One man's attempt at a versatile wardrobe

My wife, 8 month old son and I are leaving for a Danuberiver cruise at the end of this month. We have both had our struggles in the past when it comes to packing areasonable amount of clothes for a trip that will involve some level of dressingup and now we are adding the new wrinkle of packing for a baby. While our trip does not have true formalnights, wife and I do enjoy dressing up for dinner. Also, my parents will be coming along, and mydad is someone that refused to reduce his caliber of dress on casual Fridaysduring his working days. When wetravel, we tend to dine at nice restaurants, that may or may not require somelevel of dressing up, but we don’t want to barred from eating some place we’dlike to try because we don’t have at least a sport coat.

So, I thought I’d lay out some of my thought process herefor guys that struggle with putting together a versatile wardrobe. This is just one person’s thoughts, and I amby no means a light packer or fashion expert, but a guy trying to do a littlebit of everything well.

First, the conditions: We land in Linz, Austria in late April, and will be visiting Hallstattand Salzburg before shoving off on the cruise. These mountainous areas are pretty cool still in this time of year, andrain or snow are significant threats. Wetake off on the cruise on May 1, and will be visiting Melk, and thenVienna. In Vienna we may be bothvisiting relatives who do not dress down (old countly family) and going out toa concert. Bratislava, Budapest,Bucharest, Novi Sad and Belgrade should be typical walking around a city typedays. The days in Mohacs and Tulcea willbe more outdoorsy excursions and I don’t really know what to expect for the dayin Bulgaria, but it could be either a long day in a van or lots ofwalking. Lastly, there’s one “sea day”where we spend the day travelling through the Iron Gates, a gorge along theSerbian and Romanian border. After wedisembark in Tulcea, we take a private van back to Bucharest, rent a van andthen head up to Transylvania for 3 more days of touring the vampire country andthe old Saxon towns around the mountains before going to Bucharest to flyhome. So it could be cold and rainy orsnowy there too, yet warm and sunny when we are in the Danube Delta and IronGates.

So with that itinerary in mind, and limited baggage space,there’s no way I can pack enough clothes for both dressing up and spending theday on my feet walking around a city like Budapest. Also might need to keep an emergency shirthandy for days that the kid decides to spit on me.

Starting with the bulkiest items: shoes, coats and outer layers. I like to wear cowboy boots when I dressup. It’s more socially acceptable herein the Rockies than really nice flashy dress shoes like double monks or broguedwingtips. When paired with qualitybootcut jeans and a dress shirt and sport coat, it’s a good look without beingtoo dressy. However, they suck forwalking around in all day on concrete or stone given that most of them haveminimal tread. And they are bulky. So, I could wear them on the ship for dinner,but when trying to be versatile, those are out, which also dictates which jeansare out. I told myself, no more than 2pairs of shoes, so for optimum versatility, I went with casual leather shoes inblack and brown. Both have significanttread, and good cushion for spending all day on your feet, but still look niceenough to wear to dinner, and I won’t be stuck with one color of shoe fordressing up.

For coats, I’ll say that I’m still struggling here. I do notwant to bring more than one outdoor jacket. I know I’ll need some insulation and at least some weather resistance,but I’d like it to not take up too much room. It’s going to be too warm for an insulated woolcoat. This is where a down jacket comes in handybecause they compress really well and weigh nothing. I have one that you can stuff into its ownpocket, yet still looks nice enough for wearing out to dinner on a cold night,especially with a sweater underneath. Asfor sport coats, if I’m only taking one, it’s a no brainer: navy. And even then, I’m not packing it, I’ll wear it on the plane. Buttttttttt, I like sport coats, and wouldlike to bring a second. I still want itto be versatile enough that all of my dress shirts will go with it as well asmy shoes. So that means, black and browncoats are out. Believe it or not, I’mgoing with green for number two. It’snot common, and one of mine is a wool/cashmere blend in case I need a littlemore warmth. As for sweaters, I knowI’ll need them for warmth, but I can also alter my look with a sport coat witha decent Vneck. I won’t pair a ¼ zipwith a sport coat though, so those will be more top layers with dress shirtand/or tie underneath or layered under the down jacket. So I’ll take just a gray Vneck and blue ¼zip.

For shirts, it might be best to break these down furtherinto dress shirts, casual shirts and something in between (tweeners). For me a dress shirt is a fairly plain,minimalistic, but nice quality features. I’m only going to wear these atnight, so not likely to get sweaty in them and all of these have appropriatecollars for ties if need be. Because we are trying to stay versatile here interms of shirts I can wear with or without a coat, and for the sake ofsimplicity, no French cuffed shirts are making the cut. I’m going to try going with 5 here: one white, one light blue, one light bluewith faint stripes for almost a sky blue effect, one royal blue and onelavender. Any and all of those will go well with eitherthe green or navy sport coat with or without a tie. For tweener shirts, shirts that I could dressup with dress pants and coat or down with jeans and rolled up sleeves, I’mlooking at my more colorful and patterned shirts. I don’t think I need more than 3 here, soI’ll go with one dark blue and green with red plaid, a yellow with purple plaidand blue and brown plaid with contrast cuff and collar liners.

When it comes to casual shirts, I’m looking for something Ican sweat in, but still look decent for lunch and visiting cathedrals. Short sleeved button downs or polo shirts thatI’ll leave untucked work for me. Thenumber to take is tough because I likely will get sweaty and may need to atleast try to hand wash them in the sink before wearing again. Good thing we aren’t doing the Med in Julyagain, we ran through a bunch of clothes with how much we sweated there. I think 9 for 19 days should be ok, plus atleast one or T-shirt that I can stuff into the baby’s diaper bag for days whenhe spits or wipes his snot all over me or wifey. It’s also probably worth mentioning thatmost photos of myself will be in my daytime clothes while being a tourist, so I’dlike to try not to look the same in every photo. Lastly, I’m going to want at least one or twoof these that are more of an outdoor performance quick dry type of fabric,rather than cotton. For cotton buttondowns, I’m going with a purple, two blue plaids, a blue stripe and a white(rayon). Polos will be in blue and black stripes anda gray blue solid. The outdoorsy styleshirts are a blue plaid and a green plaid long sleeve.

Now for pants… Chinos, jeans, and trousers are allcoming. No shorts, I don’t like to wearthem and it won’t be hot enough that I’ll wish I had them. Regarding dress pants/trousers, I canprobably bring the fewest items here because I can also wear chinos and nicejeans to dinner if I want. I think justtwo pairs of jeans is fine, one in a medium blue, one in a dark indigo with nodistressing. Both have a little elastanefor some stretch qualities. Forchinos/kahkis, you’ve got to have at least one in khaki that you could wear todinner or wear out and about, right? I’malso thinking a gray pair is pretty versatile. I’d like to also bring an olive green pair and light blue pair, andwhile those can be less versatile, I think they all pair fine with the casualshirts I’ve selected, except maybe the light blue chinos. Because some of the chinos can double asdress pants, I won’t be taking much here. One navy with a subtle stripe (so it’s obvious it’s not a suit when Iwear the navy blazer), one cream, and then if I’m already bringing khaki andgray chinos, I don’t need brown or gray pants. But I’d rather not just have two pairs of dress pants, so I’ll go with agray with subtle striping here.

While I won’t pair literally every single combination here,it’s pretty dang versatile. Any of the dress shirt and blazer combos willwork with any of the dress pants, one of the jeans and some of the chinos. That’s probably worth over 50 combinationsright there. Now to make matters alittle bit more complicated, and because I can’t be out-dressed by my father, Iwill bring at least one tie and a few pocket squares (we have a “gala night” onthe last night, and may as well dress up on the Iron Gates night), and it willtake some additional effort figuring out those combinations. Belts will be simple: one black, one brown.

If I have to cut anything down, and I should know bytonight, I can cut the green blazer, the Vneck sweater, one dress shirt, a pairof jeans or chinos, one or two casual shirts, and really all of the tweeners ifI have to, while still having enough clothes to do a little of everything.

This is far from a minimalist packing list, but it is versatile,comfortable, and plenty stylish for me to feel confident in, regardless ofwhere we end up and how formal or informal the passengers are. A true minimalist might try to reduceeverything by about half and could probably get away with something like 3dress shirts, one blazer, two pairs of pants, and 4 or 5 casual shirts. I don’t think I need to pack quite thatlight, so I won’t. But I’m also notpacking suits, tuxes, specialized shoes and boots, nor specific shirt/ pant/coat/tie/ square/and cufflink outfit combos either.

I’m just starting to assemble everything, so I could take aphoto or 100 if you want to see what I’m thinking.

I think there is a lot of good information here. All the descriptions and no pictures does become really hard to follow after a while...but I do get that you have a defined color scheme with some basic neutrals to work around. There hasn't been as much talk about men's wardrobes for European travel so I think that this is very valuable. It's just A LOT to take in, which is why I think there are so many views and so few comments.

Pictures! Pictures would be great. I know that I would like to see what you have pulled together. I'm hopeful for a TA with DH with some land based travel either before or after, so I would really appreciate the time it would take for you to document what all you are talking about here. I was able to take a TA with my parents 3 years ago? I think that there was definitely a different vibe on the ship compared to the Caribbean cruises I had experienced previously.

The photos don't need to be anything strenuous. Groupings of the different categories of clothing that you mentioned would be well received from me.

Otherwise...a very thoughtful post. Almost dissertation like...and definitely something that required more concentration that most postings on this board. I do appreciate the time and effort you spent writing it.

I really enjoyed this post. Add said above you don't often get the men's packing perspective. This info will help the husband and I to pack him for our next trip.

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Alright let's start with the casual shirts. The two on the bottom right are of the quick drying fabrics, and I ditched the white rayon shirt because I found some stains on it.

Then the dress shirts:

And the ones that could go either way:

And the sport coats:

And the down jacket and two sweaters:

Dress pants/trousers:

Casual pants too with jeans:

Then some combos together, here's the casual pants, jeans, casual shirts and tweener shirts on the top

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Dress shirts with coats:

The some dress shirt and coat combos.

White goes with everything, so no surprise that it looks fine here:

Then for contrast, the royal blue, it's pretty loud, I doubt I'd do a tie:

Good news! It all fits, with several inches of room to spare in my check bag. Will also be taking a carry on, but was trying to save room for baby stuff there too. I've never messed with rolling my clothes up or using packing cubes, and may do so to see if that helps at all.

Well done, you! I wish my other half put this much thought and effort into packing! Actually, ANY effort would be welcome :rolleyes: Best of luck with the baby, I hope you have a cooperative traveller there :)

So, now that we are heading out on Friday, I've changed a few things up. I spent most of last week doing some training while wearing 5.11 Tactical pants (taclite pro) and forgot how useful those pants are for travel. I'll definitely be packing at least the khaki pair, but maybe also my navy pair.

Guys, we don't all need to be slipping AR 15 magazines into our back pockets, but the lightweight, stain resistance and huge pockets, without being baggy pants are pretty handy. The back pockets are especially nice because they are super deep, yet angled, so you can still access your wallet, but you don't sit on it either. Plus, they are velcroed, so less likely to be pick pocketed. These aren't pants I would wear to dinner, but great pants for hiking around town. While cops, spies and military folks will recognize them(though maybe not in Europe?), they are better fitting and more discreet than typical cargo pants, and don't scream tourist to thieves like a photographers vest or backpack.

Wow this is just so useful. Just spent last weekend discussing my husband's wardrobe with him and it needs work! Guess what we are going to do tonight? Ready your thread.

Thank you heaps and any more photos would be great. Especially one of showing your Tactical pants, what are these?

We have time, going on our first cruise (Cunard) in December.

I can when I get better access to photo bucket after I'm done with being stuck in airports. But here's a link:

http://www.511tactical.com/taclite-pro-pants.html

Thanks exbiologist, got the image and was able to find a store here in Canberra so we are going to have a look on Saturday. The pants look great and my husband is keen to try them on. I showed him your images which has started a great conversation about his wardrobe. It is difficult to get him to go shopping so this Saturday should result in a good outcome.

Here's a random shot of me in those 5.11 pants. While you're staring at my butt you can see how low the wallet sits, which helps you not sit directly on it, plus it's a view of the large, slashed velcro rear pocket.

Another similar photo, showing that they really aren't that baggy compared to most cargo type pants. I've got some baby clothes in one on the cargo pockets which wouldn't show on really baggy pants.

And some other photos that we posed for

Here's a better shot of those pants. Yes they look a little wrinkled, but it's probably 18 or so days into the trip at that point.

I demand a refund of the time I spent on this thread.