Hit and Run Fashion Tips from England's Midlands | Examiner.com

7/3/16, 12:35 PMHit and Run Fashion Tips from England's Midlands | Examiner.com

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LIFE / STYLE & FASHION / FASHION TRENDSSee also: fashion trends

Hit and Run FashionTips from England'sMidlandsMay 29, 2016

3:11 PM MST

Drizzle across the Midlands, hours knee-to-knee

on the van with the talent, sleeping on the tour

bus, SRO while shooting the show with unfamiliar

equipment (yikes, changing the battery in pitch-

dark balcony!), and the after-effects of massive

When accessorizing for a music tour, the all-accessbadge is all your need

Photograph by Victoria Thomas

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curry-- this is just the beginning of my most

recent journalistic jaunt across London,

Manchester and Birmingham as part of a video

shoot for a Woodstock-era music icon.

But even after decades of covering music and

fashion as a journalist, I learned a few new

things, and must share:

1. Size matters-- meaning, the smaller the better.

Meaning the handbag. Like you, I have a load of

gorgeous designer bags, full grain leathers, and

they weigh a ton. On a whim, I packed a very

small, teardrop-shaped backpack. I know,

ewwww, a backpack. But this one is a bittersweet

chocolate-colored, elegant slip of a thing by

Libaire California, not made for yodeling,

mountaineering, hippie hikes or that kind of icky

thing. Because it is compact and hands-free, it

saved my life when handling the equipment,

running for the train and carrying lots of other

much bigger stuff for the shoot. Often, it was

stuffed with sandwich bags filled with Advil gel-

caps, pooped camera batteries and full data-

cards. Also, pre-moistened towelettes. See

earlier reference to Indian food on the tour bus.

2. Wear pajamas that double as real clothes. I

made a definitive decision not to pack or wear

jeans. Why? They are bulky, lots of seams,

grommets, stiff, and get very heavy when damp.

My American friends found this decision crazy,

but it was a good one. Instead, I wore light,

stretchy, synthetic stuff. Including a heather-gray

long-sleeve pajama tee (mostly cotton, a snap of



Lycra) and matching leggings. When combined

with black leather jacket, black nylon skirt, black

boots, my pajamas passed as "real" clothes. Less

to pack, less to carry, less to wash, fewer

decisions to make as the bus pulls out of

Birmingham.

3. Stretching is always key. Not in the droopy,

Om-ing yoga-sense. I mean fabrics with tensile

strength. Again, i ditched my usual Baroque duds

for an ancient black stretchy trench made by

Express. I wore it 12, 13 days in a row over other

hard-working black separates. The pockets are

huge, large enough for a small water-bottle and a

stack of paper napkins since there's often no

paper in the loo where I was going. And,

because it's tailored, plain, knee-length and

classic, it looked elegant and respectful when

filming at the BBC and other places where locals

look askance at Americans as underdressed

slobs.

4. Trainers -- or enormous, clunky, thick-soled

sneakers-- do not actually work in many physical

working situations. Here in the States, we love

our big, spongy athletic shoes. But the fact is that

they make us clumsy-- not to mention the fact

that they make you look like a freekin' tourist.

They take up precious space in your bag and on

your feet, add super-klutzy breadth and size, and

I find that this slows me down when I am working

on the run. Instead, I wore one of two pairs of

black boots -- not pancake-flat, but with a very

low, solid heel. Yeah, lack of arch-support is

potentially a problem when standing for hours on

cement floors. But a sleek, low, aerodynamic



shoe is still essential to the agility needed to do

this sort of work. These were both pairs I've worn

for years, so they're well broken-in and really fit.

5. Long skirts cost lives. As a straight chick in a

macho, he-man working environment, I like to

project some degree of femininity-- but don't

overdo it. One day, I wore an ankle-length

lightweight black knit skirt over my pleather

leggings and almost killed myself tripping down a

narrow, twisting Victorian stairwell that was slick

with rain. I had luckily stashed a knee-length,

sleeveless, chiffon-y, floaty tank dress which I

wore for the rest of the tour, layered under a

black cashmere sweater and over various black

leggings, woolen stockings and black pants. It's

key to keep your legs free when on the run.

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Victoria ThomasBurbank Urban Style Examiner

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Hit and Run Fashion Tips from England's Midlands | Examiner.com