We leave this week for our anniversary trip to Europe and I have already started my packing (total honesty, I started last week!). Packing has been a little bit of a stressor this time for a few reasons.  Firstly, because of the wide array of activities and places we’ll be during our trip.  From fancy dinners and sightseeing in Paris to hiking and paragliding (!!!) in Switzerland to wine touring in Tuscany, to bumming at the beaches in southern Italy and finally sightseeing in Rome (see the full itinerary here and here).

The second reason I was stressing a bit about packing was because I wanted to pack very light.  We’ll be staying in lots of towns where we cannot drive into the city center, so parking outside the city, then walking in will be necessary.  I am not about to be that girl dragging a giant roller bag up cobblestone steps. Not my style.

I knew I had a tall order ahead of me… I want to look so chic in Paris and Rome, but need to be practical.  I did something I’d never done before and employed help.  Local wardrobe stylists Angela and Cara of Redress Columbus came by last week to sort through my closet and pull together an amazing travel wardrobe that all fits in a carryon.  This is something I never thought I would have needed – I mean, I dress nice… I’m creative… I have cool clothes… right? (right?!) but the outfits that came out of this session were things I would have never put together and we ended up with over 35 outfits to create out of just 18 pieces not including shoes and accessories.  Here’s what we choose, a few of my favorite outfits that we came up with, and some behind the scenes action!

 

We focused the entire color palette on navy, black, white, and some blush.  You can see how it really works well together and the touch of blush gives it a spring-ier vibe. Attitude is added with leopard accessories and statement jewelry. That striped full skirt is a show stopper too!  It goes with so much and I cannot wait to do a little dancing in it!

Angela and Cara had a pretty good idea of my style going into the styling session, and they sent me an email before we met with a list of things to pull out of my closet.  I had everything just thrown on my bed and they just went right to work styling multiple outfits using each piece.  The best part is that while they were styling, the snapped a photo of each outfit with my phone, so that while I’m in Europe, I don’t even have to think about it!  I just flip through my photos, find the outfit I like and get dressed.  Since we’ll be hotel hopping and won’t be staying anywhere longer than 2-3 nights, this is a huge time saver so I don’t have to unpack the whole suitcase to figure out what to wear.

There is a complete resource guide below, but I’m most excited to rock my new Bridge & Burn slouchy black pants, the reveur T-shirt from my friend Belinda’s new label- rephrase,  and my nautical stripe skirt.  I picked them both up this spring, so I haven’t had a chance to wear them around here yet.

TOPS:

1. silk cami in black and white 2. blush cropped sweater 3. simple white v-neck t-shirt 4. Perfect LY/IM Perfect t-shirt 5. long sleeved navy/white stripe t-shirt 6. reveur t-shirt 7. blue stripe drop sleeve button-up 8. blush silky sleeveless 9. navy pattern silky sleeveless 10. chambray shirt

BOTTOMS:

1. destroy boyfriend jean shorts 2. blue jeans 3. black casual slouchy pant 4. black lace pencil skirt 5. nautical stripe full skirt 6. short sleeved black romper 7. black & white paisley house dress 8. chambray shirt dress

JACKETS & SHOES:

1. classic trench 2. green military jacket 3. ankle booties (similar) 4. hair calf slides 5. jeweled ankle strap sandals 6. pointy nude pumps (similar) 7. white sneakers

ACCESSORIES:

1. crossbody purse 2. bag full o jewelry 3. aviator and tortoise sunnies 4. tassel belt (similar) 5. graphic scarf (similar) 6. hair calf clutch 7. hunt/gather market tote 8. panama hat

Obviously, you can see that there are a gazillion outfits one could make from this assortment… Here are just a few they snapped for me that I’m really excited about. It’s kind of like when you get a bunch of clothes for the new school year and you can’t wait to go to school just to wear them (or was I the only one who looked forward to school solely for the fashion?) except for in this case it was mostly all of my old stuff, just styled in a new way.

Above, you can see Angela and Cara having a small discussion about the jewelry I should bring, while below, Cara is styling up one of the outfits above.

I know you can tell how excited I am about this (can I say excited one more time?!). I’ve probably told every person I’ve encountered this weekend about the experience and how energized I am to wear my stuff in new ways on vacation, thanks to their help.

I know a ton of you don’t live in Columbus, but I think personal styling is becoming a bigger thing, so definitely look up a local stylist online, or if you are in Columbus, just call Angela & Cara from Redress.  It was only about $200 for the whole styling experience and I probably saved that much in random purchases I thought I needed and airline baggage fees since I just have a carry on.

And this goes without saying, but you’ll see most of the outfits during my trip if you follow in Instagram! Get excited for all of the amazing Europe pics!