by Mike Joy, Community Manager at Couchsurfing
When you’re backpacking, style goes out the window. You may be Anna Wintour in normal life, but while on the road, the only thing separating you from a homeless person is a giant backpack and smartphone.
It can be tough to look back at your pictures from your 6 month trip and not zoom in on your clothing. Fashion choices that seemed so chic and ‘in’ at the time now make you cringe. That is because backpacking style, bred in hostels and local clothing markets, is a world unto its own. One where 16 hour buses and hundreds of mosquito bites are rites of passage.
Below we highlight the top styles you thought were rockin’ on that gap year, but now realize should not have boarded the plane home with you.
1. Elephant Pants
The king of the backpacker style. Were you even in South East Asia if you don’t have colorful printed pants that cinch at the ankle and made from the lightest cotton to ever be woven? There have been nights I have looked around a hostel room and realized every single person is wearing a different version of these—and TBH we all looked cool as hell. So cool that I posted a picture to Instagram. My friends back home were not quite as enthusiastic about my style choice. They don’t understand! I thought. I was wrong. After flying 14 hours back home, making sure they were carefully packed, I have yet to wear them in my own apartment, much less in public.
2. Neon
Nobody loves a good neon more than me. It brings out your tan, it grabs the attention of the cute guy across the bar, it screams ‘I have nowhere to be!’ YES! Let loose! Wear crazy colors! Are you a traffic cone? Are you a highlighter during final exams? You are whatever you want to be! But listen up, that color will bleed when wet and wash out after 2 washes. Cherish it for the photo op it is—but do not expect this to be a permanent fixture in your beachwear wardrobe.
3. Liquor & Beer T-shirts
Flor de Caña in Nicaragua. Chang in Thailand. Budweiser in America. You came, you saw, you drank. We get it. We love it. We rocked the same tank. We had so many good nights playing drinking games with Singhas, or Coronas, or PBRs. How better to remember your time in a country then wear a shirt featuring the reason you don’t remember your time in the country? Wear it loud and proud. But. Like. Maybe just as a sleep shirt…
4. Headbands (in all forms)
Makes sense, hold your hair back and catch the sweat when you walk 3 miles from the bus station to wherever the hell you are sleeping that night. Even if your hair is, I don’t know, half an inch long. I too have rocked the headband-with-buzz-cut-lewk; and I’m not saying there is NO place for a tasteful headband in your normal life, but you all know the headbands I am referring to are not the ones you would wear to that job interview next Tuesday.
5. Bracelets
Oh the bracelets. Every place I have ever been on my travels has sold a bracelet. Maybe it’s twine. Maybe it’s beaded. Maybe it’s human hair. I don’t know what it is. But it seems like such a great memento. And once you have one, why not buy a second. And a third. One for each country you go to! By the end of the trip you have a tan line the size of a yoga mat up your arm and a mess of yarn that never fully seems to dry. They have emotional significance. Cool. They remind you of your one true love from that one beach bar in that one town you can’t remember. Amazing. Pack ’em in your memory book with the love note you wrote them your last night together. That’s where they belong. And if you are trying to think that this doesn’t apply to you because you put them on your ankle and called it an anklet…think again. Same same.
6. Crazy Piercings
You go away for a year and pierce your ears. And your nose. And your belly button. Then you pierce your ear a second time. Then your eyebrow. Then that middle part of your ear. And how about the septum for good measure? Do it, you can always take them out. Sure they may leave a little scar. Or get infected. But you’re young, you’re dumb, you’re a new-age hippie. Just before getting the 4th piercing, think about whether the gauge is really worth it or you’re just trying to pass time.
7. Cut-offs
Repurposing is necessary. You started in Nepal and ended in Thailand. Those jeans can totally become cute shorts! That T-shirt with the neck tear? Make it a tank! Sure, save money, use what you have! But keep in mind your friends back home will not be as indifferent to your style as the 12 other people in your hostel room.
8. Pub Crawl Paraphernalia
No one should be proud of having been on a pub crawl. There. I said it. I do not think I am too good for a pub crawl. I have had MANY amazing nights on pub crawls. Met some amazing people. Took some not-so-amazing shots. I have the photos (and hangovers) to prove it. What I don’t need is the ‘I came. I saw. I crawled’ shirt. Or the ‘Ladies Night Pub Crawl!’ tank. Or whatever hideous color wristband I was forced to wear and kept on out of solidarity with my fallen comrades. It was a great night. It will be remembered (read: not remembered). But don’t keep the free swag. It takes up room and screams ‘I’m 19 and studying abroad!’
9. Swimsuits
When you are at the beach? Yes! Wading through a river? Absolutely. Your hotel pool? Go for it! Walking the streets of Ubud – think twice. Sure, most backpacker destinations have no specific dress-code, but visiting a restaurant in a bikini top or speedo is still not the most culturally appropriate thing to do, really in any culture. And more than a block from a large amount of sand, is probably down right rude.
10. Inappropriate Footwear
I have struggled the most with this one. Hiking boots in Nepal…necessary. Hiking boots in Gili T…lol. Teva sandals on any Island…get it! Teva sandals anywhere else…ew. What are you to do? Buy new footwear wherever you go? Throw away a $90 pair of shoes? Somehow stuff them into your backpack so you can look more ‘in place’ for that judgmental guy in your hostel writing this article? No. That’s not what I want. But what I do want is for us to remember that although anything is allowed off the beaten path. When you have a layover in Paris on your way home, have some sort of middle of the road footwear to throw on so you don’t get kicked out of the Louvre.
At the end of the day though, you’re hot, you’re tired, you’re seeing the world. Wear whatever you want! Help the local economy! Just maybe dress the most—not backpacker—for that trip to the Taj Mahal. You know your grandma is gonna see the picture!