In the past whenever I’ve gone on holiday I’ve had a big suitcase. My mentality was to just chuck it all in and figure it out later. But this trip was different: we planned to visit 7 cities in 14 days, and I didn’t want to be lugging a big case around every two days.
I don’t have a capsule wardrobe at home (nearly all my clothes are available to be worn throughout all seasons), but for this trip it was a must.
I packed 14 clothing items and 3 pairs of shoes: 5 tees, 2 jeans, 1 vintage blouse, 2 dresses, 1 waistcoat, 1 wool jumper, 1 wool cardigan, 1 fitted wool roll neck and 3 pairs of shoes (DMs for rainy days, trainers for touring and my white boots for cocktail bars and nice restaurants). This gave me lots of options for layering, feeling cosy & casual and also getting a (little) fancy for date night dinners and cocktails.
For me, this is minimal holiday packing. And for those of you who already did the maths you’ll know I planned to rewear everything throughout the trip.
First stop: Amsterdam. I wore this outfit on Saturday night for wine at The Hoxton with Jo, a lovely friend and former colleague.
With this outfit I was combining my love of the 1970s with a modern day vibe, the perfect look for a casual weekend drink.
Image description: Katie is standing by an Amsterdam Canal in 9 Straats wearing a fitted knit navy roll neck layered under a vintage pastel floral waistcoat with faded black vintage Levis 501s and white cowgirl style boots. She’s accessorised with large gold tone hoop earrings with mini faux pearl details, a black and gold headband, a long 1970s metal tassel necklace and red lipstick.
Top: old Uniqlo 2017 from Japan
Waistcoat: 1970s vintage via ebay in 2019
Jeans: thrifted Levis in 2018
Shoes: Carvela secondhand via ebay 2019
Headband: independent London designer 2019
Necklace: 1970s vintage via car boot sale 2019
Earrings: AW18 Peter Pilotto via 2019 overstock sale
DISCLAIMER At the end of February my husband and I set off on a two week holiday taking trains through Europe, where I managed to go two weeks with only a carry on for the ultimate #IWoreItAgain personal challenge. Travel & accomodation were booked before the reports of COVID-19 were in the UK mainstream news, and when we left London the UK had issued no travel guidance to avoid any of the locations we planned to visit: Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Venice, Turin and Paris. While we were on the road, exactly halfway through the two weeks, the situaion with COVID-19 started to change quickly when Italy brought in the quarantines in the north, and we needed to urgently re-plan the second half of our journey from our mobiles. As the situation unfolded in Europe we kept on top of the news and developments, and did our best to support local businesses and enjoy where we were while following all official guidance from both the UK and the countries we were traveling in, minimising extended contact with strangers (such as eating meals at “odd” hours to avoid peak restaurant hours, only visiting museums that were quiet / not so busy that we couldn’t regularly maintain 2 meters distance from others, walking instead of using public transport, skipping activities that’d put us/others at risk, etc.), washing our hands more often, and practicing good hygiene for catching the odd sneeze or cough. In fact, we were boarding our Eurostar home from Paris when the lockdowns there were announced. I’ve never been so happy to come home from a holiday. Over the next 15 outfit posts I’ll share my holiday diary with you, including many of the outfit combinations I made from that carry on – because not all outfits were photographed(!!). Please remember that at every step we followed all official guidance that was available at that point in time, and as the days went by the guidance began changing multiple times each day.
Much love, Katie xo
Call me Katie 