I laughed at modular fashion until I needed to pack for 14 days in one carry-on

Last year I had to fly to Chicago for 2 weeks and I refused to check a bag. So I grabbed 5 mix-and-match pieces from my own closet that snapped, zipped, and buttoned together different ways. By day 3 I had outfits I hadn't planned on and zero regrets. Has anyone else done modular pieces for travel or do you think it's still gimmicky?

3 comments

3 Comments

grace_allen21d ago

Oh man, this is my whole travel philosophy. I did a similar thing for a work trip to Atlanta last fall - three pairs of pants that all snapped onto the same set of tops with these little clip-on collars I found at a thrift store. The best part was how the pants could zip together into this weird half-skirt thing that actually worked for dinner out. What was your setup specifically? Like did you plan it around a color palette or just grab stuff that happened to work together?

king.wyatt13d ago

My buddy Mike did something like this for a wedding weekend in Nashville last year... he bought four reversible vests from an army surplus store and built his whole wardrobe around them. He had this olive one that flipped to a blue plaid, and he wore it with jeans one night then with chinos the next day, plus he could button the vests together to make a weird little bag thing. It was wild to watch him get ready because he'd just stand there snapping and unsnapping pieces like he was building a Lego set. @grace_allen your clip-on collars sound way more elegant than his setup though... he definitely looked like a confused scout leader half the time.

grace_bailey21d ago

That bit about the pants zipping into a half-skirt thing really got me. I used to be the type who packed like six different outfits for a weekend trip because I was scared of repeating clothes in photos. But after seeing how you made a modular system work for both work and dinner, I tried a capsule wardrobe for a conference in Chicago and it genuinely changed my approach. Now I just stick to a navy and cream palette with one pop of color, and everything mixes and matches without me having to think about it. It saved me so much suitcase space I actually had room to bring home a weird little statue from the airport gift shop.