Playing Dress Up: Abroad & Forever
Welcome to my rebrand: the era of getting dressed up, for pure fun.
Earlier this year, my mom called me with the idea of taking a girls trip to Spain. Obviously, I was thrilled. I hadn’t traveled with my mom since I was a kid, and I had never traveled outside of the country before. The prospect of traveling together again after all those years, the excitement of my mom wanting to have a girls trip with me, and the thrill of traveling to Europe for the first time was too much to bear. There was no way I was turning this down.
As we approached closer to our travel date, we made many plans – what airline to fly plans, how to get from point A to point B plans, where to sightsee plans, where to shop plans – to make this trip as organized and fun as possible. All of which included consulting with one of my aunts and cousins on my mom’s side of the family, who lucky for us, are Spanish citizens. With locals who have spent 20 years living in the vibrant state, it’s safe to say we had the best experience.
We visited over 4 Spanish cities, each glimmering with their own unique sense of beauty. From the big city of Barcelona to the picturesque small town of Asturias, the sights were amazing and the people were dressed well, to say the least. Within the first few excursions, I noticed just how different Spaniards, and more broadly Europeans, dress compared to Americans. Europeans dress up for all occasions – dinner dates, grabbing a cup of cafecito in the morning, sunny strolls in the city, quick runs to the Pharmacia, train rides across the state, you name it. Meanwhile, most Americans live in a constant state of “chill”, often translated as casual dressing. For whatever reason, channeling your inner “model off-duty” is embedded in our DNA.
As I grow older, I’ve realized how far I want to run from this societal trend of “gym to brunch” uniforms and endless struggle of waiting to wear my dressed up clothes for occasions only. It wasn’t until earlier this year that I decided to transition my wardrobe from the usual leggings + sweatshirt + sneakers and scrunched white socks combo to vintage Levi’s + perfect white tee + cool sneaker combo instead. Eventually, this transformed even further to cool sweatsuit + sneakers, overalls + cute top + slingback Birkenstocks, barrel jeans + flirty top + nike dunks and so much more. One whiff of Spain’s whimsical, magnetic air was all it took to make me crave pushing my wardrobe even further.
I decided I would no longer wait to wear all of the beautiful clothing I’d purchased over the years, just to sit in my closet waiting to be worn. We all have those moments, don’t we? Passing on pieces we really love but have nowhere to wear them. Anything can be dressed up or dressed down. Plus, there’s no shame in look good when grocery shopping.
So there it was, I decided I was going to start dressing up for me.
In the weeks leading up to my trip, I started creating a lookbook that I stored as an album in my phone. My reasoning for this was two-fold. I wanted to create an easy visual reference as I packed my suitcase. The other reason is because I wanted to give myself room to be creative, free and playful with my appearance. While it was incredibly helpful, it was also incredibly chaotic. While my shoes covered the floor of my apartment and clothes covered my bed, I had so much fun while doing it. Being surrounded in Spain’s mesmerizing sights and complimented on my outfits gave me a light bulb moment. I want to share this! So, click-click I went.
Outfits
Speaking of outfits, here are some from my trip to Spain:
I think this might have been my favorite outfit from my entire trip. The effortless ease of the silk skirt, perfect fit of the baby tee and little drop of quirkiness with the multi-colored bandana sandals was, imo, chef’s kiss. Not to mention the shoes were incredibly comfortable. Serving femininity and comfort? Check.
How could I not pull out my camera the second I spotted a beautiful alleyway filled with cute apartments in the beach town of Barcelona?
This For Love & Lemons dress has been with for years. It’s one of those emotional items that you’ve had through and thin, and no matter how much time passes by you just can’t seem to get rid of it. It has somehow managed to hug the curves of my body in different ways as I’ve grown over the years and always been feminine enough to offset with an unconventionally cool pair of sneakers and scrunched white socks. This dress is the through-line to the basis of my personal style — feminine with a cool, effortless edge.
Over the last several days of my trip, I found myself consistently wearing the same pair of white linen pants paired with an overtly feminine top and sambas. Here’s that through line again — femininity mixed with an effortless edge.
The thing about this combo that I love so much is that it’s so easily interchangeable. Swap the white linen pants and sambas for denim and heels, and ,voila! Or, alternately, swap the gauze halter top for a linen tube and your outfit is serving a completely different cool girl vibe.
And here I am, wearing the same pair of white linen pants again. This time, with a different top coupled with my favorite sunglasses and my everything bag I got at Anthropologie a couple years ago.
Happy dressing!
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