Growing up, I've always wanted to be a world traveler. You know, one of those people that can casually drop something like: "I bought this shawl from an old lady on the souk in Marrakesh, and used it as a blanket on my trip to Amazonian jungles". Okay, let’s just admit - I desperately wanted to be cool and mysterious.
Now, after living in different countries, travelling around and having quite a few adventures, I feel like a giant dork, when people ask me where I bought, for example, my gray scarf. Because yes, technically I bought it in the mountains of Northern Thailand after negotiating the price via a calculator for a while. And yes, I used it as a blanket in a bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, because they are always overly air-conditioned. But all this seemingly charming ambiance doesn't change the fact that I could've bought the same factory-made scarf in a mall in Kyiv.
So this post is not about the romantic flair of travelling and finding gems in jungles. I would love it to be about rationality and sustainability, about choosing the right amount of trusty functional things that can serve you throughout many years, places and moves.
In my opinion nothing tests the quality of clothes better than traveling or moving into a different country with it. When you are living at home, you most probably have quite a stash of clothes and your own washing machine, that doesn’t tear the holes in the fabric. But living out of a suitcase means wearing and washing everything you own three, four, five, ten times more often than before, and not many pieces will survive this.
When I moved to Thailand, I had a very,
VERY limited wardrobe of 20 items (not including shoes) that occupied not more than 1/3 of my suitcase. You can see the amount of clothes I had back then if you will follow the link, but I can only describe that “WEARdrobe” as “two of each” – two pairs of shorts, two t-shirts, two skirts, two dressy tops (never worn any of them)…
When I was moving to Italy for the first time, I was already more experienced in living out of a suitcase. But at the same time I was facing a new task. I needed to bring clothes for 9 months and every occasion – for summer and winter, for office and free time, for hiking and going to the beach. (spoiler alert – I managed!)
This time I landed on Sicily with the same trusty backpack and a standard plastic suitcase, and this time my task was even more interesting – I was packing for at least three years. And as I was unpacking in my tiny dorm room in Palermo, I realized one thing – there are items that were with me through all of these moves, came with me to Sicily for the second time and still didn’t let me down.
I counted 9 wardrobe pieces that were with me in Thailand, during my volunteering in Palermo and are still with me now, when I started my PhD experiences. So it’s time to meet my trusty friends:
