Sewing a Travel Wardrobe

It can be nice having something gorgeous to wear when you are traveling.  Clothes are our shelter, but in the absence of a home or place to rest, they can also help remind us of who we are.  Travel clothes need to be practical, however.  They have to be lightweight, versatile, easy to wear with almost anything, and okay to get a little crumpled.

I had this in mind recently when I sewed my new favourite top – a Wiksten tank in a lovely Liberty print.  It’s the perfect summer top.  It goes well with shorts, jeans and loose pants, but can also be worn tucked into a high waisted skirt or pants.  It looks lovely under a cardigan or a blazer and could also been worn pinny-style over a merino base layer in winter. It will need an iron occasionally, but if it gets a little crumpled I can hang it in the shower with me to smooth out the wrinkles.

But most importantly, it makes me feel really pretty.

post-fashion

I have loved William Gibson’s last three books. There’s something really fanciful about each that makes me just laugh, but some of the spook stuff is probably spot on, and they are, indeed, (as Gibson himself has described them) painfully contemporary, to the point of self-conscious kitsch.

But one of the things that I really love about them, that has pulled me in and made me obsess, is the attention to detail – especially sartorial detail – a fidelity to an iconography and corporeality – a satoris even, that is beyond fashion. There is a focus on things that are just made really well, and work. I like this quiet, pure sort of design. These are the kind of clothes that I would like to make and wear.

Gibson said it well in this interview with GQ about his latest, Zero History, which I just finished this morning.

“We live in a world of shrinking resources and one in which the use of energy is an increasingly crucial factor. Something like the high street shop where a fashionable young woman would wear a dress once is lovely in its way, but it’s scarcely sustainable. My position is more or less like my character Meredith’s. I don’t think she’s operating from a conservative impulse – she just doesn’t want her sneakers to fall apart, and in the course of pursuing that she falls in love with the knowledge required to build better sneakers.”

This is my new mantra.

I think I’m going to take a pattern making course.

mid century modern lace

I bought some lace a few years ago on etsy that is so perfect that I can’t quite bring myself to use it. I think it would be so beautiful down the front of a dress or top, but the garment would have to be the very definition of simple itself for it to work.

It’s bold, and geometric, and intricate… but without being fussy. I just love it.

walking away from new purchases…

It’s a good time of year to go shopping. Actually, it’s a very bad time of year to go shopping – because the weather is beautiful and demands new sartorial choices, but it’s been long enough since last summer that I can’t remember what clothes I own. I know I own a lot of beautiful clothes… so why am I not wearing them? Why I am wasting my time going into stores and looking at clothes I don’t even really like?

So I’ve been trying very hard not to buy new clothes, and to instead unpack properly and organise the clothes I do have. Blessed is the time when you are alone in your beautiful house and have the space and peace to mooch around doing just this. Last night I went through lots of boxes and suitcases and piles, and found lots of old favourite clothes that I just adore… even if some are starting to look a little shabby. I also went through boxes of fabric and sewing patterns… thinking about what I can make myself. I’m thinking that some of my things need updating or altering… but that’s probably preferrable to just buying new clothes… and aesthetically, peacefully and utilitarianly satisfying as well.

This cardigan revamp by Kristena Derrick at thimbly things is my number one inspiration at present. I have some beautiful scraps of Liberty Tana Lawn that I think would make lovely birds… and lots of fine merino knits that are developing little holes. I’ve been thinking about reinforcing beautiful fabrics to make patches for a couple of years now, ever since shim + sons did it on some childrens’ tshirts… but could never work out how to make it sophisticated and minimalist, rather than cutesy. But Kristena has nailed it. Sew covetous.