Mother packer

I have two bags for five countries in eight weeks. What better way than to share this challenge for our special travel issue in YStyle. From muggy Hong Kong, where I visited my dear friend Sameer’s firstborn and saw my favorite married couple, the Jacobs, to sultry Dubai for a housewarming (yes, I’m hardcore), and now currently in India discovering this majestic country, and then off to moody Paris and comfortably depressed London, my favorite place in the world.

It’s easy to go travel crazy. At a luxury conference held here in Delhi by the International Herald Tribune, I almost slipped into a coma as Roberto Cavalli yapped about fashion stuff. I really could not understand for the life of me what he was saying but he certainly caught everyone’s attention when he said, “I love this city, I love Dubai!”

Toto, we’re in Delhi.

I can understand how you can really forget where you are.   The world clock on my iPhone has now increased to keeping up with 10 different time zones, and I now carry my Vonage device around with me so I can make calls without crying to U2 for help to pay for my phone bill and, yes, thank heavens for this fabric called jersey.

I used to have themes for every trip. A weekend in the Maldives can be called Swept Away (Madonnna version) filled with long frothy dresses and silk scarves, a week in the South of France can be called Heroine Chic, wearing tomboyish crewneck shirts with boyfriend blazers, jeans and ballerina slippers befitting an independent ingénue looking for excitement in all the right places, or a month in California can be called Party of Five, filled with preppy essentials where you cry, over soy lattes, about lovers lost.

For this schizo trip I call it Rerun, because, yes, I will have to make basically 25 pieces of clothes work for every weather. I decided to pile up my American Apparel tanks in polar neutrals and neons, my favorite Uniqlo jeans (I refuse to spend player money on jeans and Uniqlo is the best) in dark denim, khaki, black, violet and white anchored by my favorite accessories from Hermés, Target and Mom’s vault. Of course, oversized cardigans from Uniqlo are light enough for balmy evenings in Jaipur and more than enough for chilly nights in Dubai and London. For shoes I have jeweled slip-ons from Rene Caovilla that work for the three long dresses that I brought in God-charmed jersey that works for day and night. I have my ballerina flats in gold, and strappy gold heels from Gucci circa 2005. That’s it! I’m rather proud of myself, especially the European leg of the trip coming in as a surprise from last week. I surveyed my closet and asked my most honest friends how London was (“It’s sunny,”“It’s depressing,” “It’s freezing” and the ever-specific “It’s beautiful!” responses came pouring in the same day) and even checked CNN for the weather — the only thing more schizo than my travel plans is London weather.

So for those traveling, you must embrace the fact that you will repeat. It is a recession, it is chic to repeat outfits. But if you must, keep it interesting. Always have an unexpected accessory that doesn’t “go” with anything except as a statement of some sort, such as my violet jeans (says: I’m adventurous) and my white Hermés belt that is just so cheesy that it goes with everything (Says: I’m gullible). My neon tanks wake up my khakis and denims and, paired with pastel cardigans, the color palette seems so jarring that one won’t have the patience to figure out whether I’m a mess or “adventurous.”

 So have faith in the essentials, believe in color and what doesn’t kill you won’t be considered overweight.