Traveling since I could carry a bag, often beside my mother
A small list of favorites, on packing, pacing, and moving through the world
I have been traveling since I could carry a bag, often beside my mother, who taught me most of what I know about the art of it. Here are a few of my favorite tips, all earned by way of trial, error, and the occasional hot red dress I should not have packed.
A separate outfit for day and night. Some travelers pride themselves on the single outfit that carries them from breakfast to dinner. My mother taught me the opposite. Bring a day outfit and a night outfit, and change between them. The shift may seem dramatic for a trip, and people will sometimes ask why, but the answer is always the same. A clean, refreshed change of clothes is a clean, refreshed energy. It marks the day as one thing and the evening as another. She brought this practice from the workday to the post-work gala for years, and I have watched it do the same work on every trip we have ever taken together. It is the small ritual that shows up as completeness.
A core color scheme. Everything I pack speaks to everything else. No bright hot red dress that I will not wear after the first day. Unless it was intentional. No piece that lives alone. When the wardrobe is in conversation with itself, you can dress in five minutes and feel pulled together in any of them. Pick the palette that reflects you. Mine is mostly white, navy, and a vintage leather bag. Yours will be different. Let it be specific.
Always leave room for something special you find along the way. A scarf. A perfume. A great linen skirt. A small painting at a flea market. The best takeaways are the ones you did not plan for, and the worst part of overpacking is having nowhere to put them. Leave the space. The trip will fill it.
