Last week I wrote another piece for Business Insider titled How To Pack A Suit. Which for the full version you can go there (it also includes tips to pack shoes, belts, ties and pocket squares), or read on for an abridged version.
Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure and you have to pack a suit or jacket there are wrong ways, right ways and better ways to do it. The idea is to pack you suit in a way that takes up the least amount of space while limiting the amount of creasing and wrinkling in the suit. And then of course there is the obvious objective to do this with the least amount of effort and time.
Before we get into how to pack your wardrobe, let’s first go over a few facts that will help you keep your expectations reasonable when packing and unpacking. First, packing is not a perfect art, it is impossible to pack, travel and unpack and not have any creases or wrinkles in any of your clothing. One of the most important things to do is the make sure things stay in place. When they are able to shift around a likelihood of creases (and thus ironing) increases. Second, not all textiles are created equal. Certain fabrics will crease more easily than others. For instance, linen will crease just by looking at it, whereas wool is a bit hardier. Also as part of this, it is important to realize that heavier weight fabrics crease less easily than lighter weight ones. For instance, a heavy wool flannel suit will rarely crease whereas a tropical wool suit will crease relatively easily. Third, garment bags are a waste of money. You can pack your suit, shoes and shirts in your normal suitcase and they will emerge in a similar, if not a better state. But enough of this, here’s the best way to pack your suit.
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I re-use the plastic sleeves the dry cleaner provides by folding my clothes while they are wrapped up. Somehow, it minimizes the wrinkles. Not sure how well this technique would work with the way you folded the suit coat, but it would work well for the trousers. I’ll have to try the coat technique though!
I have used several different methods for packing my suits for travel. Your’s is seems to work better than most. It would make a great video demonstration. As it took me a few tries to get the jacket folded correctly. Thanks.
Mark,
Thank you, will work on getting a video out on the topic.
-JLJ