Traveling in (Casual) Style

Mr Wonderful and I had to cancel our plans for a South Dakota road trip due to his 100-year-old dad’s health issues.  (He’s doing better – thanks for asking.) But the planning forced me to put more thought than usual into my summer-casual outfit pairings.  I was inspired by CJ – one of our Community members.  She managed 2 weeks in Hawaii – one week of business and a second week of tourist-ing – from a single suitcase.  So here’s how I planned for my 10 days of state-side touring.

Since all our plans fell in a pretty narrow range of casual-ness, I planned for just 4 basic bottoms: jeans in off-white, light wash and darker wash, plus a pull-on navy  ponte skirt.

Each of these 6 tops could be worn with any of thebottoms – 24 options with various degrees of dressiness.

Always a fan of 3-piece dressing for versatiity, I added 2 potential over-layers.  The plaid shirt can also be a stand-alone.  The navy cardigan is a very open knit pattern, so fine even in toasty weather.

Then for variety, I tossed in 3 bright-color tanks.   And footwear for both touring and more strenuous trecking.

And finally … of course a few scarves to link the accent colors )blush, red and jade green) into cohesive outfits with the neutral bottoms and navy cardigan.

The larger scarves are rayon and cool enough to wear on my body, even in the Badlands.  The smaller poly ones work great as headbands, on a straw hat or tied to the strap of my straw tote.  For tips on how to choose the most flattering scarves for your own wardrobe, check out this post about Kate’s choices. 

I charted all the outfits into a set of day-by-day collages; a trick I learned from CJ’s experience.

Even though the trip in on pause until (maybe) next year, I’ve had fun wearing my “new” outfits and using the surprise time at home to catch up on things.  Like blog posts, rght?

Where are you traveling this summer?  And what packing tips do you rely on to keep things stylish?