WIW: teaching & farm day - YouLookFab Forum

I got it this trip to the big city: my life is weird. My county is 100 miles long and there is not a single signal light. At dawn last Thursday I fed the chooks, jumped into the truck and in 3 hours was driving on a 10 lane highway. First outfit, shot at 10 pm after teaching my beginning photography workshop for 3 hours. New Naots and a nylon belt that has anthropomorphic faces on it. No handbag, just a camera pack. Too tired to instruct DH on the use of my camera.

No outfit photo for Friday, basically the same with a cobalt tank. I wanted white jeans for this combo, off to Nordstrom. New downtown Nordies has a Gucci boutique but no BF white jeans. On hold at the bigger suburban version.

I wanted to try Angie's formula of combat and red pushing it toward coral. Saturday was the hottest day of the year so far: 98. Hence the Nine West packable hat and desperation buy of some capris at the former Fred Meyer. If they don't pass YLF muster I will consign them to gear. Now I really want some coral/tomato shoes.

I taught the second half of my class in the morning, then met DH to go to a farm day at a CSA meat producer about 90 minutes away. We are novice apple farmers and planning for an agtourism component to our program, wanted to see how it might be done. The sprinklers came on in the middle of the picnic area, the farmer was too busy selling meat to speak to the guests and the pigs were hiding in the shade. If you invite 100s of people to your house, it might be a good idea to rent a porta-john or two. We acquired a long list of what not to do.

DH had to go to the lab, so we took the picture up on the sky bridge in his building. This trip was a test run of my travel capsule for a European vacation next month. I brought about 6 shirts, ended up with three bottoms after the shop (got the white Catherines, probably wrong size but I like them) and the 1 jacket, felt like I could dress myself for much longer than a week with just that. This is tiny capsule for city life is working, or so I think. How'd I do?

This post has 3 photos. Photos uploaded by this member are only visible to other logged in members.

If you aren't a member, but would like to participate, please consider signing up. It only takes a minute and we'd love to have you.

12 years ago

rachylou

Veteran

Omg, the hat is fabulous!

And the belt and naots. I rather like the navy and neon green.

Anonymous

Great hat! I love the belt too. Your Euro capsule looks promising!

Inge

(website)

Moderator

I love the neon green jacket with the white top in outfit 1, Ann. Looks great with the jeans. The new shoes look very comfy, which will come in handy in Europe too (exciting prospects!-) I also absolutely adore look two, the white button-down looks wonderful paired with the khaki pants, and that great hat with your hair: beautiful!

How clever to try out the vacation capsule beforehand too. If it's working for you, then you are all set:-)
One suggestion/question: depending on where you are travelling in Europe, you might need a trench or other topped for chillier weather?

Love the neon jacket on you and your belt is unusual in a good way, it looks quite artsy/craftsy. Your outfit in 3 looks perfect as part of you travel capsule, fab hat, bag and shoes.

Rambling Ann

Inge,

London, Paris and Normandy from Jul 6 -18. I have a light grey cardi, a longer denim jacket in peacock green and couple packable raincoat options, but no trench. I see the YLFers wearing theirs all the time, but can't wrap my head around the expense for what would probably get 4-5 wears a year if I tried. It's just not the thing at the farm and ranch store. (Do they have Carharts in Belgium? That is considered fashionable for 90% of my life). As departure time gets closer, I think I will put together a post on my travel capsule for feedback. Wait, it's only three weeks away. Yikes!

Suz

That belt is fantastic! Love it. And I love the neon green jacket, too. The shoes look really great for walking. Looking forward to seeing your other purchases when you get a chance.

Gaylene

I think you are taking a very practical approach to your travel clothes. Although I know we like to look stylish and fashionable, in actual fact, I suspect that the average Londoner or Parisian can tell I don't live there in a nano second, despite my best efforts to "fit in".

My husband and I decided to go extremely light when we travelled to London and Paris a few years ago because I knew we'd be using local transportation in both cities. I also knew that we would probably have several days when we would have check out of our accommodations in the early morning and spend the afternoon sightseeing and sitting in cafes while we waited to board an evening train. My "suitcase" was a very small, microfibre backpack that was actually designed for college students to carry a portable computer from class to class.

I wore a uniform on that trip: light-weight, straight-legged black pants; Naot walking shoes; 3/4 sleeve, ballet-style T-shirt, and a light-weight, stylish cotton jacket. In my pack, I had 3 extra T-shirts (same style and fabrication which I washed after wearing in the sink and hung to dry overnight), a pair of black silky, narrow-legged dress pants; a washable, but dressy top; a light-weight cardigan; a pair of dressy, but walkable, sandals; and a light-weight, packable, hooded, breathable rain coat. Those items were it for four weeks and took me to the theatre in London, the opera in Paris, and on all my sight-seeing trips and walks.

I was heartily sick of those black pants, shoes and tops after a month of wearing them over and over, but I always felt appropriately dressed. And, when I looked around me, I couldn't see much difference between my outfit and those worn by other women my age. I will admit that I didn't frequent the likes of Chanel in Paris and Harrods in London but instead got my fashion fix wandering around the Bon Marche, Printemps, Selfridges, and John Lewis department stores.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't need a suitcase full of fashionable clothes to fit in to either of these cities. I'd pick the most comfortable, but city-appropriate, outfit you could stand to wear day after day, and go from there. Throw in a couple of easy-care tops, a dressier outfit that can still be worn during the day, and something that protects you from the wind/rain in a small suitcase--and then go have a blast!

Category