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Saturday, April 14, 2012

If I were in Paris... Packing

This week I'm going to change this entry up a little. All too soon I'll be packing to spend June in Paris. When I did that previously, in 2010, it was hot. Really hot. Like melting sidewalks hot.

So hot that Monsieur Sans Culottes and Madame Topless apparently didn't care if their neighbors in the facing building (me) could see them in various stages of nudity and near-nudity through wide-open windows.

It was that hot.

Packing for this is a challenge, because I'll be spending some days in the Tolbiac archives which are air-conditioned and some days in the Arsenal archives which are not. And part of nearly every day on the Metro, on old or new lines... mostly not air-conditioned and crowded.
My goal is to appear chic and put together (even on the hottest of Metro cars) as best I can.

To that end, I pack cottons and silks that I can layer up and down. With a surprising amount of color. I find that a series of mix-and-match pieces that can become polished with the right acessories leaves me comfortable and feeling good about how I look. I also wield a mean washing machine and iron.

Black is my neutral. I mix in white and color much more than I do in my winter closet. The colors I'm going to focus on in this group will be blue and rust; I might also include some light spring green, cocoa, and red.

For tops:
  • 5 or 6 lightweight T-shirts in solid white and black
  • 3 or 4 button-front linen shirts in bright, light colors like mango, aqua, celery, white
  • 3 or 4 cardigans in cotton or silk blends--black, white, blue, rust
  • a lightweight cotton jacket in white 
For bottoms:
  • 3-4 skirts in cotton prints and solids in slightly darker shades like rust, teal, black
  • linen pants in black
  • blue jeans or similar weight pants in black
I mix and match the tops and bottoms, then dress up with the jacket or a cardigan, and add accessories. In planning and choosing the final pieces, I start with the bottoms as anchors.

Besides these, I'll bring or buy one dress in a solid color.

Oh, I do plan to shop once I get to Paris.

Go-to accessories:
  • a rayon pashmina in a solid color
  • 4 to 5 cotton scarves in patterns, working with the colors included 
  • necklaces, bracelets, earrings -- mostly in silver or semi-precious stones 
  • 3 to 4 pairs of shoes

1 comment:

  1. Your summer travel wardrobe has inspired me!

    My usual summer "uniform" consists of a short-sleeve t shirt, paired with a cardigan sweater when needed, plus pants or knee-length shorts.

    You've inspired me to add a few button-front linen shirts to the mix. They will be wonderful to wear alone, or under a cardigan as a base layer, or over a t shirt as a jacket. Or for that matter, layered between a t shirt and a cardigan.

    (Because I'm retired, I generally wear casual clothes.)

    Now my only decision is what to include in my color palette: either black or navy with khaki, white, and various shades of blue.

    Hope that your summer in Paris is delightful.

    kris

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