Hello dear YLFers, I have missed you. I've been mostly in the lurking mode lately as I'm getting back to the daily schedule after my holiday and hope to catch up and participate more again. But, from what I've managed to skim over, there is *so* much good stuff going on here right now that I found it truly overwhelming at times.

In an attempt to end my absence, here is the "boil the kettle and come back to read" post about my recent travel wardrobe and what new things I've learnt both about my style and about packing in the future. Please excuse the lack of photos, my pre-Christmas accident which resulted with broken camera still did not lead to purchasing a new one as I am really picky when it comes to gadgets of that sort and I just can't focus enough to find a new thing within my budget. Which leads me to my first and very important learning from the previous weeks:

To continue my style evolution (or even stagnation) camera is beyond helpful. From the moment I started taking them, I was instantly converted to WIWs being an irreplaceable tool in doing something about my style, but this unwanted hiatus from snapping my outfits had really brought home just educational WIWs are.

But, back to the content of my suitcase...
Over the recent holidays I have spent 2 weeks at my dad's and MIL's respectively, with no plans to attend any fancy events, but simply meet friends and relatives, and lounge in an environment where others took care of me.

Pre-YLF, I was one headless packer, confusing stuffed - and uncurated - suitcase with the ease of dressing when away from home. So. Very. Wrong. I knew I had evolved, but this was a true test of how much.

I've mentioned my packing plans in a post just before I left, stating that I had major space issues that limited the amount of wardrobe I could take with me. Plus, I really wanted to bring very few items anyway and wear everything at least once. And I probably wanted to prove to myself I can finally pack light for the flight!

The main guideline was to bring the clothes I would be warm in, yet have room to actually create outfits rather than just throw anything on.

I was also inspired by Suz and Sarah A on the aforementioned thread to change my original plans, but just slightly, so I added the stretchy and warm patterned dress and replaced one cardigan with the tweed blazer.

All in all, limited wardrobe choice and circumstances led to a lot of thinking about what matters the most, why some things work and some don't and ultimately how I feel in my clothes, can I pin what exactly about my clothes makes me feel the certain way and finally how, after all, I really want to feel in my clothes.

What I Packed:
- 4 turtlenecks (white, grey, black, aubergine)
- 1 patterned dress (tones of grey and teal)
- 1 tweed jacket
- 1 waterfall cardigan
- 1 pair of skinnies
- 1 pair of ponte knit pants
- 3 scarves to wear with any of the turtlenecks
- 2 cuff bracelets
- 1 pair of tall boots

What I Actually Wore
Everything.
In true Vivienne Files fashion I have mixed and matched the turtlenecks and scarves to death and wore almost every combination possible. The rest of the outfit was skinnies and tweed jacket (and in a handful of situations waterfall cardigan), all of which lead to a few insights.
I could have left the dress at home as I only wore it once with the waterfall cardigan over, which was nice as an outfit itself, but too labored for the actual situation and pants-y bottoms would have been better.

What Did I Miss?
If I'm honest - an extra silhouette on the bottom half of the outfit would bring a lot of life to my holiday wardrobe, but with cold weather nothing would have worked but pants and at the moment my options and choice are limited, so I actually did the best I could.
As for not packing any of my striped tops - what was I thinking?!?

My learnings from this trip

1. I have identified previously unknown feeling - I was bored with my clothes! And this feeling, as surprising as it sounds, is actually a very good thing *for me*. As someone who struggled with finding the right kind of clothes for most of my life, I have at last nailed the dressing formula (skinnies + boots + turtleneck + jacket + scarf) that works so well, that I can put on without thinking and that I have all the components for in million variations.
2. Jackets rule! I am so grateful to Suz who inspired me to bring the tweed jacket. The magic a jacket does to an outfit cannot be overestimated. I know it's been said here many times, but it is worth repeating.
3. Although I am more of solids girl, I love my stripes and polkadots and should have packed at least one top like that. Pattern in scarves only was not enough. Whether it was actual pattern or maybe just different textures I craved time will show, but too many too similar things in different colors were unexciting.
4. When I wanted to feel fresh, I wore white - when I wanted to feel energized I wore my aubergine turtleneck. What's interesting here is because I had very few things to choose from, I had actually very clearly identified which top corresponded to which of my states. In comparison to other two options in my suitcase (grey and black) these two were clear winners, with the white one taking the top spot.
5. Finally, I went one step furter in defining my wardrobe criteria. As a reminder, here is previously established list of what I take into consideration when buying new things or editing wardrobe.
   1. Color
   2. Fit
   3. Lifestyle
   4. Climate (were I live)

   I came up with the newest set of criteria of what's important to feel good in my outfit and for any new item to make it into my wardrobe:
   1. Warmth
   2. Comfort
   3. Figure flattery

   White the first one is obviously valid in winter only, it's less a reflection of the season, but more of what's essential to even begin feeling good in something. So, once I'm warm I then take into consideration whether something is comfortable to wear, and when that too works, achieving figure flattering look finishes things off. Most importantly, I am not willing to compromise with the order, i.e. even if something looks flattering, unless it is comfortable to wear I won't wear it.

Anyone made it this far? This exercise helped me round things up, I hope it may be of help to someone else too.

Thanks for reading

ETA: I almost forgot, I had a great style insight watching "The Mask of Zorro" (!!!) but I'll probably get back to that one on some other occasion