hello! so as I mentioned in my last post we have just got back from a nearly month-long trip through east Asia, and just for fun I’m assessing the usefulness/workability of my travel wardrobe as usual…
BTW; if you’ve ever been to South Korea and gone on a tour to the DMZ, you might recognise that this picture is taken near the border between North and South Korea, near the entrance to the Third Tunnel. It’s forbidden to take photos at the lookouts and in the tunnel, and they ensure compliance by confiscating all your belongings before going in! however taking photos in the carpark here was allowed. More of my holiday snaps are at the end of this post, if this is more interesting than my clothing…
Time away: 21 days
Where to: South Korea and Japan
Season; early March to beginning of April, the early days of spring
Expected activities: exploring new cities and towns, plenty of hiking, plenty of sightseeing, hanging out with my friend Yoshimi… we visited Seoul inc 1 day to the DMZ, 4 days hiking throughout Kunisaki, Hiroshima, Kochi, Kyoto just briefly, the Hida region outside Nagano, Tokyo
Colour scheme: mostly warm browns and autumnal shades
What I packed:
everything is made by me except shoes, bag, umbrella and gloves
from left to right, top to bottom; everything is linked to its original “making’ post. the number in brackets is how many days it got worn during the trip.
long brown coat(7) purple cardigan(4) orange corduroy hoodie(5) yellow raincoat(5) mustard cowl(5) brown bag
mustard tee(5) white fleece top(4) dk green tee(4) red tee(3)
brown corduroy jeans(5) brown skirt(7) purple skirt(8) striped tee(2) brown tee(3)
black hiking boots, black booties, 2x black tights(16) 2x sockettes(5) 2x knitted socks(9) pink thongs, bathers, umbrella, gloves
not pictured, my pjs, toiletries bag and underwear.
Oh! I forgot to mention in my previous post that I made 4 new pairs of black tights before going away, taking only 2 with me… but they’re really not worth a separate post. They’re practically identical to all the black tights I’ve made previously. Unbelievably I forgot to pack a pair of gloves so I had to buy those charcoal ones in Perth Airport before flying out, whoops! These are possum wool so are divinely soft and warm. I do not regret this purchase at all!
My daily outfits:
note; the first and last days were essentially worn for two days each because of our drawn out travelling schedule
Thoughts:
We’d been to Japan just one year ago so I deliberately chose a completely different wardrobe to take this time, with the exception of my indispensable white fleece top and yellow raincoat. I decided I just couldn’t do without these things! I was really happy with my more autumnal colour scheme, felt very different to the more spring time colours I would normally gravitate towards for a spring-time holiday.
I was determined to pack light, and took as little as I dared! I generally get quite bored with my choices after a trip like this and I didn’t hate everything by the end of it, so that’s a nice outcome. Everything got worn multiple times and went together pretty well too. I know my outfits look kinda the same a lot of the time, but there’s a range of different tops and skirts underneath those coats, I promise! You start out the day thoroughly rugged up and by lunchtime you’ve often stripped off some of those outer layers.
The weather forecast had hinted at rain, so I popped in that little telescoping umbrella; and it turned out that even when I had on my raincoat I’d use the umbrella sometimes too! For example, it’s actually hailing on us in picture 6 above! so it was nice to have the little bit of extra protection. Also you don’t always want to wear a raincoat, especially if you’re in a city, and then suddenly it’s pouring.
My long brown woollen coat looked so nice and stylish and was pretty fabulous in the windy cities, like being wrapped up in a snuggly cuddly blanket. It’s so voluminous that it also doubled as an actual blanket sometimes … comes in nice and handy when you’re spending long hours in transit somewhere.
For the first two thirds of our trip, I honestly thought the purple cardigan was going to be a giant waste of suitcase space… it’s pretty bulky and took up more room than anything else. It is also, however, toasty to the extreme and the last 4 days temps dropped down below zero with snow each day… and so out it sprung from the suitcase to blessedly justify its existence. I also half-doubted that the new striped T-shirt was going to be particularly useful either, however to my surprise a couple of days in Hiroshima and Kochi were quite warm and humid and I was glad to have a lightweight option after all.
I correctly predicted that I wouldn’t wear either my bathers or my thongs… but as usual I don’t really mind taking them because they don’t take up a lot of space, and I still hold out that you just never know if you might need them *shrugs*. Everything else I took was absolutely worthwhile and I was relieved that I had enough choices to keep my fussy self happy.
What did I see other people wearing:
well, Yoshimi has made some really cool jeans and beautiful shirts which was a joy to see!
hmmm, what else did I see? Lots of people wearing black, mostly. It felt very late winter with everyone hanging out for spring. Apart from in the main parks where the sakura is bursting forth in stunning profusion, one sees girls in either ball gowns or at least wearing lots of pink. It’s kind of de rigueur.
Something that stood out to me in the cities was that quite wide leg jeans seem to be fashionable right now; and with lots of cargo pockets, and just in general baggier, longer and loose-fitting clothes. People were also wearing lovely coats and trench coats which is really nice and kind of a novelty to me still. People don’t wear coats that much where I live, so I really love seeing them in other places.
Of course in Japan I always enjoy seeing kimono on the streets. For convoluted reasons, this trip I seriously checked out a lot of kimono and obi in department stores and was totally shocked at the prices. I mean, of course these are absolutely beautiful one-off pieces that feature weaving and embroidery of the highest quality, and I also know that you can buy cheaper second hand ones too… but well, the newer ones are really priced so high that it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to afford them, really.
Here are a few of my favourites…
this one above is my absolute favourite!
I really loved how this kimono and obi matched each other so beautifully…
In general, here are some of my favourite photos of the holiday…
Seoul forest…
climbing up to Seoul tower
pilgrimage to 10-31 Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Yoshimi and me
we saw a tv crew filming in the park while we were there, and then Yoshimi sent me this, hahaha…
check us out…!
making a tiny snow duckling… I know I know, I’m such a dag
pilgrimage to Seoul forest
did we all watch squid games?! btw I would have failed this round…
matcha tea with Yoshimi
near North/South Korea border; ribbons of hope put up by South Koreans wanting to be reconciled with relatives in North Korea
Hiroshima. so moving…
loved this rooftop bar…
along Meguro river, Tokyo
hiking…
this was really cool and I’m so glad I read about it beforehand… in South Korea you can customise your own travel card. I picked one of my favourite pictures of our family, taken by Cassie’s now husband during our skiing holiday in Hokkaido a few years ago…
egg bread, a popular street food in Seoul, omg so yummy. I’m definitely going to try to make this!
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