Duck Fat vol. 64

Girl, you pack too much...

If you’re not in the mood for someone talking about a bunch of clothes right now, that’s more than understandable. I found this piece really helpful this week for giving me a sense of hope about the world, so feel free to read that instead if that’s what you need. Particularly loved this quote: The wall looks permanent until the day it comes down. So it goes with all institutions. They are not immutable fixtures but human creations, designed to solve the problems of one era and replaceable when they fail the next. Until next time, friends.

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Alright, I am back from two weeks in Tokyo¹ and thought it would be fun to do a lil packing/outfit post!² I am zero percent a packing OR Tokyo shopping expert³, but I am very jealous of all the cool substackers who posted fun EOY wardrobe tracking graphics and I honestly think this is how that desire has manifested itself. So with that context, let’s get into it!

Packing Prep:

I made a packing list beforehand and then…ignored 75% of it. Predictable.⁴ Below is everything I packed, along with # of wears.⁵

I did not bother counting accessories/shoes because…I am lazy.

Some things I kept in mind while packing:

• I would be checking a bag, and a bigass one at that. I only brought the bare minimum (clothing- & luggage-wise) last time around and that caused issues on the return trip I didn’t want to repeat.⁶ We can learn and grow!

• We were staying at my partner’s parents’ house in the mountains outside Tokyo. So despite the weather apps all showing 50-60F temps in the weeks beforehand, it would feel colder.⁷ I knew early on I wanted my biggest wool coat that allows for ease of movement even when I’m layered to the gods, but was also worried about rain. And I wanted mid-layers like a lighter “fun” jacket/a heavy-duty sweater I could wear as a jacket on warmer days.

• I did not want to wear anything with an uncomfortable waistband. Full stop.

• We had some family holiday stuff that would require ‘nicer’ outfits.

• I have bitch-ass feet that genuinely cannot handle walking around for 8 hours without heavy-duty support, so I knew anytime we were going into the city I would be wearing my Keens. I do not love sneakers and am resolutely un-gorp-y, so I struggle to style these in the best of times. I realized midway through packing that I would never feel comfortable wearing them with the slim Nudie jeans I’d planned to take⁸ & I needed all bottoms I brought to make sense with these sneakers, so plans changed at that point.

• Maximum layering capacity! Because cold.

• Cozy house clothes are a requirement for me when traveling.⁹ I hate wearing my outside clothes around the house, whether or not it’s my house!

• I feel naked without my basic/everyday jewelry, and wanted a few dressier pieces for family events/New Year’s.

What I Wound Up With:

• 3 t-shirts, 2 tanks, 2 long-sleeves crewnecks, 2 turtleneck shirts

• 3 jackets

• 1 oversize wool sweater, 1 turtleneck sweater, 1 v-neck sweater, 1 crewneck sweatshirt, 1 button-down

• 1 pairs sneaker, 1 pair boots, 2 bags, 2 hats, 1 pair leather gloves, 3 scarves

• 2 pairs pants, 1 skirt, 1 pair sweatpants

Alright, what did I actually wear though???

I didn’t really plan this post out beforehand and I am definitely still a bit jet-lagged¹⁰ so there are indeed outfits missing, but the vibe was basically layers, layers, layers!

These emojis were funnier before I removed the background from pics.

And I wore some variation of Big Coat+Big Scarf+Black Pants so often it gets it’s own gallery:

It just works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Most shocking thing was that I basically never wore the t-shirts/tanks, not even my beloved KStew t-shirt.¹¹ And I still did not pack enough warm-weather gear¹² - I wound up buying a pair of cotton leggings from Muji and an aggressive amount of Uniqlo heattech shirts to layer with, only one of which stayed in its packaging!¹³ Also it never rained so I did not touch that rain jacket once - luckily it packs to near-nothing so whatever!¹⁴ But that suede jacket, while awesome, took up far too much room for the measly 2 wears it got. Also, why did I bring 3 turtlenecks - how many necks do I have?¹⁵

Biggest win was, anticlimactically, the Keens. They did indeed prevent me from falling apart, and being essentially forced to wear them a ton helped ‘break the seal’ on styling them for my anti-sneaker-pilled brain.¹⁶ Other biggest win was probably my giant La Ligne sweater & lil ol’ sweatpants. They barely show up in pictures but I not only wore the sweater on both flights, I was in the sweater + sweats every morning and night around the house (and on days we stayed home) trying not to freeze my butt off!¹⁷

What I was actually wearing the vast majority of time...

Findings:

• I am still a vibes-based dresser/packer

• I remain incapable of packing the “correct” amount. I can only either severely under- or overpack ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• After being forced to limit my clothing options as a Yout,¹⁸ I may well never enjoy a “capsule wardrobe” moment again. I was in fact greedily dreaming about all my shit at home pretty much the whole trip, despite having too much clothing with me!!

Alright, how do people end these posts?

In conclusion…Happy New Year’s!¹⁹

OK, next post will be about what I bought/a mini resale report! Or I will forget IDK we shall see ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Great sales pitch, come back soon!

1. And extremely jet-lagged as I write this!!!! Woohoo, let’s see what happens.

2. And if this is not fun for you, come back next week and go enjoy some non-screentime activities or something! In the meantime, please direct all complaints to the DF complaint dept.

3. Honestly, Irene Kim covers both these things so well - I used her Tokyo shopping guide more than once. Endlessly elite subscribe!

4. This is also something I struggle with for outfit planning. I’ll come up with a (genuinely sick!) outfit beforehand, then in the morning go in 300 different directions and wind up with an entirely different look …and am ofc late ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

5. Including our 2 travel days, and days we stayed home.

6. I basically had to steal my partner’s spare duffel bag to fit all the goodies I brought home on that trip…he was not amused.

7. I made this mistake on our last trip there (in the spring/ostensibly nice weather) and did not want to fall for it again!! And yet I was still cold as hell, despite it not being nearly as cold as NYC most of the time. Damp cold is a trickster!

8. And take on pretty much every other trip. My Nudie jeans, my lace-up boots, and a comfy sweater or lil sport coat is one of my comfort outfit templates (the other is basically my airplane outfit from this trip). No joke, I put them on my first full day home just to bum around the house. What can I say, I missed my babies!!

9. And when stationary…

10. How am I still waking up at 4AM??

11. Hell, the raglan long-sleeve only has a high wear count because I co-opted it for PJs. op reiterate - cold as hell, even under two quilts.

12. Damp cold!!!

13. Ostensibly to replace the 6 heattech shirts from 2018 I had to donate this year because they were for a body that weighed 40 lbs less and it just wasn’t working anymore…but I genuinely did not need to buy so many replacements! I got swept up in the heat of the moment and this is probably my only actual shopping regret of the whole trip. To further discredit myself in your eyes (or earn back respect, depending on your vibe), I knew all the words to Heat Of The Moment in grad school and publicly serenaded an ex through their window (with the help of a friend hiding behind a tree clapping at important intervals obv). Whatever, it worked (…temporarily).

14. Why I decided to pack it in the first place!

15. And then buy one more which I wore as many times as the other 3 combined…plus 3 scarves. Do I have some previously undiagnosed neck psychosis?

16. I hope!

17. That sweater is so good. One time when I was sick for a week, I basically only wore it and these same grey sweatpants just to lay in bed because it’s just so comfortable, cozy, and good at temperature regulation. Mine is second-hand, so no idea if the current iteration is as good but if it is, damn, worth the actual firsthand price maybe? I should have been sick of this thing when we got home this week, and instead I wore it out on my second day back lol. Reigning champ!!!

18. I was splitting time btwn. the US & Sweden for a few years and basically felt like I never had what I wanted to wear with me at any given time #trauma

19. Call that a callback.