Looking for the perfect travel outfit? Here’s how to upgrade your look
The right outfit will make your day go better. This starts with nuts-and-bolts functionality: shoes that can get you to the day’s step count without blisters, that kind of thing. But there is way more to it than that. A good outfit makes your day better in less obvious but equally powerful ways. It smooths your passage through the world. When you walk into a room, before you say a word, good clothes are a charm offensive.
Take, for example, the perfect travel outfit: that it has to be comfy is nonnegotiable, obviously. And it needs to be made up of layers that will flex to accommodate changes in temperature. It must be reasonably hardy against smudges and creases. And if your destination is a holiday, it needs to be made up of pieces that will make themselves useful in your holiday wardrobe. Logistical stuff, all important, which I will return to in a moment.
But it is expedient for a travel outfit to look good, too. Do you remember when looking SFU – suitable for upgrade – was a thing? The idea was that if you were catching a plane then you should dress to impress the check-in desk because you might get yourself bumped up to business class. Nobody talks about SFU any more. I expect check-in software has evolved algorithms to filter and rank passengers, and the days of an upgrade being based on whether someone likes your shoes are over. Nonetheless, dressing SFU – I don’t mean in a designer-luggage way, just a well-put-together look – can make your day easier every bit as much as comfortable shoes or a drawstring waist can.
The upgrade analogy sounds mercenary, but the clothes you wear affect how people react to you. This is about human transactions, not financial ones. A day when you are travelling is the sort of day that the kindness or otherwise of strangers can make or break. The sort of day when you cross paths with people who make split-second decisions about, say, whether they move their stuff so you can have a nice seat on a train, or whether they tap you on the shoulder and tell you that your bag has come unzipped and your wallet is about to fall out. This isn’t about dressing to impress – it’s about dressing in a way that makes people minded to see you, to feel comfortable with you, to like you.
That travel outfit, then. Ballet flats are a good start, fashionable again now, and with a polite, won’t-recline-my-seat-fully-without-asking kind of energy. Out-of-office trousers that are relaxed but not scruffy – you are not going to whip your laptop out and start leading a meeting on Teams, but neither are you going to get drunk and try to recruit fellow passengers into a conga. A T-shirt under a shacket. A shacket is super useful on holiday. It is kind of like a denim jacket, but a bit smarter and easier to roll up and stuff into your bag if you get hot. It can be a top layer, or a bottom layer under a jumper, or worn as a shirt on its own. It makes you look more dynamic and more fun than a cardigan does.
A comfortable pair of cushionedsole ballet pumps, an elegantly tapered pair of joggers, the right weight of layers on top. This outfit is good for morale. A good look wins people over, just like a smile or saying please and thank you does. Good manners get you a long way in life. And the right outfit gives you a head start.
Hair and makeup: Carol Morley at Carol Hayes Management. Model: Aster at Body London. Jacket: John Lewis. Top and joggers: The White Company. Pumps: Fitflop. Bag: Jigsaw. Earrings: Astrid and Miyu
Ballet flats are fashionable again, with a polite, won’t-recline-my-seat-fully-without-asking kind of energy