In yesterday’s Dracula Daily update, Mina mentions she is “only taking one change of dress”. 1) Was this a common occurrence for short trips or because of the circumstances? 2) Would both dresses be ‘traveling dresses’? 3) I’m assuming one dress means the top-most layer & she packed multiple chemises, etc. Could other undergarments (i.e. petticoats) be re-worn between washes? 4) Would she have been able to launder her clothing while travelling? Thank you.

Good questions!

While I'm not 100% sure, I believe her mentioning that she's only taking one change of dress is because that's such an unusual thing to do. To my eyes, it highlights how quick and desperate her flight to Jonathan is: she's dropping everything and preparing only the bare minimum so she can get to him as quickly as possible. I believe it would have been more common, for a trip all the way to Hungary, to bring the full trunk she's opting to have Lucy keep in readiness for her instead.

Given Mina's practical nature I'm going to assume they're both travelling dresses, but I suspect that could vary from person to person in similar circumstances. Eg she might pack two travelling dresses- hard-wearing materials, colors unlikely to show the soot and dirt of rail travel, skirts that clear the ground, etc. -but another woman might have chosen one travelling dress and one fancier dress. That seems like a more individual question to me.

She would almost certainly pack multiple chemises or pairs of combinations, yes. Anything that didn't touch the skin directly could definitely be re-worn between washes, unless it got particularly dirty (and even then, sponging the hems of one's petticoats and even outer skirts was a common way to remove dirt without a full wash).

As for laundry, Mina likely didn't do it herself even at home- it was quite common to send your clothes out to a laundress, even for middle-class families and individuals. As you can see in Bernadette Banner's recent video, laundry was a strenuous multi-day undertaking back then, which is why people could make decent money doing it as a full-time job. Anyone who could remotely afford to outsource it, did. I haven't done deep research on this, but it's my impression that most hotels of the caliber Mina's likely to be staying at would employ a laundress (or multiple) on their staff to wash guests' clothes.