Hello! Today I’m sharing a spring travel capsule wardrobe for a casual work trip. I travel for my job about six to eight weeks out of the year. I am lucky enough that I don’t have to travel too far or be dressed up in business formal workwear for the most part. When I’m traveling, I’m often doing a lot of running around between classrooms and meeting rooms so I need to look professional but still be comfortable. I’m going to show you today how I pack in a carryon for three full days of casual workwear and two travel days.
Packing Strategy
I decided on a neutral palette of beige, navy and black for this spring travel capsule wardrobe. I chose items that would match beyond the initial outfits I’d planned to wear. I mostly travel with carryon luggage only when I can. Personally, I like having my things nearby when possible and I don’t enjoy dragging large bags around.
If you can’t wear jeans to work, you could also swap black and navy dress pants for the jeans in this spring travel capsule wardrobe. For shoes, swap a pair of sneakers for black flats or heels. This would also be a good spring travel capsule wardrobe for a non-work related trip as well. Several items are older items I’ve owned for a while but I did my best to link similar items where I could.
How do I fit it all in a carry on? Shoes and hair tools take up the most room and should be kept to a minimum. I also decant all of my liquids in to travel containers and keep a travel bag ready to go. I usually have to replenish frequently used items like toothpaste and hair styling products, but everything else I transfer from large containers to small ones. I have long been a fan of packing cubes to maximize packing space. They are essential to fitting everything in a carry on. I use a combination of these packing cubes and these compression packing cubes.
First up is my travel day outfit. I wore a sweater coat as my outer layer and kept it easy with a black t-shirt from Target, medium wash jeans from J.Crew and Nike sneakers. I carried the same handbag for the week which also helped keep the amount I had to pack to a minimum. I keep my jewelry the same all week as well. Two of the pairs of jeans I featured in my Five Favorite Curve Friendly J.Crew Jeans post.
I wore my travel outfit for most of the day and then changed my top and wore a leather jacket from Banana Republic and beige flats from H&M for dinner. I’d originally planned to swap my jeans but must have forgotten and worn the same jeans shown above. These flats are a huge surprise – they are incredibly comfortable and at a very low price point.
For day one of classroom training, I wore straight leg light wash jeans, a striped short sleeve sweater and navy blazer with navy and beige accented sneakers. I was able to capture a beautiful photo with the blooming trees in front of of our office building.
We had a happy hour and dinner directly after work so I wore this same outfit to dinner but swapped the sneakers out for flats and switched my blazer to the leather jacket. For our second day, I had a volunteer event during the day so wore my corporate apparel during the full day with sneakers and then changed in to a black blouse from Sezane and leather jacket and flats for dinner with my team that evening. Sezane is one of my favorites for beautiful blouses. Unfortunately this one is sold out but I also own this blouse in black and it’s a great alternate option.
For our last day of classroom training I opted for a wide sleeve beige cotton cardigan with charcoal colored jeans and Nike sneakers. This cardigan is unfortunately sold out as well but here’s a similar version at a similar price point and the more investment version of this cardigan. I unbuttoned the bottom few buttons similar to the model photo.
For the final evening, I changed my outfit to light jeans from Zara and a navy blouse from Sezane for our closing dinner. It made life so much easier having my outfits planned in advance and I had the option to switch bottoms or tops if I changed my mind about something or ran in to different weather than originally expected.
Lastly, for my travel outfit home I wore a version of what I wore with my original travel outfit, with a white tee and my light wash stovepipe jeans from Zara. These jeans are going to be in regular rotation heading in to warmer weather. They are the perfect straight leg, fit my curves well, have a tiny amount of stretch and are high waisted. I finished the outfit with a baseball cap from J.Crew. I don’t wear hats a lot because I have a bigger head and I’m not a huge sports fan so I feel weird wearing sports hats but I do like how simple this is and it coordinates well with this neutral outfit.
I had fun planning this spring travel capsule wardrobe for a work trip. I have an upcoming trip to London and I’m going to use some inspiration from this capsule towards that capsule which will be for twice as long of a trip and I will also aim to pack a carry on. Do you plan your outfits before you travel? Which look is your favorite? Would love to hear what you think and thanks for stopping by!
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