Have you ever noticed that when you've gotten used to a capsule wardrobe, traveling is super easy? All you have to do is consider the weather and the occasions, and you'll be ready and packed in fourteen minutes, including getting out your passport from the drawer.
And another thing you'll have noticed is that it's not that much of a difference packing for three days or two weeks, it's just the number of panties that vary.
This time, I had fun creating a summer travel wardrobe for a dark Autumn.
I picked Dark Autumn because it's sometimes easier to find a place to sit down at a busy airport than finding summer clothes for the Dark Seasons (and winter clothes for the Light Seasons, but that's a topic for another article).
Summer travel wardrobe for Dark Autumn
Not traveling to Norway, obviously. Because packing for a trip to Norway in the summer is the same as packing to go to anywhere else in winter.
So this is a summer travel wardrobe going somewhere warm, say Paris. I like Paris. And Paris is warm in the early summer, but it can get chilly in air conditioned museums and during late evenings at a sidewalk restaurant.
A simple minimal travel wardrobe that can fit in a carry-on bag has three bottoms and six tops, and one of the tops will be a jacket or cardigan. Add sturdy shoes and well worn but nice looking sandals, and because we're imagining that your dream vacation to Paris includes staying at a hotel with a roof top swimming pool (I mean why not?), I included a bikini, sarong and Havaianas. The sarong doubles as a generous scarf. And because no summer vacation is complete without a summer dress, I included one.
This is what you travel in.
Rust pants, leopard print T-shirt, sturdy but polished shoes and a jacket. For a handbag, I picked this oh so summery but still totally dark Autumn straw tote which hopefully is furnished with a zipper to keep your passport and wallet safe.
I included a dress, and because I've kept three of the tops in solid colours, you can certainly pair the solid colour tops with the dress to make it look like a skirt, for variation.
As you can see, you can mix these items almost with your eyes closed and dress appropriately to visit churches, museums, sidewalk cafés, boutiques, or rooftop bars (the one next to the swimming pool, remember the rooftop swimming pool?)
...and the sarong is very handy as a generous wrap on a cool afternoon on your way to buy an umbrella because it's overcast and the air smells like it's going to rain soon, and you're planning on walking up to Montmartre this morning and have lunch at that café that the AirBnB host told you about.
Did you notice these two things about this travel wardrobe?
1. There is no athleasure clothing items and no trainers. Because in this dream scenario you're going to Europe and would like to not look like the typical tourist.
2. The absence of black. As a Dark Autumn you can use black, but look here, how sophisticated this travel wardrobe is with only a little bit of black in some of the details in prints, black is not dominating the wardrobe at all.
And also, you can use this principle to create a travel wardrobe for any Season, using your colour palette to combine basic colours for wearability and accents for joy of dressing.