LJP's keen observation as to silhouette change chilled my bones.
While I do have and wear and love a few oversized outerwear jackets, otherwise I (and not y'all of course) feel like the little boy in a Little Golden Book I used to have who found a dress-up trunk in the attic and donned the masculine clothing.

Thanks, Jenni, Sal, and Sally. I guess you’re calling it a vacation/holiday because I’ll be living out of a suitcase. Now that I’ve gotten my head around it, I’ll go along. But I have never worked this hard on a holiday/vacation! (Except as a prof, squeezing in research and writing between semesters, but everyone knows the profs aren’t actually on break then).

Thank you Sal and Jenni for explaining the vacation puzzlement.
@stagiaire probably like teachers here who usually plan and clean up during their holidays.
@Vildy amazing how the eye gets influenced. I swore I was sticking to skinnies and slim fits but slowly felt tempted to try other styles.

Agreeing to keep a very simple color palette, and to track what your regular activities are. I add weather to that too- which factors into my PUPY (potential uses per year) value, because activities could change depending on the season.

For example, my highest PUPY value is warm weather workwear. I wear it 4 days a week for 6+ months of the year. I can justify more pieces in that category. I don't really socialize in winter OTOH, so cold weather party wear is a very small category.

Now as far as changing silouettes, and my ever evolving life, I'm still trying to figure it out

Well I really don't belong on these kinds of threads because my attitude toward my wardrobe leans very heavily toward art rather than science. The more paints and tools the better ! But I do find everyone's attitudes and strategies very interesting nonetheless.

@suntiger - thats a really good point. Our cold weather is in the middle of the year and that is when I don't socialise much but am working with little holiday. I can justify more cold weather work wear. During the really hot weather, I'm on holiday for half that time. There are about 6 - 8 weeks when I need cool dresses for work from February to April (and a bit in November / December) and the rest of the time I'm in pants and boots with jackets when it gets colder.
@jaime - I have found it really helpful to follow the guidelines of others' strategies even if it is perhaps following it loosely.

I never started using the word 'vacation' at all until DH came along & corrupted my British dialect - & accent, tbh

I guess 'GOING on holiday' (vacationing) is an opportunity to *test* your wardrobe, since you're living out of a small capsule (suitcase).

But for me, even being 'ON holiday' (i.e. off work, like school breaks) is a good chance to experiment & take stock of your wardrobe - I hope to do that this December/ January, once I've finally left academia (fingers crossed I get through all this marking first!)

Loved Anchie's analitical breke down. Will think about how das it implement by me when having more time.
But thought I will give also my 2 cents learned from Suz, years ago here on YLF.
She was the first to aknowledge that she cannot really devide her wardrobe in simples and equals of 4 seasons, because she had changes in weather rather each 6 weeks of the year. That's my approach from then on. So for ex. Spring is 12 weeks here but devides in cold spring and warm spring for me- so I rather concentrate on capsules worth of 6 weeks. Same with each other season.
Then, I had to decide how many completely different outfits can I include in a mini season per each of my lifestyle's need (work, casual, lounge, dressy..)-and how many times I am willing to repeat each outfit during the 6 weeks. When deciding on outfits I'd also taken account my preffered silhouettes- and then decided how many of these outfits should include pants, skirts or dresses. Then split them down from there even more---just like Anchie started with (neutrals, colors, exact and more speciffic pieces I need, etc)....you get it.

This is only for an approximate math. I am not following it strictly but for me was a good starting point.

Laundry bottlenecks count, too. I have a large wardrobe, and now I can go 2 weeks without major laundering which I treasure a lot -as so I don't have the laundry stress and also got free time to do something else instead each other week ---but guess, each has to decide on it' s own.

@lyn Same here! Life has been much more blissful since I bought all underwear to last me 2 weeks minimum - especially during high summer, lol (I do do laundry every week, but darks one fortnight then I wash lights the next fortnight).

@Zaeobi your explanation of ‘holiday’ is great. We do often say I’m on holiday but that can mean staying at home. A lot of people here might say “are you going away anywhere during the holidays? “
@Lyn67 I don't know if I could differentiate the weather changes every 6 weeks but weather here is very changeable and sometimes feels like 4 seasons in a day. As far as bottlenecks go I feel I need more changes in summer and more washing and less in winter. I do tend to have more summer clothes because I’m changing so much.

So many definitions of holiday! Sounds like my understanding was correct; the disconnect is how anyone would say I was taking a break right now, when I’m working my tail off.

Um… do you mean getting ready to shift countries again Stag? As in “working my tail off”? Not paid work though?