San Francisco Baby!

My son has a book I purchased for him during one west coast trip called San Francisco, Baby! Since that trip, I cannot travel west without thinking about the title (which simply makes me smile). Its the little things!! It’s one of my favorite cities and except for the long haul flight I love traveling there. For my last trip there, a travel capsule was crucial to allowing me to carry everything I needed for the trip! I had client meetings, a Holiday party and I also want to do a little sightseeing … that’s a lot of divergent outfit requirements. #MadeItHappen

What I Packed

With so much going on I needed more than one outfit for a few of the days and since I also needed professional attire, the struggle was VERY real!! I love to create mini capsule wardrobes to try and minimize the number of items I need to take and ensure that everything can be worn with everything else. I employed this very technique for this trip. When I travel I need to get a week worth of clothes in a tiny little box. The only way to do this is to maximize versatility and then get creative with my pairings.

Here is almost everything that was in my bag. (I had a back-up Holiday shirt – more on that in a minute) and I may have had a long sleeve turtleneck or T-shirt just in case. #PackingHeavy

You know when it takes two collages there was a lot in my suitcase. #truth

Jackets, “Dress” and Accessories

A note about the Day Boot (or White Booties). I know some of you LOVE them and some of you HATE them. I am clearly in the love camp. If you are not, simply replace them with black or brown or whatever color floats your boat. I included style notes about what I would have worn if I wasn’t in the white bootie LOVE camp. #YourWelcome

Tops and Bottoms

My San Francisco Style

The one advantage of a stuffed suitcase? Lots of looks. I was able to easily create eight outfits for my five day trip and I could have conjured up a few more if necessary. They ranged from casual to Holiday party fun with some business attire mixed in the middle. Here are my looks from my five days in San Francisco. (I didn’t take the camera so most of the pictures are blurry snaps taken on the go). #NextTrip

Travel To (And From)

By now you should know that I don’t like to pack my blazers if I don’t have to. I typically will wear them traveling both to and from a destination to spare them the crunching. I wore pants on the way to SFO and denim on the way home (it was a full travel day with no meetings). It was an ivory sweater for my outbound trip and a rust sweater for the journey home. I also added a scarf for the journey home knowing I was returning to winter temps. I didn’t get any pictures from the outbound trip but I did snap one coming home. To replace the white booties for either of these looks I probably would have opted for brown or snake loafers or something like these.

Cheetah Scarf | Knit Top | Day Boot | Blazer (all sizes restocked) | Jeans

Client Meetings

Since I was there for work I obviously had business attire but I’ve learned from previous trips to San Francisco that a suit is typically overkill. I brought separates to mix and match and created all my work looks using those. I didn’t take any pictures dressed in my work attire while traveling so I took a few pictures of the looks over the Holiday break. Both of these looks would work with a pair of snakeskin pumps instead of the white booties (see picture below). I would recommend the pumps from INEZ because of their comfort factor but there are tons more options in this Shoesday post.

Holiday Party

For the holiday party it was a silk blouse paired with velvet pants. I had taken a back-up blouse but no other pants. You can learn about that failure in last weeks fashion emergency post. I survived though.

Silk Blouse | Leather Jacket | Velvet Pants (I really took old Loft but these are similar and I love these) | Black Heels | House of Harlow Earrings

Silk Blouse | Velvet Pants (I really took old Loft but these are similar and I love these) | House of Harlow Earrings

Casual Looks

I had a little time for some sightseeing and also the opportunity to be more casual for dinner a few nights which I took full advantage of!! #Yessss For the mostly navy look you could swap the white booties for burgundy or taupe and for the other took looks black booties would be perfect. (Notice that white booties have the power to pair equally well with navy, brown and black making them VERY versatile. Taupe would be my second choice for a color almost as versatile.)