This week we have an amazing guest blogger: Elizabeth Landers. Elizabeth has been a good friend of mine since forever, and is an extremely impressive human. She has been on the road following presidential candidates for almost two years working for CNN as a producer, journalist, and reporter. She followed both Bernie Sanders and Mike Pence. In the next few weeks she will be moving on to be a White House correspondent with only 5 other producers. Like I said, she is awesome. She has also been in the fashion game way before me, writing/ fashion reporting for The Observer, Yahoo Style, and The Daily Front Row. She also interned at Veronica Beard, yay!
She has kindly agreed to share her fashion packing tips with the Beckett crew, giving some insight on how she managed to stay stylish and classy while doing horribly important things in exhausting conditions.
Shop Liz’s Beckett Picks At The End Of The Blog
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“Girl, how do you PACK?”
That was a constant question from my all-knowing friends for the last eighteen months as I covered the campaign trail for CNN. I’m a shopaholic with a penchant for high heels, which was not conducive with a lifestyle that demanded I carry 50 or so pounds of gear a day, and work 16 hours days, 7 days a week as I chased presidential candidates around the country on their charter planes. Oftentimes I was gone for 6 weeks at a time before I hauled my 60 pound suitcase upstairs at my apartment to switch out clothes. Packing was a pain. I gave up the heels but tried to keep it somewhat fashionable and always classy on the trail.
Chelsea asked me to share some packing tips (and probably to laugh at some of my insane habits) that I picked up after a year and a half of criss-crossing the country. Here’s my go-to list for work trips:
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Buy a big cashmere scarf- it was my savior. I swaddled myself in it. It was a blanket. It was a scarf. It was a hair protector in the snow. It was a wrap for cool evenings at outdoor rallies. It was easily the most-used item in my bag. Always.
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Silk scarves – A good Hermes scarf makes anything look better. ANYTHING. I would throw on jeans, a blazer, a t-shirt and scarf and knew that it was polished. Colorful scarves also jazzed up my mostly neutral and solid-colored wardrobe.
Pin It!We Asked Liz To Play Dress Up For Beckett Insta! Fun Fact: She Wore A Similar Knit Viktoria + Woods Dress On Air With Anderson Cooper!
Knit dresses- A black Victoria and Woods dress that I bought from Beckett, midi-length, subtle blue contrast at the neckline packed beautifully. It was comfortable, flattering, and didn’t need ironing. I wore that for several primary nights, when I knew I would be in the background of live television shots.
Pin It!Pack earplugs- I always carry them in my purse. After attending innumerable political rallies, your eardrums are done. Campaigns blare music before a candidate takes the stage to keep the crowd going. And in real life, they’re just as useful for a screaming baby situation on a plane or a noisy hotel (hello NYC).
Always pack a bathing suit- Some days I would wake up in North Dakota and be in California by the evening as I followed Bernie Sanders around for 6 months. Fun fact: there are a lot of indoor pools in Iowa. And of course the beach in Florida and California. Bathing suits are small. You never know if you’ll get stranded somewhere…
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Opting for flats over heels: As hard as it was to give up my beloved heels, I found some incredible flats that fed my hunger for fashion while saving my tired feet. Animal prints, metallics, and pops of color seemed to always go with everything while keeping my outfits fresh and updated.
Pin It!Add texture with Accessories: In the world of politics, conservative clothing is often the way to go. However, I always need a little pop to keep things interesting. My go to tote, a python perfection, not only carries an endless amount of daily necessities, but it gives a little edge to my sometimes monochromatic look.
Follow Liz’s Political Journey on Instagram: @elizlanders | Twitter: @ELizLanders