will help me get there. Thank you. 😀