Green, Blue and Stripes: A Miami Suitcase

So I am packing for Miami as I leave tomorrow with my daughter for a five-day vacation. I know, I know, I shouldn't be packing today, I should be all done with that but I am a last-minute person and this is something that one can't change (I am telling you just in case you are going to get married and your chosen one is a last-minute person and you think you are going to change him. Nope, sorry, he is not going to change). I started early, as usual, but I am one of those people who can finish something only under pressure, so here I am. I underestimated the task because as some of you will remember I went last year at the exact same time, so I thought I knew what to bring this time. Last year I took a lot of "in case" clothes that were way too warm (sweaters and even a wool dress for the evening) that I didn't even take out of the suitcase because it was SO hot, so I wasn't planning to bring any of that this year but it looks like the weather is going to be more unstable this year: a bit of rain the first two days, then sunny but cold on Sunday, then hot and humid on Monday and Tuesday. This put me into panic mode that translated into "I don't even want to look into that right now". Well, until this morning, when I HAD to do something about it.

The decision that I made is to bring my floral fresco café capris from last year and build my outfits around them. Some of this stuff I had already planned to bring but I had just thrown them in the suitcase without a cohesive plan. The pants are my Superglue! The advantage is that they are fun enough and I can layer on top in case it is too cold to wear them with a tee. The colors in the pants are green and blue and that works well with plenty of tops.

For example, if it's warm enough I can wear them with a sample V-neck tee. This is navy and is from Joe Fresh but I am also bringing a vintage cotton one in white (honestly, I like the Joe Fresh, that costs only $10, better but they were out of my size in the white and I needed a replacement for an old one that I can only wear to sleep now, so I ordered the JCrew vintage cotton with the last promo).





But I can add a featherweight cardigan (one of the few sweaters that I have in the green family but it works with the pants), and my Nolita jacket over it if I need (not pictured):





Remember when I met Tom Mora at a cocktail party and he suggested that I wear these pants with a striped top? Tom, if you are reading (which I am sure you are not), this is for you:



I am bringing the Petit Bateau top above because it is in a sweatshirt-like fabric, so a bit warmer than a tee. It works with the pants, I think, but I can wear it to breakfast or around the pool over my bikini (and of course with white jeans, my other pair of pants that I am bringing).
Very similar to this top is a dress that I have stalked for almost year. It isn't JCrew, it is a Juicy Couture (called Santa Monica, swoon) and I was already trying to buy it on sale on their website before my summer vacation last year, with no luck. One day it appeared on 6pm.com and the stalking started again. I was convinced that I needed a XS but at that time I was fixated on the green stripe colorway and the XS was only available in the cobalt blue (not to mention that it was also more expensive than the green). So I waited and waited, until the XS sold out in the blue too and the S soldout in almost all the sizes. When finally the price came down to around $50 I pulled the trigger on the blue, even if I was expecting the S to be too big. Well, not only it isn't too big but it is very short so I can't even imagine what the XS would have been. I can still pull it off, especially on vacation, but it is almost too short even for me. I LOOOOVE the lace-up detail:



Now, the evening is a big headache. I am going to take the persimmon sequin top but I had planned to bring a few lightweight dresses to wear barelegs. I even bought a Comptoir des Cotonniers dress on supersale with Miami in mind (an excuse to buy it because I had admired it from the beginning but it was expensive and I didn't know where I would wear it).
The pics don't do this dress entirely justice, as the contrast between the golden beads and the black is just stunning IRL. Very art deco, non?





Now, I am dying to wear it but I refuse to bring tights and I am concerned that it would be too cold to wear it like this. Also, if we just go for pizza with our daughter, I probably won't dress up like an art deco building even if it is Miami, lol. Not to mention that it takes a lot of suitcase space (that I am sharing with my daughter), so I don't think I am going to take if after all unless there is room to spare in my suitcase when everything else is inside. Thoughts? There is a little chance that we'll go out with grown-ups one evening leaving my daughter with our friend's babysitter but it seems a bit complicated, so I am not counting on it.
Probably it is a wiser choice to bring a "going out" top that can go from dinner (including pizzeria) to clubs:




You have never seen this top before but I had it for quite a while. In fact, it wasn't a top but a dress that I had bought on supersale at Calypso. It was originally very expensive (silk liked in silk ladies) but I got it for very cheap on final sale. The bottom of the dress was very ill-fitting but I really loved the top with the metal faux-necklace at the neckline so I had it shortened as a top. The jeans that I am wearing here are not the ones that I am bringing, they are bootcuts and this top need skinny bottom but I didn't have the time to retake the pics.

That's all I wanted to show you. I will end this post with a semi-related movie recommendation that I think some of you are going to like, especially if, like me, you have a girl's crush on Marion Cotillard. Taking advantage of my husband being away (he is already in Miami) I ordered on Netflix a French movie called "Little white lies" by Guillaume Canet (Mrs. Cotillard partner in life). It's a buddy movie, with a group of friends who spend vacation time at the (beautiful) beach house of one them, while another friend is between life and death in a hospital from a moto accident. It is a cross between "The big chill" and another French movie that I personally loved called "The man of my life" and that you can also watch on Netflix (but warning: after watching it Netflix will think that you have gay/lesbian preferences and will keep suggesting movies with explicit gay content, while it is more of a typical French movie with men characters who talk a lot about life and friendship).
Anyway, in "Little white lies" one of the characters is played by Marion Cotillard and she is breathtakingly beautiful in a very natural way. Because the tone of the movie is low-key she is wearing mostly tee shirts and shorts and she could be easily wearing JCrew (with a French twist). She has beautiful long legs which of course help her in looking terribly chic in a sweatshirt and flip flops but the movie gave me to throw away all the cover-ups that I have bought in recent years and just go with my old uniform of denim shorts and a tee:


These are coming, thanks to Marion

I will talk to you in a week and will let you know how everything worked out. And for those of you celebrating, Happy Valentine's Day!