Summer lugging
How to pack like a pro for your holiday
Ihave a favourite airport pastime I’ll call Superior Packer – I’m sure you play this game too, at least when queuing for bag drop with no other means to occupy yourself. The way to win is simple: move through the airport with greater ease than I. Show up at Heathrow for a week-long trip with no more than a handbag and a single wheeled carry-on, and you’ve earned my instant respect. Turn up for the same holiday lumbered with a wheeled cart piled high with XL cases and travelworn duffels, and – well, let’s just say I can’t help but get a little judgy.
It’s irresistible – even if you’re the kind of woman who packs more pairs of sandals than there are days of holiday (defensible: I wore them all). The fact that there are so many of us languishing in queues and so few of them gliding straight through to security points to the obvious: it’s difficult to get holiday-packing right. And it’s important – critical, even, in an era when forgetting a passport at home can mean your holiday is effectively over before it’s begun – to develop a coherent packing strategy.
Jacqueline Kennedy certainly had one. The First Lady’s packing list for her November 1963 trip to Dallas (the one during which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated) recently resurfaced. It’s a handwritten itinerary of every official event, with notes about outfits and accessories in the margins. Writer Joan Didion kept a list, legendary for its minimalist nature (2 skirts; 2 jerseys or leotards; 1 pullover sweater; 2 pair shoes; stockings; bra; nightgown; robe; slippers; cigarettes; bourbon...) taped inside her wardrobe door during her most intense reporting years. I’m more of an “illegible scrawl on the back of an Ocado receipt” chancer, which has led to more than one last-minute panic for glasses, Kindles and passports. But I’m committed to reforming my ways before the summer holidays.
One woman with credibility in this area is Jen Rubio. The co-founder of Away, one of the luggage companies that has contributed to making suitcases the new it-bags, is on a plane every week and vows she can pack for a two-week trip in one of her Bigger Carry-on cases. “I’ve gone from winter climates to the beach, to hiking trips, to factory trips, all in one carry-on,” she boasts.
Rubio is a fan of packing cubes (try the starter kit from Amazonbasics, £17.99, amazon.co.uk), using these to divide items by category (one for tops, one for skirts and trousers, etc) or different destinations. This week, she flew from her home in New York, to Miami, to London, and the cubes meant she didn’t have to unpack her London wardrobe in south Florida. She insists that folding takes up less space and makes it easier to compress the contents of her case.
The fold-versus-roll debate can be divisive. Thyra Opoku Adjei, a cabincrew member with British Airways, packs a suitcase more than 150 times a year for work, not counting personal holidays. She rolls – “it takes less space and avoids creases” – and recommends creating outfit-burritos to save time when getting ready at the hotel. Expert packers like Adjei know to make the most of spatial voids, packing pants, socks and jewellery inside shoes, and shoes inside individual dust bags, to avoid dirtying your clothes. (For more of her genius tips, see right.)
And then for the all-important review: Indre Rockefeller, co-founder of Paravel, another of the we-want-it it-suitcase brands, advocates hanging everything you’re planning to pack on a rolling rack or in a clear section of your wardrobe. That way, “you can see it all together and organise by category. You may find you’ve overdone it in some areas,” she says (NB: this is a woman who packed for a two-week Antarctic expedition – in other words, a lot of layers – with just a Paravel Grand Tour Duffel and backpack). “If you do that final review once everything is off the hangers and folded into neat little piles, it’s just too tempting to throw it all in.”
Whatever makes the cut, it’s well worth the five extra minutes of packing time to try everything on before it earns a spot in your final line-up – this is in the name of saving you the grief of reaching your destination and realising that something doesn’t fit.
Enough about how to pack – what about what to pack? “Stick to a similar colourway,” advises Belma Gaudio, the owner of Koibird, the pink-walled, holiday-centric boutique in London’s Marylebone. “So if you’re going to Greece, do a white and blue mix and pack mostly those colours, so you don’t have to take five different sandals.” Ahem.
For Rubio, it’s all about multifunctionality. She always packs her black Nili Lotan slip dress, as she can wear it on the plane (layered under a jumper), out for a swanky dinner or to a work interview, with a blazer. “It fits me, I love it and it works for so many different occasions.”
I have a colleague who insists that poor packing is a symptom of poor wardrobe organisation, but I’d venture that it’s more a matter of lack of focus. Take a page from Jackie’s book and know your itinerary. For beach trips, you’re going to spend most of your time in swimwear, so focus on bikinis or swimsuits that don’t feel like an
afterthought – take a look at Flagpole and Lisa Marie Fernandez in the Net-aporter.com sale.
Dresses are an obvious and easy shortcut. Carmen Borgonovo, cofounder of Borgo de Nor, admits she has an advantage in the form of her dress-focused fashion brand. “You don’t want to have to think about your outfits in the summer,” she says. “You just want to be easy and effortless.”
If kaftans and peasant dresses are your thing, then by all means pack several to layer over all the swimwear. But there’s no need to dress like every other Talitha Getty-alike on Instagram. A kimono or silk pyjama shirt can make a brilliant alternative poolside cover-up, and a turban-knotted headband is a glamorous way to keep strands of hair out of your sun cream.
If you are heading to a sunny destination, tuck a swimming costume and sarong or filmy sundress into your carry-on. That way even misdirected luggage won’t keep you from the chaise longue. By the same token, if travelling as a family, spread items across the cases – if one goes missing, no one will be left stewing poolside while everyone else splashes around.
Most packing wisdom comes from at one point having got it wrong. Ben Gillenwater developed the Packpoint travel packing list app after leaving one too many important items behind during business trips.
The free app generates packing lists based on your destination, the weather, activities and special events planned for your trip. It’s been downloaded four million times since it launched in 2013, simply because even the most fluent list-makers are fallible. “If you make a new packing list every time, you can still forget something basic,” he says.
Thankfully there’s always airport duty free. At Boots’ airport stores, the bestselling products are also some of the most easily forgotten: dental care products, along with deodorants, shampoos, painkillers, tissues and facial cleaners. But let’s say you’re thorough. Comprehensive, even. You haven’t forgotten anything, and you have the un-carry-on-able case to prove it. If you do end up being the sole holiday-maker in your party checking a bag, go easy on yourself. Borgonovo unapologetically packs “five or six” of her printed dresses for a quick weekend away.
“I always allow myself to take a little more than I need, because you never know the mood you’re going to be in,” she says. “The whole point of dressing up for summer is creativity – you need to leave room for some level of spontaneity on the day.”