Packing...

I travel a lot for work and as much as I can for fun. Packing for my latest trip for work I was struck by something I have thought a million times before… I am not one of those girls that can throw a bikini, a pair of shorts, two tops, three shoes, a dress, a belt and a pair of jeans in a bag and suddenly make three hundred outfits out of them. Anyone who spends any amount of time reading fashion magazines knows what I’m talking about. Inevitably every spring they roll out the “I made 300 outfits for one week out of 7 items you have in your closet” article.

First, no self respecting fashionista is rolling off to fashion week wearing the same pair of jeans three days in a row. And you better believe her jeans didn’t come from American Eagle. Let’s get real. Her clothes budget for fashion week or a weekend jaunt to the islands is more than we all make in a year.

Second, I never have those exact 7 items in my closet. Ok so I have a black belt, great… but my black belt doesn’t look awesome around a cocktail dress and a pair of jeans and doesn’t double as a headband. And I don’t know anyone that has a pair of heels that work well with an evening gown and shorts. So let’s just say buying those 7 items would be my mortgage payment that month. Not to mention the time it takes to track all of them down.

Third, I’m all about mixing and matching to create new outfits. But really, what if I go hiking in my jeans or spill red wine on my dress, does that just add character to my outfit or am I now running out to the mall buying new clothes to replace the ones I wrecked?

So this would be my packing advice article (or at least how I pack my suitcase not sure it’s really advice). Drag every possible piece of clothing, jewelry, accessories, purses, and shoes out of your closet. Pile all your favorites in one pile and put back anything that’s left over (so what if you only put back three shirts that’s a start). Next I pull together a few work-out clothes because even if you’re relaxing on the beach you just might get that sudden urge to run a mile and what if you didn’t have tennis shoes? And you need a lightweight coat even in summer because what if it rains or it’s breezy. Don’t get me started about winter – for winter trips I need at least two or three coats. Anyway, after I have my pile of clothing that I can’t live without I start to weed through them. I don’t really need two pairs of pink shorts or two pairs of white leather flip flops. I try my best to be the girl with 7 pieces of clothing but I always find myself the girl that’s sitting on her suitcase begging the zipper to give and dragging my suitcase onto my bathroom scale to see how close to 50 pounds I can get without going over.

I know I won’t really need five dresses for a weekend away but what if I get there and I only brought one and I suddenly don’t want to wear that one? I know rationally I shouldn’t pack like this that there is no way I will need five pairs of jeans for a long weekend but in my head I can’t make myself stop.

I want to see a realistic fashion article. Let’s see what the beauty editor is really taking to fashion week. I guarantee it’s not a cute Ann Taylor dress she grabbed off the clearance rack. I can also guarantee she can’t make a headband out of her belt like she claims and if she can – really who is she fooling? You don’t think anyone is thinking, damn is that really fashionable or is that just a belt wrapped around that poor girl’s head?