My family and I were lucky enough to spend the Christmas holiday in Stockholm. Before we get too far into 2020 I wanted to share my travel capsule and some style observations ‘cause I’ve really enjoyed reading others’ observations from their travels.

PACKING LIST

(Not pictured: socks, undies, PJs that doubled as loungewear, various Heattech items)

Photo 1: travel outfit. Skirt leggings and flowered sweatshirt. Pretty much what I always wear when traveling. Desperately need to replace the skirt leggings, they are so worn out.

2: Bottoms - gray skinny jeans, black ribbed leggings, mid-wash skinny jeans

3: Tops/toppers - black sweater tunic, charcoal tweed sweater tunic, dusty plum open cardi, purple silk tunic, black burnout velvet top, black silk knit tunic

I kept my clothing VERY minimal because we were worried about having to pay extra for luggage. We had a washing machine available to us where we stayed but I just washed socks/undies half way through the trip.

4: Footwear - tall suede insulated boots, patent stompy boots

5: Outerwear - black 3-in-1 parka, trusty teal cross-body

6-7: Accessories -

Plum scarf, blue bird scarf, ivory/gray Nordic print scarf, purple/gray toque, black gloves.

Short silver chain with 2 pendants, fur baby brooch, silver hoops, gold small drop earrings, pearl studs, gold 3-strand necklace, gold/aquamarine pendant.

I like to bring several outerwear scarves on winter trips since we are out and about in our destination city a lot and my outerwear is basically my outfit. My daughter commandeered the gray and white one for the last half of the trip but it was no problem, I still had two to rotate!

And I like to wear jewelry each day but keep it very small and simple so it doesn’t feel bulky under my layers or catch on scarves/sweaters/etc. No bracelets or rings to interfere with gloves and the like. Small, light earrings so I don’t have a bunch of cold metal pulling my earlobes around in the wind. :-p In this case I didn’t go quite small and simple enough — I lost one of my silver hoops, it must have caught on my scarf and come unlatched somewhere, sob.

Aside from the lost earring, overall what I packed worked really well. I wore everything at least once and a couple of items 3 times. I was warm enough and nothing was pinchy, pokey, fussy, or itchy (extremely key when I’m spending all day out). Both pairs of boots were comfortable for lots of walking and kept my feet warm and dry.

In an ideal world I would have preferred that my travel wardrobe had not been so unremittingly dark. But honestly it blended in to the local environment pretty well (see below) and I wasn’t really bothered by it day to day. I felt that my black patent stompy boots fit in especially well, which was gratifying since I had bought them partly with this trip in mind.

STYLE OBSERVATIONS:

I know there are some forum members from Scandinavia so I will be very curious to hear whether my observations are on or off the mark!

• Lots and lots (and lots) of black. Very practical vibe.
• SO many Fjällräven backpacks, on adults too.
• I saw a number of people wearing really old-school-looking leather hiking style boots, sometimes with skirts. I don't see that here in Seattle at all and I liked the look.
• Surprised to see a lot of women wearing sheer (black) hosiery with skirts. Brr!
• Extremely expensive puffer jackets usually inhabited by people speaking Russian.
• Super trendy items (Seinfeld sneakers, very high waisted jeans, acid wash, etc.) seen only on tweens/teens. (One young woman spotted on the coldest day of our trip wore Seinfeld sneakers and cropped jeans with BARE ANKLES, omg.)
• Did I mention all the black?

Most striking outfits:

• Millennial guy in olive green suit with a hot pink belt bag worn cross-body, seen with a whole gang of Euro-bros boarding a flight from Amsterdam to Warsaw.
• Whippet wearing a Nordic patterned sweater with a thin puffer vest layered over, seen exiting Stockholm subway car alas too fast for me to grab them and love on their adorableness.

I’d wear that:

• Flowy navy/white plaid cotton tunic or dress, long charcoal cardigan with asymmetrical zip, dark blue boucle coat, knitted toque, black wool tights, aforementioned old-school hiking boots in oiled brown leather.

Unexpected style inspo:

• Photo 8: Yellow ducks, a Swedish heritage breed. I love their color scheme, actually it reminds me of Roxana’s “earth tones at the beach” palette
• 9: Beetle from a photography exhibit at the natural history museum. I dig the metallics. Thinking of channeling this guy for my dressy capsule.

BONUS PICS

Photo 10: Fika at the national gallery

11: Extremely charming cafe where we ate lunch one day

12-13: A couple of quintessential street scenes in the old town

Thanks for looking!