My Travel Shawl: The Best of All Possible
Travel Accessories
Me and my favorite of all travel accessories–my Big Shawl
How a Simple Bit of Fabric Became My Favorite Travel Companion
Wondering about travel accessories for experienced, mature women who travel? OK, you want fashion? You want usefulness? You want cultural respect? Well, listen up, ladies. I’ve got you covered on all fronts.
I think most of us here are old enough to remember that AmEx commercial with the tag line “Don’t leave home without it.” I can still see the face of Karl Malden sternly telling me to put that plastic in my handbag. I don’t have an American Express card, but I do have one of those go-to, always-ready travel accessories I NEVER leave home without. I don’t even think of heading out the door, carry-on at the ready, without a soft, over-sized shawl to accompany me on my trip, no matter the season or where I am going. It’s the most versatile travel accessory I own and the one thing I use almost every day on any trip, anywhere. It keeps me warm on chilly and changeable days; it’s a pillow or a blanket on trains and planes and buses. It’s a beach and pool cover-up, a towel, a cultural emergency solver and a fashion statement.
Recently, I even had a nice-looking young man stop me on the street in Paris to ask me where I bought my shawl because it was so beautiful. How’s that for making a statement? (And for making you feel young and sexy again!)
Why a Big Travel Shawl is Perfect for Older Women Travelers
Of all the varied and fashionable international travel accessories, I think such a shawl is the most useful for women travelers of any age. But for our age group, it is even more valuable. I don’t know about you, but I am a lot less likely than my younger travel sisters to want to walk around Paris in a hoodie on a breezy day attempting to keep warm or throw a gauzy, see-through cotton voile thing over a bikini at the beach to protect me from the sun. And as much as I love the idea of a sarong, my figure no longer gets so excited about them. I want to look good and hopefully fit in with the locals, at least a little. My travel accessory shawl does all that and more.
Your own big travel shawl might be a fine, expensive pashmina or one your mom knitted for you. It might be Neiman-Marcus expensive or street-stall cheap. But trust me, you need one.
A big shawl is great for covering up in a culturally sensitive area.
The big shawl I used as an all-purpose travel accessory on my most recent trip in Europe was made in India, though I bought it in one of my favorite shops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (Chaski’s on Calle Juarez, if you want to know). It is made of viscous, a soft synthetic that feels like fine wool, is warm and drapes beautifully. It cost me about $16US.
The versatility of this garment/wrap/thing is astounding. I even used it one day to carry vegetables home from a street market in Amsterdam when the cheap plastic bag I was carrying broke. If I had a baby, I would no doubt use my shawl to carry the little creature slung on my back, like Mexican women do in their “rebozos.”
How This Came to be My Favorite of All Travel Accessories
I first discovered “the trick of the shawl” as the most perfect of all travel accessories more than 40 years ago. In college, I taught myself to knit. One of the results was an enormous shawl made with two strands of thick, nubby yarn—turquoise and black, as I recall—and knitted on giant wooden needles. It was both lacy and warm, but so bulky I almost didn’t take it. At the last minute, I grabbed it to keep me warm on the plane, thinking I wouldn’t miss it terribly much if I had to abandon it along the way.
I would soon change my mind about that.
That pile of black-and-blue knit became my closest companion in that first trip across Europe. It covered my head in a church in Barcelona. It was an acceptable blanket the night I had to sleep in a park in Paris because friends and I had arrived on Bastille Day and there was literally “no room in the inn.” It was a cover-up on the beach at Zandvoort in Holland, a pillow on a train to Edinburgh, and a dressy wrap for dinner with a very proper English butler friend at Claridge’s in London.
That shawl became my best friend, a physical and emotional comfort on long train rides and lonely nights, my own personal “security blankie.” You can’t say that about many everyday travel accessories.
From that first trip in 1970 until today, I have never traveled without some version of the trusty Big Shawl. And I doubt I ever will.
Keep in mind that women have been wrapping up, keeping warm, covering skin, hiding, and staying sacred in over-sized shawls for a long time, almost since time began. In virtually every period, every culture and every situation, the big shawl has been found useful for all sorts of reason.
In every period, every class, of culture, women have used big shawls to make a statement, among other things.
What to Look for in the Perfect Over-sized Shawl as a Travel Accessory
There are a few special requirements to make your over-sized travel shawl as useful and versatile as possible:
• Does not wrinkle easily. It’s going to be balled up and crushed and stuffed. A lot.
• Does not snag easily. I learned this with that first loose-knit one. You are going to put it through hell and back, and it needs to keep looking good.
• Made from a fiber that will hold in heat. You’ll use it as a blanket, a cover-up on cloudy days or even as a muffler when it’s downright cold.
• Large enough to cover most of your body when you are seated on a plane or train, as a blanket.
• A color or print you love, that makes you feel pretty, can dress up a simple outfit but also does not show dirt too badly.
• A fabric that drapes nicely so it makes an attractive shoulder throw or head scarf when you need to cover up for cultural reasons—or for rain!
• Does not take two days to dry! (I learned this hard lesson with that blue-and-black knit beauty, too.)
• Is not so expensive that you’ll be devastated if you lose it. Just remember the fun you’ll have haggling in a street market or souk for a new one.
So now, grab your big, comfortable, soft, pretty, multi-function travel shawl, ladies. Put it on the top of your suitcase, more easily reachable than all your other travel accessories put together. And sally forth! You are now ready for anything.
Many thanks to my friend Jim Knoch for taking the pictures of me in my travel shawl!
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Travel Accessories
Shawls are so handy, especially when traveling! Janice always packs a few in different colors, which she wears instead of a sweater if it gets cool at night or in air-conditioned restaurants.
Yep. It’s the handiest thing I pack. Shawls are also one of my favorite souvenirs to buy. I can’t wait to go someplace like Turkey or India where the choice will be so delicious!
Love this and those great vintage pictures. Those women never faced a frigid flight and I never leave the ground without a warm and cuddly shawl.
Right, Elaine. Of course, they also never had central heating. But I get your point! 🙂
I so agree! I’m traveling with two in wool challis – a vibrant, colorful paisley and an animal print – on our RTW trip right now. Even though we’re in warm climates where I’m more likely to use a lighter weight pareo, I won’t give them up. They’re useful for almost anything, but a little challenging to keep in place for me. One of the most memorable women I’ve ever had the pleasure of surreptitiously watching in Paris had one similar to yours artfully draped around her in a beautiful breakfast room at Le Dokhan’s Trocadero. I vowed then and there to keep trying.
How do they do that, Betsy, those insouciant French women who always seem to put no effort at all into looking so perfect?
Funny, only yesterday my wife and I were browsing through Alpaca shawls here in Santiago at a market – but none was wide enough to be really useful as a universal travel shawl. It’s anyhow the wrong season to think about one, just coming into summer in Chile, but in general we agree (and I’m male… LOL).
You should buy a pretty one for your wife while you are there. After all… she’s your wife. And it won’t always be summer!
What a wonderful post! They are also great on chilly airlines. Your $16 buy looks fabulous!
Thanks Irene, I can’t travel without it. Yesterday, I wore it to the grocery store here at home!
Love your scarf! On our last trip I brought a very lightweight cashmere pashmina I had received as a gift, and it kept me warm on planes and chilly nights, and covered my head and shoulders while visiting mosques and churches. Sadly I lost it on our last day, but as you say there’s an excuse to buy a new one!
Although the one in the picture is the only one I took on my last trip, I’m embarrassed to admit how many I have in my closet. Next trip, I’ll probably take a couple… but will ALSO be shopping for more. A big travel shawl has become my favorite souvenir as well as my favorite travel accessory!
A good shawl is handy and versatile for traveling. I haven’t found my perfect one yet, but am looking. Love yours.
I’ve had several travel scarfs/shawls during our travels through Central and South America and I trade or replace them when the opportunity presents itself. They’re great for warmth and a change of style or color but also great at blocking the sun, keeping a hat from flying off in the wind and, when folded, a fantastic little back pillow!
Anita @ No Particular Place To Go recently posted…Drivin’ Along in My Automobile … to Puerto Lopez
I’m so glad to hear I’m not the only one who LOVES my shawl for traveling. We Nomad Women know a good thing when we see/feel/use it!
Loved this articl! I have a more narrow black cashmere travel shawl. It can be used as a neck scarf, too, but I really like wearing it as a shawl to keep me warm on the plane and at other times. I also have a turquoise Pashmina that I often take along as well. It is larger and lighter and still warm, and I have worn it to bed when I was cold. And I also almost always travel with a light rayon sarong in my bathing suit kit. The sarong can be used in so many ways that it is a must.
Carole Terwilliger Meyers recently posted…Sights to See: Hallgrimskirkja Church; Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre; Höfði House; Reykjavik, Iceland
Agreed, Carole! And thanks for the compliment. Although I am learning to travel lighter and lighter with age, I think I am going to pack two for my next trip. They are so versatile!
I love the scarf!
Great post! So glad I popped by your blog!