Traveling Tips: How to Pack a Suitcase | Kirby Allison

Hi, I'm Kirby Allison founder of The Hanger Project and here at TheHanger Project we love helping the well-dressed take careof their wardrobes.

In today's video I'm going to beshowing you how I pack to travel.

Now packing is a delicate art between balancing fitting as much into your luggage as possible while packing in such a way that you protect your clothing and all of your items arriveundamaged and ready to be worn.

So today I leave for a six day tripto London and Paris and so I've got all my clothes here and I'm going to be showing you howI fit it into my luggage.

Now we all reach a point inour life where we just don't want tostruggle with our luggage anymore and so I've recently upgraded all of my luggage to the Rimowa Salsa Deluxe.

I've got three different pieces fromthem.

I've got their largest carry onpiece of luggage.

I've got a medium check and a large check.

And so depending on how long I'mgone determines which piece I take.

So if I'm going on a domestic tripwhere I'm just going to be gone for a fewnights of course I'm always taking my carryon but if I'm going internationally and I'm going to be taking moreclothes then I'm choosing between one of my two different pieces of checked luggage.

For a trip that's less than a week, I'm going to take my medium and for anything that's longer thana week I typically take my largest piece of luggage.

You'll also see thatwhenever I travel I always make a point todress up in a jacket and tie.

I find that I've just receive betterservice when dressed properly and promise that I even received upgrades solely because I was well dressed.

Secondly it just makes travel more fun.

I pack my luggage in two differentsections.

On the left side which doesn't have the railings from the handles and is the most flat I put all of my clothing and then on the second side the right side which has kind of the rough bottom because of the the handle reinforcements, I pack my shoes and then all my different sundries.

The reason I keep those apart isbecause on the left side I am able to packall my clothing.

I am able to keep it flat and as wrinkle free as possible.

I don't have to worry about any ofmy bulky stuff possibly damaging anything.

And then on the right side I'mpacking my shoes and everything else in such a waythat again my shoes are well-protected but I'm still able to fit kind ofall those random things in there without bothering any of my clothes to theleft.

The other thing that I've recentlystarted doing differently is I am always traveling with my hangers.

And again it just goes back to thisphilosophy of not wanting to struggle wheneverI'm packing.

And so if I'm packing with my hangers whenever I arrive I'm able to just pull everything outof my wardrobe or everything out of my luggage, hang it in the wardrobe.

I don't have to hassle with putting things on or off the hangers or folding things nice and neatly and then second it's just nice to have hangers that fit and that are taking care of myclothing properly.

Now this is something you couldreally only do with the proper hanger like thewooden hangers we sell here at The Hanger Project.

If you were to try to pack with wire hangers I would be too worried about those sharp metalends tearing my fabrics or scratching anything.

So with hangers from The HangerProject this is something I'm able to do.

Now as I mentioned earlier on theleft smooth side of this Rimowa luggage is where I like to put all of myclothes and I'm going to start with mytrousers first.

So the reason I start with my trousers first is because I figured that between the trousers and the shirts, the trousers can take the most amount of weight on top of it without creasing and any unsightly way.

So I flatten these out and what's nice about this large Rimowa is that these can just fit in with just being folded over once.

Now if I'm traveling with my carry on piece of luggage I canactually get these on the left side of theRimowa carry on which is folding you know like this at the cuff so again I really love this Rimowa luggage.

I find that it packsvery easily.

I've got the second pair of trousers from my gray flannel suit.

So again, I'm going to put this in.

Right here so I like to alternate again kind of the direction I packed things just so that itpacks flatter.

Now that the trousers are in I'mgoing to pack my shirts next.

Now as I mentioned one of the things I really love to do is topack with the hangers and it's actually quite easy to do.

What you do is you just slide the hanger into the shirt so that the top of thehook is level with the collar and then you just simply fold your sleeves over and then fold the body of the shirt over once and it fits in perfectly.

OK so next I'm going to pack my second shirt.

On my first shirt my collar wastowards the left on the second shirt I'mgoing to pack it with the collar towardsthe right.

The reason I do this again is just so that those items nest as much as possible and I find that it just allows me to pack everything in flatter.

I'm going to position this, I'm going to fold the sleeves.

I like to flatten these things outas much as possible.

Since this is a French cup shirt I'mgoing to fold that over once and then again I'm going to fold this shirt over once.

There you go perfectly flat.

Again I'm going to drop the hanger into the shirt body and then I fold my sleeves over and then fold this once.

Now one of the things I do is beforeI pack my last shirt, I take a moment and I pack any of the other items in there before I put that lastshirt.

I like the last shirt to be.

I like to have a shirt that I placein last to just kind of seal everything in to this clothing compartment and so I've got the vest that I'm going to wear with mystroller.

I'm going to put this in here.

I'm going to place this with out the hanger just because the direction I placed this the hanger reallywouldn't go.

But as you can see I can fit this in there and nothing wrinkles.

And then what I'm going to do ispack my ties.

Right.

So again whenever I'm packing I'm thinking 1.

How do I pack everything in such away that nothing wrinkles or that I minimize wrinkling? And then 2.

How do I pack things insuch a way that minimizes movement around inside the luggage? So one of the tricks that I'velearned with packing ties is basically I'll pack these kind of in a lattice pattern.

With kind of one over the other.

And what this does is again it just locks these ties in together so that you don't have all your ties moving kind of around in the luggage.

So let's see I've got that.

I'm going to throw my pocket squares and right here.

I've got an undershirt.

I'm going to throw also on top of that.

OK.

And then I'm going to pack my last shirt on top of all this.

You'll see again because I've gotthis shirt going on top of everything, it's just going to again kind of help lock everything in and just protect the clothing from anything that could damage it.

I always like that pack a few extrawhite shirts especially whenever I'm traveling toLondon.

You know there's just nothing moreelegant than a nice white shirt and I find that whenever I'mtraveling I really appreciate my white shirtsthe most because they're just soversatile in how I wear them.

So this is the last shirt.

And then let's see what else I'mgoing to take my socks.

You know I like to put the sockskind of in between the hooks to the hanger.

Again just with the idea of kind oflocking those in so that nothing's movingaround.

And then there's inevitably always alittle bit of void kind of around the edges.

So I pack my socks in kind of in and around that.

But for the most part I think I'mdone with everything here on the shirts.

So I'm going to close this sideover.

And again one of the things that Ireally appreciate about the Rimowa is you've got these little accordion dividers and so it just allows me to synch everything down and it's just going to keepeverything secure and from moving around too much.

So for this six day trip to LondonI'm going to take three pairs of shoes.

I'm going to take one pair of casualloafers which I'm wearing and then two pairs of black shoes bespoke a whole cut seamless and then my bespoke cap toe oxfords.

So the way that I've packaged these is basically I'm going to put everything in ashoe bag but what I like to do is one is off first place the shoe in the Cleverley bag that they came in.

But then second I'll essentially double pack them and what I'm usinghere are The Hanger Project mole skin shoe bags.

And I like these becausethey're the plushest, softish shoe bag and you just are going to have the best protection for yourshoe against anything inside the luggagedamaging that.

So I'm essentially just double bagging these.

Taking the time to snap these closed.

Another thing I really like aboutthis Hanger Project mole skin bag is that it can be tied.

And again this is just going to do abetter job protecting the heel.

And then these bags are alsoavailable in several sizes.

Now another thing that I'velearned to do with my shoes is I alwaysplace my shoes and anything that's heavy that I'mpacking at the bottom of the luggage.

You might not be able to see it but the wheels are on this end.

And so by having the heavy items at the bottom whenever the luggage is upright and I'm rolling it through theairport, the heaviest items are already all the way up the bottom so youdon't have to worry about them falling down the luggage and crunching everything.

So I always pack my shoes at the bottom.

Another thing that you'll see is I always travel with my shoe trees and again because you know I want to be protecting myshoes and so by packing the shoes with my shoe trees I know that even if I've got a lot ofstuff on top of the shoe that the integrity and the structure and the shape ofthe shoe is being protected by the shoe tree.

The other reason I like to alwayspack my shoe trees is because inevitably whenever I'm traveling I'm always doing a lot of walking.

So it's even more important at night to make sure that you let your shoes rest with the shoe trees inserted.

So, I know that shoe trees can be heavy.

You know we sell a travel shoe treehere at The Hanger Project that'slightweight.

These bespoke trees from Cleverley are especially lightweight but regardless of what the weightsacrifice is, I always feel that it's necessary to travel with shoe trees.

Again if you don't have one of our Hanger Project mole skin bags, you know you can double triple bag your your shoes.

I mean again the more protection you have around the shoejust the less you have to worry about itscuffing or anything kind of scratching or damaging your shoes duringtransit.

You know personally I reallyappreciate that piece of mind.

Now since these are so well-packaged I'm going to actually place this fourth shoe and kind of nest it between two of these other shoes.

With the shoes packed, now I can move on to kind of placing everything else in all the kind of sundry items in the leftover space on the side of the luggage.

And again whenever I'm doing that I'm just thinking how do I place these items in such a way that I'mgoing to protect my shoes as much as possible? Now one of the ways that I'll dothat is take you know some of my underwear and some of my other kind of softclothing items and I'll place those on top and kind of around the shoes because again it's just anadditional layer of protection.

I always travel with a MagliaFrancesco travel umbrella.

So I'll put that kind of right here you never know when it's going torain especially in London.

I've tried to travel with a full size umbrella but it's just too awkward getting onto an airplane with a full size umbrella.

So I've just kind of resolved myselfto traveling with a nice travel umbrella.

So we've got an extensive collection of Maglia Francesca umbrellasavailable at The Hanger Project.

You can findone that suits your style and it's a small but subtle way to really add a little bit of flair to whatever you're wearing.

So even in London where I'm dressed quite formally or in New York, it's nice to have an umbrella thatjust is a little bit out there in termsof style and so that's one of the things Ireally appreciate about the Italianumbrellas.

These are the extra shoe trees that I spoke about earlier.

I'm just going to put these kind of in there.

And then let's see I've got my toiletries.

One of the other reasons I reallyenjoy traveling with checked luggage is that you don't have to compromise in terms of shaving.

You know if you're carrying on yourluggage you're limited in terms of what you can bring so you can't bring yourfavorite aftershave balm.

Often times they'll try toconfiscate you know your shave cream.

You certainly can't bring a safetyrazor but if you're checking your luggageyou can take all that.

So if I'm traveling abroad and I'm checking luggage you know I just find that having theright shaving accoutrement whenever I'mtraveling internationally is just kind of a home comfort for me so I always takethat.

So I've got my shave cream.

I've got a shaving brush.

A badger shaving brush and then I've got some of the this is the castle forbes shaving balm which I love.

Now these liquids I always have a few kind of small ziploc bags in my luggage and so I'll make sure that this cap or the top is is closed tightly and then I always put you know these liquids.

Anything that could possibly spillon my luggage I always put it in its own ziploc bag.

Now this I'm going to instead of placing it in thiscompartment I'm going to put this in kind of the zip and again this kind of helps kind ofprotect.

Should this explode this divider is waterproof and would help prevent that.

So here I'm traveling primarily with black shoes.

I'm going to take some black creampolish.

I'm going to put this in its own ziploc bag and then I always travel with wax polish.

So here I'm going to travel with some black mirror gloss because in London, especially in the gentleman's clubs, you know having a properly shined pair of shoes is very important soI'll always take a moment at the end of the night tojust polish my shoes for the next day.

And then I'm going to take a neutralwax polish and again if you're traveling with brown, burgundy.

You can always use your neutral tojust you know quickly shine your shoes.

And so you're only going to travel with one piece of shoe polish I would say just a 50 mL tin of the Saphir Medaille d'Or neutral polish isreally as good as it gets.

So I'm going to put these in a bag again just to protect them.

I'm traveling with a high shinechamois again this is very useful for shining your shoes.

I always travel with one of our medium shoeshine brushes again at the end of the dayI like to buff my shoes brush them out just keep them clean and looking good when I'm traveling.

I've got a small cigar case with two of my rolled Corona cigars.

I'll place that in here.

One of the other kind of tips or kind of tricks that picked upover the years of traveling is that in whatever country you'retraveling to if you're traveling with like Apple products you know go by the store and see if you can either buyer have them give you just one of the little adapters that goes on.

So I've got one of these with the euro adapter I've got onefor the U.

K.

And I just find that it's so muchbetter than using a converter.

I've got the iPhone chargers for the UK and for Europe.

And so again it just saves all those crazy adapters you know you might be used to traveling with.

I've got a travel shoe horn.

I've got one of these in mybriefcase but I also like to keep one of thesein my luggage.

Another thing I always travel with and this is through experience bad experience actually is I always travel with an extra set of sovereign grade shoelaces.

This is actually something youshould just go ahead and put in all of your luggage.

If your shoelaces break while you're traveling you can rest assured it's going to be right before an absolutely critical meeting and you're not going to have anextra pair of shoelaces with you and nobody no shops are going to be open where you can go buyshoelaces.

So this is just something good tohave because if disaster strikes you always want to be prepared.

I like to keep that.

I've got a little travel pouch that I keep my collar stays in.

And then another thing I always liketo travel with is just a spare iPhone battery charger because you know you're out all day.

Especially in this day and age ifyour phone dies it can be rather disastrous.

And then although I've got thewireless earphones for my iphone, I also always travel with a pair of kind of Bose wired headphones and the reason is becauselike on an airplane you still need to plug in.

So these I'll keep in my briefcase.

And then another thing that I alwaystravel with is just a lightweight v-neck sweater and I'll keep this in my briefcase and the reason is as we all knowthat whenever we get onto the airplane it can beabsolutely freezing.

So having a sweater that you couldthrow over easily whatever you're wearing is often alifesaver.

So there we go.

We're done with this side.

I'm going to go ahead and close thisoff.

OK.

One of the things that you'll noticethat I didn't pack in my luggage are my suitjackets.

And I absolutely refuse to pack any suit jackets in my luggage because you're justasking for all of the structure and kind of three dimensionality ofa nice nice suit jacket to really be completely squished out of it so I always carry all my jackets on to an airplane and so I'm going toEurope you know a six day trip.

I'm going to take two suits and jacket.

And so what I'll do is I'll always wear one of them onto the airplane and they carry the other two in a garment bag.

So this is our Hanger Project luxury garment bag it's really oneof the best garment bags in the world.

And one of the things that we were keeping in mindwhenever we designed this was that it could be used for travel also.

So what I'll do is I will take my suits and I'll basically I'll hang two suit jackets on the same hanger.

Right.

And so especially with our luxury kind of wooden suit hanger with the two and a half inch shoulder flare.

You can do this snd the garments are still incredibly well-supported.

Right.

I'll always put if I've got ajacket that's cut slightly larger than theother I'll always put that on last.

And then I'm simply just going toput this onto the garment bag and then fold this in half.

What I'll do is again I'm checking this piece of luggage.

Right.

You're allowed two carry ons.

So I'll take my briefcase with me and then this garment bag will be my second piece.

You can put this either in theoverhead storage or if you are on an airplane and you've got a nice flightattendant you can ask if they'll allow you to hang it in one of the hanging closets.

Personally that's what I always do.

And what's nice about this bag is itcan be folded over and we've got this little tab at thetop that allows it to be easily secured in place.

And so it's just efficient to carry.

One of the other things is if youunzip it a little bit you can carry it underneath the neck of the hangar and it's just very easy to carrythrough the airports.

You've got your briefcase in onehand your garment bag in the other.

Now if you try to carry it on thehooks your fingers will hate you.

The trick to get around that is justcarrying it from underneath the neck of the hanger.

As I mentioned.

you know I always travel with my hangers.

So I'm going to just place kind of the extra hangars that Ididn't use into my luggage.

You know what I might even do istake one of these onto the airplane.

So if I want to hang this jacket Ihave the option to do it.

You'll see that I travel with my briefcase.

Basically I use an overnight bag.

One of the reasons I love using anovernight bag as a briefcase is because it's throw so much great stuff inside that so it's always nice.

I've got my trouser hanger.

I've got the extra shirt hanger forthis shirt that I'm wearing.

So there we go.

So I'm going toclose this luggage.

So I've got my checked luggage.

I've got my garment bag that I'm going to carry on.

And then I've got my briefcase.

And I'm just going to throw thisother hanger in there and these items.

It's going to be quite chilly inLondon and Paris so I've got my top coat.

This is a top coat an old Christian Dior actually inherited from mygrandfather.

And then I'm taking a top hat with me.

Anyone that's ever been in cold weather knows that a top hat really is almost as affective or as important as a top coat tokeep you warm.

And there's no more stylish way totravel than top hat.

So I always take one of my optimose with me.

This is something that youwould absolutely carry on to the airplane and wear it on and then be very careful putting itin the overhead space just to make sure that no one comes in after you and puts anything on top.

If you have any questions aboutanything that I've discussed in this video please ask it in the commentssection below.

Also if you have anything that youcan share with us something that you'velearned over the years or decades of travel please share that also.

Lastly if you like this video giveus the thumbs up or better yet subscribe toour channel and turn on notifications so that you can learn whenever werelease new videos.

And of course make sure you visitHangerProject.

com with to view our full assortment ofluxury hanger's, luxury garment care and luxury shoe care accessories.

I'm Kirby Allison thanks for joining.