I have a confession to make. I, at the age of too-old-to-care, have discovered fashion & beauty bloggers, vloggers and influencers – and I find myself starting to care.
When I went to Paris in January, I conscientiously looked up “what to wear in Paris”. A lot of striped woolly jumpers, black heeled boots and skirts of various shapes. I very quickly realised that 1) I don’t own any of the things the internet told me to wear in Paris 2) I would probably freeze to death in the clothes they suggested 3) I would definitely have blisters within a couple of hours.
So I ignored them. Honestly, I can’t remember what I wore in Paris and the photos are no help because everything’s hidden underneath my warm ski jacket. I see I wore my 66°North Vik jacket and my old worn-out Salomon trail shoes and my grey-black Primark jeans. Oh, and apparently my Clever Travel Companion t-shirt. I have a vague memory of taking something a bit dressier for the evening but not wearing it because it was just plain too cold.
I’ve never attained “style icon” and I never will. Look at my primary school photos: see the row of little girls across the front, all in their little white ankle socks with a frill around the top. Oh look. There’s one in knee-length crocheted navy socks. Just the one.
I suppose it’s true that my white socks wouldn’t have remained white. I bow to that practicality but still, I stand out among my classmates.
I considered what would look good to wear in Cyprus… but then it was ludicrously hot and I spent the entire week in Primark men’s swimming shorts and a variety of oversized soft t-shirts. And a sun hat.
Practicality just comes before everything else. It has to. How can you travel when you’re too hot, too cold, too sunburnt, too frostbitten, too blistered?
Here’s what I typically look like when I travel:
It’s not the best picture of me but it shows off the outfit pretty well, as if I knew three years ago that I was going to write this post.
From the top: polarised prescription sunglasses, waterproof jacket, half-zip fleece worn over a t-shirt of some kind or possibly a thermal top, quick-drying outdoors trousers (lined in winter, worn over thermal leggings) and walking boots or trail shoes. That lot is warm, adjustably so and there’s almost certainly a windshirt lurking in that bag in case a cold wind gets up as I climb the mountain. At this point, I didn’t own any jeans and hadn’t for a few years but even if I had, I wouldn’t have worn them – they offer no insulation and they dry really slowly. There are no upsides to wearing jeans. The boots are offering support and protection as I climb mountains but they also have good thick soles for walking on still-warm lava, although that didn’t come up in 2015, when this picture was taken.
In the car, I’ve probably got waterproof trousers, I know I’ve got my mountain sandals and I’ve also got a fleece jacket and my favourite oversized hooded checked shirt, which I bought in River Island in 2009 and which is still my favourite travel cover-up.
Yeah, that shirt, worn in 2012 in Denmark. Over a t-shirt, under a fleece jacket and with quick-drying waterproof trousers and hiking boots. Because I spent my six or so days in Denmark moving from Copenhagen to Odense to Aalborg, all I’m carrying there is all I took with me but I wished I had my sandals the day I went to the beach at Skagen.
And one more for luck:
Lapland, Finland, (late!) October 2014. It’s cold so I’ve got a padded jacket on. I can see lined outdoors trousers, I know there are leggings underneath (and I also know they were wholly inadequate because I remember nearly freezing my thighs off in central Rovaniemi the next day) and I think I can see a hint of hiking boot.
That’s my style. It’s not a style, it’s just clothes that are suitable for the climate but I know there will always be fleece, there will always be boots and there will always be quick-drying trousers. I’ve read hundreds of “what to wear in Iceland” posts and they always seem to recommend leggings and lightweight cashmere jumpers and light but cute coats and jackets and absolutely nothing that can actually stand up to a sub-Arctic winter blast.
As for the pigtails, I have quite a lot of hair which is inclined to misbehave (get in my eyes and mouth, get horribly tangled, get matted right at the back) and the best way to exert any control over it is to put it in two plaits.
So, by all means, listen to fashion influencers on the subject of travel style. But remember, if they look good they’re probably freezing and I bet their feet hurt.