I’m indulging a little fantasy — one I hope will become reality. April in Paris. Bob and I have never been to Europe (never been anywhere except Mexico and the Bahamas) and I keep saying this is the year we figure out how to make it happen … although it still seems incredibly far-fetched for something that’s ostensibly happening in three months! Regardless of whether it’s daydreaming or advance planning, I’m using the idea of packing for that trip as motivation for a couple of other things:
- A firm deadline to complete the knitting of my Channel cardigan-in-progress. What better garment to wander the early-Spring streets of Paris in than this sweater? So I’m making it the focus of my imagined Paris packing list.
- A reason to start thinking about how I want to dress this late-Winter/early-Spring in general — i.e., what few pieces I might add, and are they to-buy or to-make? It would be lovely to be ahead of the game on the latter for a change. Plus I haven’t touched my sewing machine since August, so it’s wise to think through what best to make when I do.
Since I’m forever dreaming of a wardrobe so concise-yet-versatile that it would fit into a carry-on and combine into a thousand outfits, that’s what I’m aiming for here. I have a first draft of a proposed packing list (slash shopping list slash making list) in the form of that messy sketch up there, comprising 12-14 endlessly combinable garments. And I’ve also started sketching out some of the outfit combos in my beloved Fashionary notebook. I’m trying to strike a balance between having it all decided too far ahead of time (being over it by the time April gets here) and having it more-or-less-decided far enough in advance to have time to make the makes.
An embarrassingly long while ago, the lovely people at Brooklyn Tweed asked me if I might want to do a guest board for them at Pinterest, and since Jared Flood’s Channel Cardigan pattern is the centerpiece of this whole mental exercise, I’ve made this the subject of my pinboard. So far I’m collecting inspirational images, places to go while we’re there, garments I might want to have with me. I’ll be adding to it over the course of the next couple of months, if you’d like to follow along! Hopefully it will end with me actually standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in my Channel.
Of course I’ll have more to say about it all here as I zero in on the details. And if you’ve been to Paris and have recommendations, I’d love to hear them!
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