I made some progress this morning to get ready for my trip to Spain.

Part One consisted of sorting through my whole closet for outfit contenders. This took about two hours since I had to try on 40 different shirts and throw the castoffs into a pile on the floor, fold and return the rejects to their proper site, and once the shirts looked like a display at the Gap, then I got disgusted at how I had randomly twisted and shoved all my sweaters into some type of knitted Rat King, and then I had to untangle, fold and shelve them all nicely, too.

I really only need two days of business attire for this trip and decided to recycle the same black Banana Republic suit twice, but with different shirts, shoes and accessories. These shoes made the cut for one day:

Enzo Angolini “Caswell” Pumps

They’re actually quite versatile and look good peeking out from under a suit.

Besides a travel outfit that can mostly be recycled going to/from Europe, I also need two walking around outfits for downtime. I went out on a limb and got these pants from Madewell:

Madewell Skinny Skinny Ankle Zip Jeans
(Picture from ohmaidarling.com)

Can you tell they have zippers at the ankle? Hello, 80s! But I think they’ll make me look sufficiently Euro Trash to seamlessly blend in.

One thing I am lacking is a medium sized cross-body bag that has a zipper or other decent closure. Usually I carry a huge tote in my everyday life, but that’s not always practical (and they’re easy to steal from) for travel.

I really want this blue Clare Vivier bag, but I didn’t get organized enough to order it ahead of time:

Clare Vivier Moyen Azul Messenger

This Madewell bag also caught my eye:

Madewell Kensington Satchel

Do I need either of these? Of course not.

Do I want them? Yes, please!