Wanderful

First, I want to announce the results of the second Dressopotamia Giveaway! The randomly selected new proud owner of Disco Mondrian is... Ellen! Ellen, I believe I have your email address from the Dressopotamia subscription list, but if that is a different Ellen, let me know and we will work it out. Wear it in good health!

In contrast to Disco Mondrian, Wanderful will never, ever leave my closet. I don't remember where I bought it, but I was in college, so I know it was many, many years ago. And it's still going strong!

The combo of long sleeves/low hemline and the surprisingly lightweight material, plus the tropical hibiscus print against a non-tropical dark blue background

 means that Wanderful is appropriate for any climate, which is sort of the reason why I often wear it on long trips. But only sort of.

The real reason is that Wanderful is perfect for every contingency you might encounter when traveling by plane.

The hippie inflection of the cut makes it look less weird that you are barefoot in the middle of a public place, waiting for your shoes to be scanned for explosives.

And what if you get to your gate, only to find out that the previous flight to your destination has been canceled, and now all those grumpy would-be passengers are trying to fly standby on your flight, monopolizing all the available seats in the meantime?

Floor sitting is not a problem, and you can cast pity rays at the business travelers in suits. (Once they're in business class, they won't be casting pity rays at you, because you will have ceased to exist for them.)

Alternatively, what if your flight is half-empty and you have the whole row to yourself?

You've got it covered. Literally.

Want to get up and stretch, to prevent blood clots from forming in your legs and traveling around your veins and killing you?

Ease of motion is paramount.

I was actually just on an airplane this weekend, to see my beautiful family, and I probably shouldn't even mention this because I wasn't wearing Wanderful (going out: Winter Blossoms, coming back: the newly stain-free Electric Avenue), but when we have have the pleasant experiences on the airplanes, why not talk about them?

When I got to the airport for my morning flight to the East Coast, I scanned the departure boards to check my gate number, and noticed that there was an earlier flight that was going to board in five minutes, and that gate was, literally, exactly where I was standing. I asked if there were any seats left, and the gate agent gave me the last seat on the flight. (It makes sense, because the later flights were probably more likely to be overbooked, and me going on this flight was probably better for United because it freed up a seat on a more popular flight, but I was still expecting to pay for the privilege.) Turns out, my new seat was in Economy Plus, so, even more surprising that I didn't have to pay extra.

Then, the flight attendant asked me and my seatmate if we would mind sitting in the exit row, because there was a minor there, and she and her mom had to move. I didn't mind.

The one drawback to all this was that I didn't have time to pick up breakfast before the flight. But then, my seatmate (a very nice chatty guy who sells Mommy & Me gardening kits) said, "My hotel gave me this apple, but I don't want it. Do you?" and threw a granola bar in the bargain.

All this just goes to show you: the universe isn't fair. My sister's incoming flight was canceled and she had to stay overnight in Hartford and take an obscenely early flight instead. Clearly this lovely, early, roomy, friendly, stress-free trip home should have been hers!

Oh well. I'm sure I'll pay for it with a horrible trip down the line.



All photos by Claire Loeb!