NYC Bound

Recently I have received an opportunity to fly to New York to attend New York Fashion Week, and obviously, I couldn't pass it up. Lots of fashion, tons of excitement, and the hustle and bustle of a real major city is just what I needed. The downside is that I had to stay true to my shopping fast. You see, the old me would have ran to the mall and gotten all types of new outfits to wear on my vacation. But the new me, was not allowed so I had to become inventive. So I devised a plan to still showcase my fabulous fashion sense without spending a dime. I call it the external closet method.

The basis behind the external closet method is to actually see everything that you are packing all at once before you put it into the suitcase. I devised the plan because I'm known to be a bit of an overpacker. With this method, I used a clothing rack and actually hung all of my clothes and shoes on and then I decided if I really needed everything I pulled out. I noticed that I had a lot of extra clothes, or duplicates (such as the same type of sweater in a different color) that I just didn't need. But there were some things that I did pack that are essential to any vacation.

1) The Blazer - It goes over any shirt and can quickly change the look of any outfit just by using the layering technique. Also the blazer being very practical if it starts of being warm in the day and chilly in the evening. Just throw it on and your outfit goes from day to night in a instant.

2) The Everything Shoe - This is the shoe that goes with anything. Day to evening, warm to cold, it is the go to shoe. For my trip, I had two of pair of these shoes. The first one was my tall black boots. I could were them with my jeans or with my skirt and tights and they were super comfortable. The second pair were my black heels. If I wanted to dress up my jeans or hit the town in my dress pants, they were the perfect choice.

3) The Trusty Jean- You can dress them up or dress them down and they still look amazing. I prefer the skinny jean. It tucks nicely into my boots, great with my flats, and perfect with the cute shoes that I want to show off in the evening.

4) The Colored Tank- It goes under any sweater of shirt for that pop of color that you need.

I followed my external closet method and I ended up packing less that I would have normally packed and still had all of the choices that I needed to make excellent outfits on my trip. This is definitely how I will pack for any vacation I have from here on out.