When we decided to leave Australia and travel in South East Asia for the next two years, I must confess one of the immediate concerns that crossed my mind was: how on earth can I manage to wear vintage for the next two years? {Closely followed by, what am I going to do without all my sewing and crafting supplies?!?!}
Despite the fact that we were going to the tropics, where it’s so hot and humid all the time, and despite the fact that we had initially planned to travel for two years with carry on luggage only {yeah, that did NOT last long!}, I KNEW without even having tried any of that, and without ever having visited a tropical country, that I would not be happy if I had to forsake my vintage style for the next two years...
Long before I’d fallen in love with vintage, and how much I felt like “me” wearing it… It’s story time!
Many years ago {Feeling old here…. Haha!}, I travelled to Europe with my sister. We had a trip planned out where we were spending a lot of time on farms volunteering our work in exchange for board. So we did the practical thing and only packed jeans, boots, old t-shirts and jumpers ~ clothes that you really didn’t mind if they got completely wrecked and dirty.
What we didn’t account for where our days off and the latter part of our trip where we were traveling with sightseeing tour. I can tell you though, by the end of our five and half months away we had both replaced the entirety of our packed clothes with new ones ~ right down to our very expensive boots that where supposed to last the whole trip as our “walking shoes” {but had started falling apart anyway after days spent working in the stables}.
It was an amazing experience, but something that really stuck with me throughout that trip was how much I hated wearing clothes that I didn’t feel suited me or my style, or that plain didn’t fit in with the places we were going too. Beautiful art museums, stunning old churches, decadent palaces that where breathtaking in glittering gilt and lush ruby velvets, and I? …I was wearing such basic, boring clothes. I felt ugly. It was like pins where prickling into me, and I hated it. Like, really hated it.
I felt awkward and uncomfortable walking around wearing jeans and t-shirt when I should have just been enjoying all the awe-inspiring vistas before me. It didn’t help that we were traveling through Europe, where everyone was fashionably dressed pretty much all of the time, but it was also became clear that I didn’t like wearing jeans and t-shirts.
Some people would, and that’s perfectly fine of course!
But for me, I was miserable.
So when my husband delicately asked if I might just be able to just “drop the vintage” for a couple of years, I looked at him, shook my head emphatically, and told him the above story. I had already learned the lesson that while it might be “easier” to travel with jeans and a t-shirt for simplicity’s sake, for me, sacrificing my personal style for simplicity doesn’t make me happy.
So here we are now, and while sometimes I do think I’m crazy for trying to maintain a fashion style that sticks out like a sore thumb in a land where clothing and fashion entirely revolves around looking as cute as possible with the minimal amount of fuss and stuff on your body {think light, floaty, short and bare, or plain and simple, with minimal makeup of a fresh face and soft, just-been-kissed lip stain}, I also think it’s been worth it.
I still love my vintage dresses {though they are all reproduction or vintage inspired these days}. I still love a bold red lip, and I will forever be enamoured with hats and hair flowers! (• ᴗ •❁) Undoubtedly I’ve had to adjust my preferred vintage looks to suit the environment, and the traveling, but it can be done, so I do it.
And it’s still just as fun to dress in vintage style as it was back home!
Plus, you can find some very cute vintage appropriate clothing in South East Asia. They love their gingham, and folk-esque style of fashions as you can see in this cute seersucker frock I picked up at a local Thai market. I thought it was a great vintage appropriate piece ~ very 1940’s teen on the beach or on summer vacation!
Which is absolutely perfect for where we are, so I went with it. Sweeping up a quick poodle, and grabbing my floppy hat from the the cupboard near the front door, I took the children to the park and they played while I snapped some photos.
Palm trees and vibrant green {wet!!} grass, everything is a vivid shade of emerald in the mountains, and you can’t escape the cheerful, brilliant tones that stretch as far as the eye can see.
Traveling in the tropics is definitely an adventure in colour! It is different to what I am used too, and sometimes I really do miss the golden hues of our “wide, brown land”, but wearing vintage wherever I may end up, suits me and makes me happy.
What do you think? Would you, or have you ever, changed your style for traveling? Or for the sake of simplicity? Let me know ~ I’m keen to hear why you would/wouldn’t wear vintage, and for that matter, any other fashions traveling!
xox,
bonita
P.S. ~ First blog post from Chiang Mai! Yay!! ◝( ′ㅂ`)و ̑̑✧
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Giant Floppy Straw Hat | Ebay
White & Red Blooms Hair Flower | Daisy Jean Floral Designs
Blue & White Embroidered Seersucker Dress | Local Thai Market
White Gladiator Sandals | Zulily
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