The Uniform

Get up and go in the global village not only requires a certain kind of gear (nomad pack), it also requires a particular 'garb'.

When I fell out of my urban camping lifestyle, I found myself missing the streamlining that comes from being nomadic.

Obviously, traveling around means you can't take all your clothes with you.

But, streamlining my wardrobe also meant that I kept only my favorite clothes.

I loved wearing my favorite clothes every day for 11 months!

After I stopped moving around, I sometimes wondered how I had slipped so far from the habit.

I'd think, "Why am I wearing this? It doesn't quite fit. Or, it's not really a good color. Or, this is way too high maintenance."

Unfortunately, it's much harder to throw away half of your clothes when you don't need to.

This time I thought I would try to find some kind of perfect urban camping uniform.

I thought maybe I could find clothes that I could wear to the office, and then step off the train and go right to the gym without changing.

I wished we lived in a uniform environment like that of Star Trek.

They wore those same outfits everywhere, no matter what the occasion.

In a somewhat similar vein, I discovered the clothes on Magellan's travel supplies site as well as Title Nine (thanks to my sister, Lisa).

Some of their clothes work in both fancy (little black dress) or casual occasions.

Some clothes never wrinkle.

And they have some very cool multi-tasking shoes.

In the end, I did not order from Magellan's or Title Nine.

Instead, I hit a dance store here in Rotterdam.

Not only is dance clothing very comfortable, it's a bit fancier than regular work-out clothes and often comes without all of the sporting labels.

So, it might even be possible to wear them to the office.

I love these black shoes I bought there. (same shoes shown here in 'white'.)

I haven't found the perfect uniform, but I am pretty much back to wearing my favorites on a regular basis.

PS - I also found these wonderful tennis ball-sized pants and jacket.

Technorati tag: urban camping, nomad, travel, camping, streamline, travel light, uniform, title nine, Magellan's