Guest User

February 26, 2015

Jetset Style

Jetset Style :: Jean Jackets

Guest User

February 26, 2015

Jetset Style

[trip style = any]

I was recently discussing packing techniques with a friend, who was setting off on a five-week trip to Hong Kong, Perth and Bali, when she told me she's not bringing a jacket. "Not even a jean jacket?" I asked. "No!" she replied, after which we discussed that we always pack a denim jacket no matter where or when we travel.

Jean jackets are, of course, the Official Jacket of Travel™. I'm only partially joking as the two things you're guaranteed to find in my suitcase are jeans and a jean jacket no matter where I go. It truly is the all-season staple that survives all trends and thrives in all climates.

Speaking of trends, if we can learn anything from fashion week runways and street style this year, it's that denim is back: denim on denim, colored denim, printed denim, ruffled denim and oversized denim. While you can never go wrong with a classic look, the biggest trends in jean jackets this spring are distressed and embellished denim.

Styling tips

While the clock runs out on winter, transition your jacket to spring by layering it under a wool coat.
Add dimension to an all-black or all-white look with a denim jacket.
Channel Kelly Kapowski in a cropped and colored jean jacket.
Add structure to a dress or feminine skirt with a cropped or oversized jacket.
Roll or scrunch up the cuffs for a casual, relaxed look.
Button up the jacket all the way to wear it as a shirt.
Pair a denim jacket with heels and a bold clutch for a polished look with personality.

GUYS :: Layer a denim jacket under a tailored blazer or over a chunky sweater. Wear it with anything from wool pants to navy chinos, with a buttoned shirt or a Breton striped tee.

Left to right: Acne Studios tram bleach jacket, Zara oversized denim jacket, Madewell the jean jacket, Current/Elliott the oversized trucker jacket

Left to right: APC brandy jacket, J Brand x Rob Pruitt hand-painted jeans jacket, Etoile Isabel Marant abril embroidered jacket, Lee denim jacket rider slim fit

This post is written by Trip Styler's Assistant Wayfarer/Editor Heather.

[streetstyle photos via collage vintage, stockholm street style, we wore what, majawyh, wylde splash news, elle.com, style.com; menswear photos by tommy ton & robert spangle]

Trish McCloy

February 24, 2015

How To

UP Your {INSTA} Travel Photo Game

Trish McCloy

February 24, 2015

How To

[trip style = any]

I recently read an article in AFAR about how to UP your Instagram game. In it, the travel mag's creative director, Elizabeth Spiridakis Olson, shares her tips for achieving ace snaps every time.

Last night I was going through my photos of Australia from a few years ago, and I realized it would have been nice to have known a few of these tricks back then. I'm not sure how you botch photos of one of the world's most gorgeous beaches, Whitehaven, but I did.

Elizabeth {@white_lightning} is a triple-threat. Before working at AFAR, she was the art director at Bon Appetit. With her love of travel, food and vintage fashion, her photo advice is totally trip styled! Here are three of her tips, plus a few additions from Trip Styler HQ {@tripstyler}.

Steady Yo Self
"Steady your hand and use the auto-focus lock {hold your finger down on the frame}. Crisp and sharp photos always looks best, unless the blur or action is intentional. Take the extra three seconds to make it perfect."

Trip Styler Tip: In addition to pressing the auto-focus lock every time, we also play around and shoot about 20 photos from various angles to get the best shot.

Think Outside the Insta App
"Take the photo with your camera, then use editing software...I DO always shoot in the square though, because then the ratios are the same as they are in Instagram...The most valuable new tool in the Instagram app {to me} is the adjust tool, which allows you to make vertical and horizontal perspective adjustments. This will help you a ton if you want perfect lines and angles, but aren’t the straightest shooter."

Trip Styler Tip: Angles are uber important. We love going back to geometry class to perfectly align our photo in the frame.

Go Natural
"Natural light is always best; backlit is almost never great...As for no-nos: In most cases candlelight, dark bars/restaurants, a low-light lamp, etc. will not yield the best results. The photo will likely be blurry and hard to read."

Trip Styler Tip: There are SO MANY instances when we want to capture a candlelit moment or a delish dish in a low-lit room. While I may immortalize the moment to remember the details later, I'll never publish the photo. You have to have the right light.

[top photo by @tripstyler, all others via @white_lightning's instagram]

Guest User

February 19, 2015

Camping & Glamping, Active & Adventure, Spotlight, Weekend Getaway

Joshua Tree

Guest User

February 19, 2015

Camping & Glamping, Active & Adventure, Spotlight, Weekend Getaway

[trip style = active & adventure + weekend getaway]

It's hard to explain Joshua Tree to someone who's never been; it's a magical desert landscape that must be experienced because words can't describe this strange and surreal corner of the world.

"Somewhere in America, about two and a half hours inland from the Los Angeles sprawl is another America, a stranger one. There's a long tradition of people coming out here to get away or to simply get weird. And once you're past Palm Springs and into the high desert, people start to vibrate at a different pitch than they do elsewhere." [No Reservations: US Desert]

Joshua Tree is a dusty and desolate community about an hour from Palm Springs, where new age spiritualists, artists, musicians, hippies, hikers and even Marines (thanks to its proximity to the world's largest Marine base) coexist.

Neighboring Joshua Tree National Park houses the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and is known for its eponymous trees, ancient rock formations and pop culture prominence. You may remember the episode of Entourage in which the gang took a trip to the park for another type of "trip" on a search for clarity. And I have to mention U2's iconic album, The Joshua Tree, which was inspired by American desert landscapes, physical as well as metaphorical and spiritual, though not Joshua Tree itself. Bono chose the title on a trip to the Mojave to shoot album photos. The band came across a single Joshua tree about 200 miles from the park and the tree inspired the title and the album packaging.

Legend has it that Joshua trees were named by Mormon travelers in the mid-19th century who believed the trees looked like Joshua lifting his hands in prayer. These Dr. Seussical trees can live, incredibly, for hundreds of years.

Driving through Joshua Tree National Park

Visiting Joshua Tree

After three visits to the 800,000-acre park, I've barely scratched the surface and have kept primarily to the paths well traveled. While it's an excellent day trip from Palm Springs, to really experience the park, you need to camp or stay nearby.

If you only have a day, enter from the Joshua Tree gate and explore Jumbo Rocks, Arch Rock, Cholla Cactus Garden and Keys View. The high desert is known for its extreme weather, so remember to pack accordingly {good shoes, a hat, an extra layer, lots of water}. A one-day vehicle pass costs $15.

The Shadow Mountain Band at Pappy & Harriet's

Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace

Drive five miles off Twentynine Palms Highway, down a winding, lonely road, and you'll feel like you've traveled back in time to the Wild West. Built in the late 1940s by Hollywood stars like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, Pioneertown is an 1870s western town that served as both a film set and a small community with a motel, a bowling alley and a cantina. While the film crews have long departed, the cantina remains and houses an epic roadside bar that promises "live music, great barbecue and good times."

I loved this desert watering hole so much that I visited twice on a trip to Palm Springs earlier this month. The perfect place to cap off a day at Joshua Tree, listen to live music, order a bourbon and eat a rack of ribs with fellow hikers, LA hipsters, bikers, baby boomers and desert dwellers. If you want to sit and eat, reservations are recommended on weekends {there was a two-hour table wait on the Saturday night we visited}. Pappy & Harriet's is a come-as-you-are bar that might be my new favorite place.

This post is written by Trip Styler's Assistant Wayfarer/Editor Heather.

[photos by @heatherlovesit & @graceyvr]

Trish McCloy

February 17, 2015

Travel Beauty

Travel Beauty :: The Do-It-All Cream

Trish McCloy

February 17, 2015

Travel Beauty

[trip style = any]

When I'm on the road, any toiletry that performs double- or triple-duty is a winner in my books—I mean bag. However, it has to be fabulous on all fronts.

A few months ago I read about a French-made creme-de-la-creme everyone from Jane Birkin to Karlie Kloss uses in their arsenal of beauty musts. Enter Embryolisse Lait‐Crème Concentré. Not only do these tastemakers and jetsetters wear it in their everyday life, they don't leave home without it. Think of it as LBD of toiletries.

Curious how one product dubbed the "24-hour miracle cream" by beauty insiders could have such a cult following, I ordered two tubes so I could test it at home and on the road. Five months later, I use it, Mr. Trip Styler uses it, and Baby Styler uses it. We don't travel without it.

As an ultra-moisturizing cream with a dewy-to-the-touch texture and hint-of-rose scent, you can use a little as day/night lotion, a lot as moisturizing face mask {ideal for après-flight or to rehydrate in dry climates}, as primer for your sunscreen or make-up, mixed with foundation for a light glow, or as make-up remover at night.

Since a little goes a long way, I use it on my body as well as Baby Styler's, and I rub any excess in my hair to tame flyaways and give it a slight sheen before walking out the door. In case you were counting, that's nine ways to use one tube.

Trip Styler Tip: It's RARE to find a good hotel moisturizer. Most—even at the five-star properties—are heavily watered down and leave skin coated versus nourished. Of the hundreds of hotel stays I've logged around the globe, there is only one hotel moisturizer I like {Bliss Body Butter at W Hotels}, so 99% of the time I coat myself in Embryolisse.

Around since 1950, it's also pretty simple stuff. This cruelty-free do-it-all cream is made with shea butter and emollient oils and formulated without parabens, sulphates or phthalates so you can feel good about putting your best face forward and not weighing down your traveling beauty bag.

[photos via @tripstyler and online]

Trish McCloy

February 12, 2015

Beach & Sun, Active & Adventure, Camping & Glamping, Roam+Board, Weekend Getaway

Roam+Board :: Wya Point Resort

Trish McCloy

February 12, 2015

Beach & Sun, Active & Adventure, Camping & Glamping, Roam+Board, Weekend Getaway

[trip style = beach + weekend getaway + glamping]

What
Sitting in a coastal rainforest bordering the Pacific Rim, Wya Point Resort rendezvous you with nature in a way very few stays can. And while the forest-meets-beachfront location is one of the eco-resort's crowning glories, its connection to Canada's wild goes beyond the area's physical features. To me, it has to do with the owners, the Ucluelet First Nation, who have a strong and longstanding reverence for nature, and understanding of the land.

Counting a flock of campsites, 15 yurts, nine lodges and a bevy of private beaches under its wing, the 600-acre Wya Point Resort is a haven; the kind of place where you write a novel, watch the waves, walk for hours or wear the same sweater four days in a row.

When we arrived for our weekend stay at the end of January, the sun was starting to set, bathing the resort’s private beach in a rose, blue and golden light so complex it would be difficult for Pantone to capture the color in a chip. So taken by the light peeking through the old-growth trees towering over the Pacific Ocean, we ran to the resort’s sandy cove before even setting foot in our oceanfront lodge {see photo below}.

Inside each cottage, built to LEED Platinum standards, it feels like you're still communing with the outdoors. The post-and-beam timber-frame construction lends the look, feel and smell of the forest, while gallery windows facing the Pacific provide a wide-angle view of the waves. Because of the resort's proximity to the beach, the sound of the sea never escapes you; at night I fell asleep to the tide rolling and retreating up and down the beach.

In the quietness of this moment, I was struck by the privilege of weekending on the Pacific Rim. To quote a line songstress Sarah McLachlan mused when gushing about the region {where she has a vacation home}, "it doesn't get more West Coast than this."

Trip Styler approved.

Where
Located in Ucluelet, British Columbia, five hours from Vancouver {YVR} by car and a trip aboard BC Ferries, connecting the mainland with Vancouver Island.

When
All year.

Trip Styler Tip: Don't discount winter, aka storm-watching season, as a 'cool' time to visit. Watching the waves and wind rock n' roll is the ultimate West Coast experience.

Who/Why
Ancient trees ground you. The ocean lulls you. Wildlife invigorates you. The wild moves you.

Cost
Rates start at $115 per night for the yurts, and $169 per night for the lodges, and include WiFi, free parking and a serenity-now sunset view.

Photos