Spring Mood Boards
What I'm loving for our upcoming trip to Europe and how I'm wearing those pieces now.
My creativity for clothes has been off the charts lately. I’ve been brainstorming outfits the last month or so for upcoming trips/events and finding myself endlessly inspired. Between my Dôen Haul, my Pinterest board finds, and new product drops from some of my favorite brands, I’ve been having a hard time narrowing my purchase list down!
Whenever I’m feeling all over the place when outfit planning, I create mood boards to help me focus. With varying weather and activities planned for our big European vacation in June, I’ve taken the last month to outfit plan and order multiple pieces to try and narrow down my must have pieces. To start, I took my favorite tears from my Pinterest boards and used those looks to inform my wishlist. Then I ordered many of the pieces themselves, since things look so different online (and many can be so disappointing in real life).
Since I’m buying mostly for a trip, I also want to be sure that the items I love for the trip also make sense in my day to day life, otherwise they’ll just collect dust before and after our travels.
So with all that in play…
Here’s where I landed for London:
I have had the privilege of traveling to London many times. It wasn’t on our original itinerary when planning my 40th birthday trip but ended up having the most affordable direct flights so we re-worked the trip to include our favorite city.
I follow many creators from London, and feel I have a good sense of the street style there. But I’m also being practical. I’m always cold in London. Even on sunny days the shade can carry a chill. So I know the key will be LAYERS. My beloved chore jacket is already SO English so I started there. This new one from Toteme is on my ultimate wish list but my favorite chore jacket already in my wardrobe is this one. Honestly, my every day style is already very English in feel - nice denim, classic button up and elevated coats. So for this mood board, I really just stuck with my favorite wardrobe staples: Ballet flats, Agolde denim, Anine Bing button down and my go to Mansur bucket bag.
My day to day weekly style is an easy copy & paste for early June in London.
Here’s where I landed for Paris:
In Paris, I always go for it. If there is one city that you can wear the coolest outfit for a day around town - Paris is IT. So despite traveling with three boys, I’m planning to go with an all cream/white look. I love the effortless look of ecru denim with a classic white tee and really love the idea of layering an oversized blue button down for added dimension. I also love the idea of wearing my classic white button down with my white denim with black and navy accessories. Paris in early June is always chilly in the mornings and warm during the day. It’s much like Northern Michigan (which makes sense because they run along the same Latitudinal line), so I’ll definitely have my trusty La Ligne sweater over my shoulders just like I do in Leland. I’m also really loving these new sandals to complete this look but realistically I will likely be in my Adidas Spezials. Maybe the sandals for dinner? We’ll see.
So many of you loved these jeans this past week when I wore them. These are the Tibi Sid jeans that I absolutely love. They are a big investment but it’s so hard for me to find a jean that fits my curvy hips and butt, but it still flattering around my waistline without need alterations so for me it’s worth it.
This is a great more affordable option that has a very similar vibe.
Here’s where I landed for Portugal:
Portugal is the new country on our itinerary! We’ve never been there and have a whole week dedicated to this beautiful country! Our plans for Portugal are very beach centric and so my look reflects that. I have so many great staples from summers spent in Leland, that I didn’t have to recreate the wheel here. In fact I was inspired by several of my most favorite looks, which are old Dôen. I was also recalling last summer how I absolutely lived in my Gap matching button up and boxer set. I wasn’t planning on getting a new color way until they ran a recent sale making it less than $75 to buy. And wow! It came in the mail and is so VIBRANT that it informed the rest of the palette.
So while I plan to be packing lots of shades of blue for Portugal, I am now adding a lot of red and pink into the mix! Also, I needed a new Natalie Martin dress like a hole in the head but as a customer of theirs for over a decade, I KNOW a great print when I see one and this print was TOO GOOD to miss.
I also scooped up the *very* trendy jelly cage shoes only because they were $40 and I wanted to see the quality. I was very pleasantly surprised and would 10/10 recommend, especially after seeing how cute they looked with my baggy jeans. They just re-stocked the red which was by far my favorite. Sizing is full size only, so I took a 7 when I normally wear 7.5 and they fit great. These will be good for dinners and small excursions. I don’t plan on wearing these to explore Lisbon!
I feel so relieved that I’ve got all my pieces, done all my returns and now have all my looks ready to go. It might sound weird to be so locked and loaded in March for June but that’s how I roll. I don’t like to wait to the last minute to scramble. That never works out well for me.
I’ve even made massive progress on Chris’ wardrobe updates and now starting to tackle the boys. The boys are so hard because they are SO picky about what they wear and they will grow a lot between now and June. I’ve got mood boards started for them and I will share those with you when they are complete as well!
You can find all my looks here and also find all my wardrobe foundational pieces here.
I plan to share our itinerary and all that we have planned in the months to come! Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime
Talk soon xx