Travel clothing

[indigo_rose99]

I was surprised while visiting ovrclokd this past year that she travels in business attire, thus saving herself the packing space.  I tried to suggest to her that sweating out one of her business outfits on an airplane was a dubious idea, but she poo-poo-ed the idea.  Since both of us travel so much, I have to think that her attitude is the result of two things:
(1) Most of her travel is domestic, thus relatively short trips.
(2) She doesn't sweat. *grin/duck*[1]

Over the past few years, I have developed a traveling "uniform" that works for me.  Keep in mind that the majority of the trips I wear this for are for multiple flights, with at least one leg being more than 6 hours long.  When I fly domestically, I am also more likely to wear clothing I am willing to be seen in at the other end.

• tennis shoes, regular socks.  Comfy for sprinting across airports, and it means I have something to wear on my feet when I work out at the destination.
• pocket-heavy cargo pants from REI.  Made from thin material that dries quickly.  One of the pockets will perfectly fit a plane ticket and a passport.  I keep kleenex, sleeping mask, sleeping pills, pedometer, and post-it notes in the other six pockets.
• thin, loose, short sleeved t-shirt.  Cool for those times when they turn off the air.
  
• thick, long-sleeved cotton plaid men's shirt with two pockets.  I keep my PDA and ipod in the pockets.  Warm for when they turn on the air.
  

It is the long-sleeved shirt that I have been reevaluating recently.  Duluth Trading company advertises that they make durable ultra-practical work clothing for men and women.  They particularly advertise their business jackets.  For women, they had two I singled out as possible Christmas presents.  T gave me the one with only five pockets (his question was, what could you possibly do with the insane number of pockets the other one has?!).  It is water-resistant, supposedly stain-resistant.  I will say it is resistant to wrinkles (and I have been abusing it this trip).  I LOVE the pockets -- two large internal zipping pockets!  Nothing falls out!  Plus an extra velcro-ed pocket that would fit a cellphone or my ipod (even with headphones coming out of it).  Duluth is really proud of the tailoring -- loose, but still obviously a women's jacket.  They put extra cloth in the shoulders so that even I (who have a tendency to rip out shoulders by raising my arms) feel free to wave my arms about.  I have been wearing it for everything (mostly an extra layer of warmth) I previously wore the long-sleeved plaid shirt.  It looks way more professional than my shirt did -- I even wore it last Friday when evaluating my classroom.  I'm not saying that this jacket is my typical business-wear level of formality, but if I arrived without my luggage, it would do in a pinch. [2]

[1] She later told me that for that particular international messtrip, she totally sweated out her clothes and understood my point.
[2]  From the US, I can travel with carry-on only.  However, the size requirements within Europe are different.  They will take away my US-sized carry-on.  And if I protest, they will weigh my briefcase and take that away.  All bad.  I pretend meekness and pack my briefcase carefully.

Comments

I'm surprised you can wear lace-up shoes on planes

[sclatter.livejournal.com]

My feet swell like a B**** on planes. I absolutely have to take my shoes off. So I always would wear some sort of loafer that I could slip on and off.

Re: I'm surprised you can wear lace-up shoes on planes

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Packing space is key. I cannot take three pairs of shoes with me. I don't know if my feet swell, but I do take off my shoes on any flight over 2 hours.