WOW. Doesn't anyone else here just lightly spritz their clothes with a spray bottle and shake out the wrinkles? A teaspoon of fabric softener in the water helps, but is not essential. I travel for weeks with one carry on bag and never buy special "travel" clothes. Although, dark colors are more forgiving.

suprisealot: In Italy, be prepared to cover up respectfully in churches, other than that, just wear what you like.

No need to buy travel clothes that are usually that unattractive. Use tissue paper between the folds of the
item you are folding and into a plastic bag

"travel clothes that are usually that unattractive."

Huh? Which catalogs have you been looking at? And who wants to mess with tissue paper when they're not traveling for a business meeting?

Rather than dark colors I find a pattern of some sort to be the most "forgiving" for not showing stains or dirt. Pretty much all my tops are a print of some kind, not solid colors. With neutral or dark colors for the bottom.

Exercise pants, whether shorts, capris, or long, tend not to wrinkle. And if in black, can look like slacks if you avoid color piping. Ditto with exercise shirts and such (like under armor or champion). And being thin, they can be layered easily. Also, many provide sun protection.

"Doesn't anyone else here just lightly spritz their clothes with a spray bottle and shake out the wrinkles?"

I do that - or I hang them up in the bathroom while I shower. The steam does the work for me.

Nope because I don't have a spray bottle with me when I'm traveling (lol). I do hang stuff up either to air out at the end of the day, or in the bathroom to steam a little when I'm in the shower.

<<<so as long as i dress 'neat and tidy' and of course comfortable as i would on a 'day trip' in my own country (subject to the season) we shouldn't cause a 'stir' in italy or our holiday experience wouldn't be deminished by it!>>>

Yep! Don't dress like a complete slouch and you'll be fine! Cover your knees and shoulders when you want to visit churches in Italy. For me, I'm cooler and more comfortable in lightweight, loose pants than I am in shorts (it keeps the sun off my skin) and then I don't have to worry about dress code.

As Suze and thursdaysd pointed out, that one website is something of a joke. I saw plenty of blondes in Italy and they weren't being mobbed with men, nobody was looking at them at all. Wearing pants (even jeans) is completely acceptable.

For Egypt, it was the same thing. Loose cotton/linen pants (make sure they're not see through depending on where the sun is!) kept me covered, but cool and comfortable. I generally wore t shirts. I kept a 100% cotton, very lightweight long sleeve shirt in my daypack to cover my arms when I would be in the sun alot. A lightweight scarf also lived in my daybag incase I wanted to visit a mosque.


For dealing with wrinkles, I simply hung up my clothes the night before and flicked water off my fingers at them a bit before I got in the shower. Between the heat and damp (steam and water drops) most of the wrinkles fell out overnight and while I was in the shower. You're traveling, don't worry about an iron.

Our female tour guide in Egypt wore jeans or cargo-type pants, and 3/4 to long sleeve cotton tops everyday. She had a seemingly endless supply of those beautiful embroidered cotton tops you will see everywhere except hers were often tie-dyed in addition to the embroidery.
Very pretty, casual, stylish, comfortable, cool, sun protectant, and modest.
You'll be packing in and out of buses, vans, etc., tromping around in sandy, dusty places. You won't care about a few wrinkles while you're looking at Karnak and neither will anybody else.

Yes, there is wrinkle free clothing. I have or have had:
Coldwater Creek, Chicos, Eddie Bauer, Gap, Columbia, Eileen Fisher, Nike, it's about everywhere these days. Talbots offering new line too. It's all very thin and therefore can pack much more. Leave home the jeans, sweats, bulky sweaters and anything that takes more than one day to dry completely. Also, see ExOfficio line.

Go through your closet or the store and give your clothes the scrunch test. Many of them are wrinkle free already.

If you want to look pressed and sharp, you can do that too. I have a pair of pants from Coldwater creek with a permanent crease in them. Lightweight yet warm for winter.

If you like long flowing skirts, there's plenty of those that are reversible too. Great for summer, much cooler than pants.

OMG reversible skirts? Where? Where?

I used to have a one-piece black dress that I could wear anywhere anyhow... it died. Now I am searching for a replacement before heading to europe and Morocco. I'm an XL. I plan to try these catalogues having already struck out with the malls.

I did however find a pair of wicking, fast dry, super light weight black exercise pants that should fool all but the most descrimiating eye!

TF

TravelSmith has offers some reversable clothes - tanks, skirts, dresses.

I'll second the recommendation of Lucy.com. In some cases, you can't easily tell their pants were primarily designed for working out. Some of their styles have recently been updated, so it's even more true now.

OK. I bought one of those long reversable skirts at PackingLight.net (they are in my area so I went in person, the people were very very nice!). It's not my style, but for Morocco it is gonna be coooooool, yet meeting the mores. Otherwise I got two pair of non wrinking black pants, one at Penny's and one at REI... And I just bought a light packable rainjacket from Cabella's online for $15.00 that folds up into it's own pocket, but, pursuant to advice elsewhere here, I'm gonna put my heavy books in the pockets to avoid the weight problems for carryons. HAHA! (Wonder if I could wear several pair of shoes....

I used to have a great cotton and acrylic black dress that could go absolutely anywhere dressed up with extras... REI has a few if you are no larger than a 12 or so...

and Packing light has some super gorgeous all weatherish rain coats, that are as light as a feather... I couldn't justify it to myself but...

HTH

TF

TravelinFeet, you reminded me of the opening paragraphs of the Poisonwood Bible. The family is wearing almost all that they own to get on the plane.

Let's talk about packing light
You have the skirt and skirts are good for traveling because you don't have to wash them as much as pants.

How many books are you taking and why?

TravelinFeet: If Travel Outfitters is in your area -- you are in <i>my</i> area

If you didn't see it when you were there, Jon (the owner) does a short packing demo that will really help you.

Other than well-fitting dark jeans (too hot for some climates of course), black washable silk slacks/trousers are my most prized travel clothing item.

thank you all fodorians -

the above comments are a great resource, and I have visited all of the websites listed! many different versions of packing light and many many choices for clothing styles...the reversable skirts are a new thing for us but look great and may be a worthwhile investment! even for home lol

Slowly compiling packing list and tips for these countries and trips in future.

our general concept of how females should dress in each country has changed, and seen through Travellers Eyes. not taking in miss leading information from other sources. Thanks to everyone.

we are thinking of going for conservative patterned pieces or khaki skirts/trousers in Egypt opposed to dark trousers or skirts...but will pack the LBD and black trousers for Italy to 'smarten' things up a bit.

As for books!?!? we were going to take just the basic segments of travel guide/maps that we need and of course our travel documents. A book for the plane that is good but cheap and can be 'tossed' on arrival.

the steaming is a great tip, as we too can not see us carrying a spray bottle in our luggage. mainly because everything will need to be dual (or trio) purpose or able to used three times on our trip to qualify to get into our bags. free steam from the shower seems a low tech way for us!

please keep the comments/tips/hints flowing!

I still don't know what to do about jeans, but am working up my courage to leave them home. After all people existed for millions of years without jeans lol. Instead I'm bringing light weight capris.

My problem is Cannes and Rome, vs Mosques and a desert tour on camels. Some parts hot some parts reeeeeally cold (sleeping in the desert at night).

I added, yesterday, two very thin quickdry wicking layers, a white T shirt and a hooded but dressier light zip up -- things I will use for years ... and figuring that in a pinch the hood can also work as a head covering... I'm going to add one black and white shirt and am done.

I also broke down and bought a 25 incher -- hoping to leave room for purchases! But if I pack and there's a lot of room left, I may yet switch it out for the 22".

It's the "other stuff" that takes up the room. Meds (have to pack them in original bottles which takes up a lot more space than putting them in one container!) and presents for the children in the Berber families (I was told to bring simple things like balls as "they have no toys")

TF