Some roll, some fold, some cram. Some, the minimalists, limit themselves to whatever fits in a carry-on bag, while others, the maximalists, haul along as much as the airlines allow. At the fall 2018 men’s wear shows at the Pitti Uomo trade fair in Italy this week, thousands of fashion editors, retailers, publicists, photographers, models and occupational peacocks will descend on Florence, second stop on a five-city tour of duty that began in London and won’t end until the last model has made his final runway exit during New York Fashion Week: Men.
Packing for travel is inherently a test of patience, planning skills and an ability to calculate spatial relations. Yet for the guys (and they are mostly men) traveling this circuit, there is the added challenge of choosing garments to carry them through a month of shows, designer meetings, buying appointments, dinners, workouts, photo shoots and the mandatory parties everyone loves to complain about — and stuffing it all in a bag. As if that were not sufficiently daunting, a further consideration raises the degree of difficulty: dressing for Instagram.
Here, a handful of seasoned pros open the lids of their suitcases and reveal their packing habits and travel quirks.
Nick Wooster, design consultant, brand ambassador and Instagram celebrity (@nickwooster)
I’m a disaster when it comes to packing. But I try to make it easier on myself by keeping groups of things — travel underwear, travel socks — at the top of a drawer, and they never vary: three black, three gray, three navy and three white James Perse T-shirts. The shirts are a perfect length, and they go under things but are also good to wear on their own. I also keep underwear ready: Ralph Lauren boxers, never boxer briefs, which are just ugh.
Continue reading the main storyI travel with three Rimowa bags, the largest size, with the option of a duffel because I always collect on the way. I never pre-plan what I’m going to wear. This month I’ll probably take eight or nine or 10 pieces of outerwear, from bomber jackets to a shearling or a fur-lined parka. The heaviest shoes and the heaviest piece of outerwear I wear on the plane.
Pants can always make a look interesting, and this season I went crazy for the Calvin Klein marching band pants. I have three variations. There are also Sacai pants I love — gray flannel with a bullion trim and a self-belt. It’s just the right amount of embellishment, the Goldilocks amount.
If I’ve mastered anything at all, it is how to maximize space. It’s amazing what you can fit. I have a sixth sense of where things are in the suitcases, the T-shirts in this bag, the Oxford cloth shirts in another and the accessories in a pouch from Céline. I can mentally detect when something is missing — a kind of red flag goes up. That’s why I generally don’t forget anything.
Miguel Enamorado, fashion director, Interview (@menamorado)
I try to bring some control and restraint to packing through the power of seven. I pack seven jackets or different pieces of outerwear, seven tops, seven dress pants, seven casual pants, seven shoes and seven wild-card pieces. It can all be remixed since it’s all navy or black. It also helps that my fashion show uniform of designers like Dries Van Noten, Ami, Valentino, Burberry and Phillip Lim all play well together and make outfits that can be both subtle and special, so you don’t end up looking basic.
I let it all go when it comes to accessories because a Loewe pouch, some Saint Laurent sunglasses or a Gucci belt can make all the difference. To add mileage to the seven, I pack as many of these as possible in my two big Tumi bags. In all honesty, though, it’s my Louis Vuitton dopp kit that’s become overgrown and is probably the heaviest piece in my luggage. That and my personal Jiffy steamer, which keeps everything looking fresh and is the one thing I cannot live without.
Cristiano Magni, fashion publicist (@cmagnipr)
I’ve been going to Florence and Milan for as long as I can remember, and I’ve developed a policy about packing. My policy is I only lift weights at the gym. When I travel, I need to be very free and light, so my little Muji carry-on works perfectly. It’s compact, not super-tough and can fit everything I need — that and a backpack. The shoes go in the backpack, and everything else — usually three suits, some unlined blazers from Luigi Bianchi Mantova (because you have to honor your clients) and some pants from PT Pantaloni Torino — fits in the suitcase.
I have all of my outfits planned for each day of Florence and Milan, everything perfectly strategized beforehand. I throw in my white Muji sneakers and some high-top Adidas and a pair of Church’s shoes in case I have to do something dressier. The night before I fly, I take all my products and pour them into travel containers. I travel economy, so I really need to optimize.
Michel Gaubert, sound director (@michelgaubert)
I used to have a whole suitcase full of equipment, but I don’t need that much any more, only a little trolley with the computer, the hard drive, my iPad and a speaker, which allows me to bring more clothes. Because I’m traveling to so many cities, I try to limit myself to just so many sweaters, so much underwear and then a ton of socks. Shoes, I try not to take more than eight pairs.
I have a great Rimowa suitcase I share with Ryan [Mr. Gaubert’s creative and life partner], and we each get a separate Rimowa of our own. The toiletry bags and personal belongings are for the individual bags, and the third is for a mix of our things. Scarves go in my bag because I wear them all the time. Summer or winter, I always have something around my neck.
Coats are the real problem. Jonathan Anderson gifted me this beautiful shearling that looks like blue denim. I haven’t worn it yet, so that is going to be my breakout piece this season. But I also have a coat I love to wear, a sheepskin made for the Mongolian army in the 1950s that weighs about 30 pounds. It’s really too hot to wear on the plane, so that particular coat has a special suitcase all its own.
Josh Peskowitz, proprietor, Magasin (@jpesko)
Winter’s tough, particularly now that I live in L.A. Summer, I try to get everything into one of the really large Tumi bags, the fiberglass-backed one. Winter, I go up to two bags: a carry-on Rimowa and a 125th-anniversary Victorinox. It must have been about 2009 when they brought those out, and they look like you’d keep an antiaircraft missile in one. That bag has been completely around the world with me six times. It’s old and it’s beat down and I don’t care. It’s my baby.
I always try to think about color when I pack for the shows. What goes with a lot of indigo? Black is really chic, and there are the auburns and brick colors I love and the burnt siennas. I don’t plan outfits, per se, but I do think it through. Sometimes I pack loose, but generally I roll everything. I’m a big roller. I don’t know if it saves space, but in my mind it does.
Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus (@brucepask)
My packing method has become a system. I don’t pack a ton. I have a Globe-Trotter trunk and a big Tumi nylon spinner. The Globe-Trotter is the smaller bag, and all the underpinnings go in that — and maybe a coat or two. It doesn’t have all those clever partitions and pockets and things, so I leave that as is rather than packing and unpacking it. It’s like a dresser. I’ll put sweaters and suits and coats in the Tumi. I also have a carry-on that’s for things I’d be inconsolable without if they were to go missing, things like my vintage 1998 Helmut Lang raw denim jacket.
I also pack a complete outfit for the day of arrival because I often go straight from the plane to a show. My wardrobe at this point is a bit like Garanimals — different combinations of the same pieces in shades of navy and gray. Each city has its own character, and I try to follow its character. In London, I’ll break out the jumpsuit. Milan has more of a sartorial vibe, and so on. It’s not any big adjustment.
I do have three packing quirks that are quite specific. When I’m packing, I iron everything first so it’s all ready to go when I unpack. I learned to iron on set during photo shoots, and over the years I’ve quite perfected it. Also, I always bring a travel iron because European hotels tend not to have them. The other thing I do is wait at the airport check-in desk until I see that the bag is on the conveyor belt. I’m polite about it, and I think it’s being diligent as much as O.C.D. People don’t realize this, but most bags go missing at the point of departure.
Nick Sullivan, fashion director, Esquire (@nicksullivanesq)
I wish I had a system. I pack suits and jackets and maybe two topcoats, but that’s about it. I buy lots of Uniqlo merino roll-necks. I end up wearing three identical pair of jeans day in and day out. One silly season, I found I’d packed four pairs of suede shoes, and it rained. I have sneakers in case I’m ever near a gym, one pair of boots and a pair of dress shoes. I used to do shoe trees, but for two weeks I feel the shoes can have a holiday.
I have a Rimowa suitcase that’s shaped like a coffin. In cross-section, it’s almost a cube. For some reason, it just works. There is one very specific thing I do before show season, which is use the excuse of travel to have my shoes resoled and to mend my clothes. I learned how to sew by making clothes for my G.I. Joe. In the U.K. they were called Action Man, and my mum taught me. I’ve sewed on pockets that have pulled off, and last night I sewed some World War II buttons on an old Jil Sander peacoat, which I enjoy doing even knowing no one’s going to see it but me.
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