The dress I'm wearing all over Europe

I cannot remember a trip for which I have so spectacularly mis-packed. Not enough warm clothes, not nearly enough nice dresses, WAY too many workout clothes (oh, delusion). We bought new things to keep us warm in the UK, and then, when we were feeling weighed down by our suitcases in sunny Italy, sent them all home, including my raincoat and ALL my pants except one pair of jeans. Then we went to Germany. What do you know, it's cold and rainy here. Sigh.

When my jeans aren't working overtime, I've been wearing this dress as much as possible.

I'm not really a long dress person (I didn't even wear one at my own wedding), but it turns out that a black maxi dress is the perfect travel piece. It looks equally chic on the beach or at the opera (mine saw both Rheingold and Siegfried). I imagine if you were one of those women who's a genius with accessories you could create lots of different looks with it. I am decidedly not one of those women, so I've been reliably wearing it with flat sandals and a circle scarf.

As an added bonus, wearing a long dress feels way more glamorous than I thought it would, despite this one being an item that doesn't even need ironing. I also picked up a long orange number at Jigsaw that I can't find on their website anymore—it's been to Figaro and Götterdämmerung this summer. I might be a convert.