By April, Wendy, and Sunny
It’s Spring! After a couple of rounds of snow and ice and dangerously cold temperatures, I am ready to welcome in the warmer weather and the opportunity to wear something other than tights, boots, sweaters, coats and hats. But I find spring the hardest season to transition to for some reason. Is it the comfort of the cold weather clothes, the yo-yo temperatures of March and April? Regardless of the reason, it is time to come up with some ideas to keeping the Spring wardrobe fun, functional and season appropriate. My Looks and Leaps sisters and I would like to share are favorite spring transition pieces from our recent travels. Share yours with us!
April
A recent trip to DC forced me to confront my spring transition clothes issues head on. The forecast called for chilly rain for the first few days of the trip and sunny 70s for the last two! And on top of that my itinerary was going to take me from wandering the Smithsonian museums to a resort on the Chesapeake Bay that would include swimming and a spa visit. This was a spring wardrobe and packing challenge rolled into one! I wanted to stick with a carry-on strategy so I put together a bundle of items that could be mixed, matched and layered and threw in a few small stand-out accessories to punch up the looks a bit. I have to say the MVP piece was the lightweight army green parka from Old Navy. Something about a jacket makes my spring transition easier. It was the anchor for the whole trip! And if you’ve read our previous posts you may notice I’ve employed several of our other favorite travel strategies: long sleeve tee shirts and my trusty Dexflex flats from Payless. I seriously love those shoes and I swear Payless is not paying me for saying that! They were comfy enough for site seeing and cute enough to wear out to dinner.
Packing for DC spring travel
P.S. I packed 2 pair of the black pants – super lightweight and easy to roll up in the carry-on, worked great for both comfortable plane travel and to throw on for the spa day. And I brought along my trusty black cross body bag to complete the wardrobe.
Check out Wendy’s cute NYC weekend gear below. Will I ever learn to mix and match prints as well as she does?!?
Wendy
During a recent trip to NYC, I think I did pretty well creating a capsule wardrobe where my layering pieces matched and I was prepared for warm spring sun as well as breezy spring winds. I didn’t want to buy anything new so I shopped my closet and tried pairing patterns, just making sure the colors were complimentary. Camo with print and stripes with florals – are you still with me? I think it worked…but was also reassured by the fact that in NYC, people are always looking at something else anyway:) And a fashion “don’t” can end up looking like the next edgy look.
Spring weekend in NYC – capsule wardrobe
Consider the pieces in the photo. I had 3 different outfits (Friday night, Saturday and Sunday). Not pictured: a slightly dressier black dress I brought for Saturday night just in case (but didn’t end up needing), leggings, hat, a casual shirt I wore with jeans on the train ride up Friday afternoon, and shoes. The red blouse was cute with jeans and boots, and since it was actually cold on Friday evening I added the scarf, camo shirt, light parka jacket and basic black toboggan. If it hadn’t been so cold, I would have peeled a layer or two. Same thing with Saturday and Sunday. The striped shirt and dress both looked good with either the camo layer or lightweight parka jacket (or both). The tall boots worked well with everything, and I would have ditched the leggings with the dress if it had been warmer. I ended up giving the hat to my husband since Saturday was raining and my jacket had a hood. Don’t forget a little costume jewelry to pull it together.
Sunny
If you read my posts from last week, you know my Spring travel plans took me to the west coast where we visited both Seattle and San Francisco. We were expecting rain in Seattle but lucked out with sunny weather in the 50s. San Francisco was also dry but warmer. Temperatures were close to 70. I wore leggings and a tunic layered under a sweater for the plane with my new Champion slip-ons from Payless.
I have worn these shoes so many times since purchasing them. They provide the comfort of a sneaker with the style of a flat. I wore them nonstop on vacation and around town everywhere from casual dress day at work to yoga. For the rest of the trip I brought two long skirts, long sleeve shirts, a pair of shorts, a denim jacket, and another tunic length top to wear with leggings. I think long skirts work great for Spring and for travel. They don’t wrinkle, are super comfortable, and they’re stylish. If it’s cooler then expected, you can layer leggings and a denim jacket. Warmer than you planned? Choose a t-shirt and statement necklace.
Springtime on the west coast