From Travel Wardrobe to Whatever's Clean

In my previous post, I showed you what the brilliant Janice from The Vivienne Files included in her travel six-pack and I then showed my own version. The actual number of items of clothing was nine, with six pieces packed plus a travel outfit.  

If you follow the above link, you can see how Janice then expanded this to create a Whatever's Clean wardrobe of just 13 pieces. The idea is that everything should mix with everything else in your capsule, so you don't end having to wear a couple of clean pieces that clash horribly. (I've experienced this myself when on holiday, partly due to the number of colourful pieces I had packed!) In reality most of us will have more than 13 items of clothing in our wardrobe, but creating your own Whatever's Clean capsule is still a useful exercise and definitely comes in handy when travelling. 

You can see the 13 pieces Janice that included in her version of Whatever's Clean in the following pictures. To start with there are three "toppers", then six tops including a couple of patterned pieces, and finally four bottoms including one skirt.  In her blog post she explains the thought process behind expanding her travel wardrobe.

I followed a similar thought process myself. I added a camel cardigan to make three toppers, then chose two more tops, making six tops in total. Finally, I added a pair of cropped white trousers and my Whatever's Clean was complete.

Like Janice's version, my capsule can be combined to create numerous different outfits. Obviously some combinations will look better than others, but it's still a versatile wardrobe. If, like me, you enjoy wearing lots of different colours, you might find this a useful exercise to see how versatile your own wardrobe is and perhaps to identify any gaps. If you're taking part in Project 333 (where you select a total of 33 items of clothing to wear for the next 3 months) you could create a second Whatever's Clean capsule using a different colour scheme - and you would still have seven items to spare!

My colourful "six-pack" travel wardrobe

I've been a fan of The Vivienne Files for a long time, and Janice has been the inspiration behind many of the posts on my blog. I was very excited by her latest series of posts, using beige, bright blue and orange, as I have similar colours in my own wardrobe. As I have a holiday coming up at the end of the month, I thought I would see how much of her six-pack travel capsule I could use to create my own travel wardrobe.  Below you can see Janice's version and the link to her post is above.

There are actually nine items of clothing shown, however three pieces will be worn when travelling while the other six will be packed into the travel bag. If I was flying hand luggage only, this would work well for a week's holiday or even two weeks if I did some hand washing. I'm travelling by train though, and we'll be away for ten days, so my travel capsule will contain a few extra items.

I have shown nine items of clothing in the above pictures, giving me a travel outfit and six-pack like Janice's, however I am lucky enough not to be limited by hand luggage restrictions on size and weight for this trip, so I will add the following items.

My final selection consists of a white short-sleeved lace top, an orange tank top, a green and yellow dress (which I admit doesn't fit in with my colour scheme!) and a loose navy top.  I will be checking the weather forecast just before I actually pack my case. If it's going to be hot in southern Spain, I will probably leave the blue jacket behind and just take the orange cardigan. My accessories will be chosen to fit in with this capsule: I have a couple of blue scarves, a beige bag and shoes, plus coral and gold earrings.

I will be celebrating my birthday while we're away, so I may very well treat myself to something new in orange or blue to fit in with this colour scheme! In my next post I will be talking about expanding this capsule to create a "whatever's clean" wardrobe so I can identify any potential gaps.