Two Expert Packing Tips To Simplify Your Travels
If it’s good enough for the military, it’s good enough for us.
Where did you learn to pack? No, really, that’s an actual question I’ve asked myself at times when I wind up stuffing things into a suitcase, generally with no rhyme or reason. As long as I folded my clothes and only put them into the suitcase if they were clean, I knew I was doing better than the guy who lived across the hall who wadded all of his shit up. But then I started working in fashion.
When you work in fashion, you see quite a bit of things. Crazy expensive bras, maybe a naked model or two, and people who have become quite efficient at traveling with as much stuff in as little space as possible while at the same time preserving the pieces as much as possible. It’s from those people that I’ve picked up two tips that stay with me to this day.
As Maxim-collaborator Ernest Alexander is an avid traveler himself (he plans a trip about every two months to somewhere new) we used our recently released capsule collaboration of bags and small leather goods along with some of his pieces to illustrate the tips.
The Roll
I’m not exactly sure who I picked this one up from but when I’m traveling as tight and light as possible, these days I don’t fold; I roll. Yep! Jeans, slacks, t-shirts, they all get rolled into these little cylinders and plugged into random holes of my luggage where nothing else would fit (sometimes even inside of a shoe). It’s recently come to my attention that the tactic is one the military has been using for years, and well; if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.
The Blazer Fold
When I was working for an American heritage brand known for their suiting, I learned this next trick. While they paired it with how to fold the trousers to match (basically you just fold them around the folded blazer) I’ve just taken the jacket tips. While it looks a little confusing, the steps are simple: fold your blazer in half width-wise; turn one shoulder inside out and tuck the other shoulder inside of it; fold the blazer in half length-wise; pack.
Voila. Bon voyage.