James Perse crepe surplus pants
James Perse slub button front top
Everlane cashmere Cardigan
No6 Clog wedges
Alexander Wang Rockie (gift from Azalea) | Rockie w/rosegold studs at Azalea for 25% off with code GRECHEN25
Margot Wolf pendant
Day 2 of my 10 items for 2 weeks challenge and I feel good. Two days in! Woohoo!! Honestly, I love that I don’t have to think about what I’m going to wear; I just have a small selection to choose from, so there’s not much to think about. With the pieces I’ve chosen, I can achieve a slightly different look everyday if I want to – not too different, because really, how different CAN I look given my wardrobe?? And the weather here is quite cold compared to last week, so I don’t miss any of my short skirts/dresses. I did include my long Splendid maxi dress, and I’m saving that for Friday since it will be in the 70’s.
I’m not sure this exercise will help for packing though, interestingly enough, because even though these 10 items would get me far OUT in public, I haven’t included anything that I wear at “home.” When we travel to visit family, I do need things to wear at home, which are different than what I wear out, most of the time. I seem to have a very distinct wardrobe of things I wear at home vs. what I wear out, and never the two shall meet.
When we travel for sightseeing, we’re always going, so I don’t need things to wear “at home” as much, although when we went to Amsterdam we did hang out in the hotel lounge playing cards and drinking free beer quite a bit, so it was nice to have some lounging pieces with me (that were still appropriate for public consumption).
Those were my thoughts yesterday, on day 2 of this challenge – oh, and I made it through my first fast day. It’s interesting to think about why we wear what we do, and WHERE we wear what we do. Do you have a distinct “home” wardrobe that tends to be separate from your “public” wardrobe? What do you do about loungewear when you’re traveling?
Oh…and of course I had to try these on:
And now I’m obsessed. Truly. On me, the Rag & Bone/JEAN pajama jeans look like jeans. Not like sweatpants – even up close. And because I have “sturdy” legs (thick, muscular), they’re not as slouchy or loose on me as all the models out there wearing them. Which is a good thing I think. I’m wearing a medium, which is NOT loose on me at all, but I know they will stretch quite a bit. But not enough to size down, or that they’ll get ridiculously oversized. Frankly, I was going to order them on Shopbop with their coupon code as soon as I got home last night, but the medium was already sold out. I can’t pay full price for them, but I’m not sure I’ll get the chance NOT to, as they are INCREDIBLY popular and selling out all over the place (Rag & Bone’s website says they’re getting re-stock in April).
The dirty wash is a little annoying, and I know my husband would be mortified if I wore those out in public with him, but I can get over that 😉
Day 2’s outfit looks great! But then again, all the outfits will look great because you’ve chosen your 10 pieces well so that everything will go together. Don’t give up yet on the 10-item packing list for trips. If you choose your bottoms well, they should work for lounging, too. I must admit I don’t pack what I would consider loungewear for visiting family, because I just choose clothes that are comfortable inside and outside, such as those jogging pants that have been popular for the past couple of years. And I don’t bother packing dressy items because my family doesn’t do dressy, so there’s no point in me sticking out when we go to a restaurant. (Although if my mom and I go to the theatre, we both like to dress up.) Smart casual is good enough for most occasions anyway.
The Rag & Bone pajama jeans look good on you. I’d say “go for it!” Your hubby will get over it; mine always does. I’m fanatical about what I wear in public, but at home I like the dressy slob look. That means, while I’ll wear sweats they’ll still look decent (no huge holes). After all, I have to keep up my image!
i wish i could…they’re sold out in medium on shopbop, and i can’t pay full-price for them. i’ll wait and see if they end up anywhere else with a code or discount. but they will be mine!!!
when i’m at home, i wear things i could go out in (i guess i wear what most people consider appropriate for public, but i don’t) – like leggings with a long top and sweatshirt over, or yoga pants with my ass covered…i did actually wear a pair of flared yoga pants with my long james perse tunic out for dinner (wings, nothing fancy!) the other night, but normally i would never wear something like that out. it’s tempting though, because i was amazingly comfortable 😉
i guess i like to “dress” when i go out, even if i’m already “dressed” at home. if that makes sense…
it’s not that my clothes are comfortable for lounging around at home, it’s just that i like to “preserve” them for wearing out. you know what i mean? i feel like they get wrinkled and stretched out if i’m laying around in them, especially my james perse crepe surplus pants, which is a shame, because i’d love to wear them traveling more, but i’d look like a complete mess when i got off the plane!
Looking good:).
And I wear flannel pajama bottoms and tees at home. The real thing:).
I usually pack one loungey thing for travel, not a whole bunch. So maybe you can just have 11 or 12 things instead of 10 for travel. There’s no magic in 10.
Oh I see what you mean: you like to keep your going-out clothes separate. That does make packing hard! Maybe the JP crepe pants aren’t the best travel option if they wrinkle and stretch. Do you have other bottoms that you love that would stand up to the rigours of travel and being inside and outside and don’t need to be preserved for going out? I find that ponte knit trousers work really well for me, but I don’t recall seeing any in your outfit shots. And harem pants, but I know you have those!
haha. that’s true…and if you go by laurel’s advice to pack based upon weight, i could have a lot more 😉 if i didn’t bring any denim (or my denim jacket) that is…
Funny, Gretchen, the very first thing I do when I get home is change clothes. Normally, when certain casual clothes start looking a little less “fresh”, I get the scissors and mark them at the lable and they become around-the-house clothes, but still nice. These tend to be short sleeved or long-sleeved “longish” tees, tank tops and cardies, and Pure Jill slim-leg or boot-cut pants, or Landsend’s Starfish pants. I always carry a pant/tee set when I travel for more than 3 days.
That necklace is amazing.. it’s really sublte but also kind of a statement! love it!
If you wear your denim jacket when travelling, then it doesn’t count in the weight total because you don’t have to schlep it. Whatever you wear is zero calories; it doesn’t count towards a diet. 😉
thanks jennine – it’s one of my favorites. also because it reminds me that ‘now is all you have’ !! (it’s written on the back)
true. i do always try and wear my heaviest pieces – i put that in practice mostly with shoes, but i guess it works with clothing too!
me too!! i always change clothes and take my bra off LOL – but only if i’m not going out again…
I got sidetracked when I was going to post this thought earlier in your 10 items discussion & packing for travel thoughts, but….One thing I do if I plan to exercise during a trip is to bring 2 pr exercise capri & wicking t-shirt and use one as lounge wear/night wear (I’ll sleep naked at home but not in a hotel where I might have a fire alarm go off in the middle of the night 😉 and then exercise the next day & wash. Wear the 2nd outfit while the first dries, and repeat. This is not clothing I would “lounge” in at home, but I like the double duty in a carry-on bag while traveling!
Omg. I sleep naked too, but thought that might be tmi 😉 but that’s a good idea to wear exercise clothes to bed in a hotel. Never thought about the fire alarm thing but now I will bring a robe or something LOL
Ok, I have to admit, those pants do not look as horrifying as I originally thought. Not that you needed my permission, but I really was expecting something terrifying.
haha! i wasn’t expecting them to be so good either. not necessarily terrifying…but not to look like jeans as much as they did. on me they look totally different than on ladies with thinner legs though – it’s my thick legs that make them look better LOL – or so i’ll tell myself!!!!
I´ve never ever had a pair of clogs. But seeing those maroon clogs on you, they´re actually cool. Love this comfy chic outfit.
They do look really great on you. I still believe they’ll go on sale somewhere. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking 🙂
i hope so. i actually had an interesting conversation with the manager of steven alan here about that issue – i mentioned that rag & bone was already re-ordering more sizes, he said a lot of times things like that go very fast to early adopters and then the re-orders sit on the shelves because “normal” people aren’t buying. basically, i’m hoping that’s true and that they’ll end up on sale closer to summer 😉
I think so. I’ve now seen them at 1/2 a dozen local stores. And not everyone can pull them off or has the available funds so I think we’re good ???. I am a hunter I usually find everything on sale!
Glee, Grechen is the “Queen of Clogs”! Really.
The things you learn about people on a blog….????
I love the Rag and Bones on you, and they’re much better than I imagined based on the name. ( They bear absolutely NO resemblance to those things called “pajama jeans” on TV!).
I also have to pack a pair of yoga pants to lounge in because I rip my clothes,8 and that man-made torture device known as a bra, off as soon as I return from outings with family. When I’m with my daughters, both big-city dwellers, I dress better than when I go to visit my parents in the rural Midwest.
Val, I do the same thing! I loathe wearing bras, they’re too binding. That’s always the first thing that I take off at home. My husband never seems to object either;).
I totally would have been a bra-burner back in the day. If only I was a little bit older. .
Literally, “laughing out loud!” Maybe we could bring back the bra-burning movement;). I even know how to start a proper campfire, ’cause I learned it in Girl Scouts.