The Perfect Carry-On Doesn't Exi.... |
Functionality and comfort are vital these days, but so is a certain polish. |
A masterclass in packing light. |
Frequent plane travel makes us creatures of habit, and not necessarily good ones. There are those of us who without fail break out our Sunday-best sweatpants and Crocs, hoping perhaps we will be mistaken for ballers on holiday. This is doubtful. There are those of us on the other hand who feel that travel—in any cabin—requires a certain in-flight tidiness, a sense of rising to the occasion. That said, where once in the pages of Esquire we might optimistically have suggested a blazer and tie as a great way to raise one's plane game, modern air travel encourages realism above everything. Functionality and comfort are vital these days, but so is a certain polish. The same goes for your carry-on luggage. In a world of delays, cancellations, and strikes (bonjour, Paris!), it pays to have a system—a consistent template for everything from the clothes you pack in your wheelie (and even the way you pack them) to the bags you carry. It also helps if you have a uniform. Anything that can take the guesswork out of plane travel, or at least the bits you can control, is a good thing. |
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| The MY4810 Cabin Trolley by Montblanc has the quietest wheels I've ever encountered. |
It's taken years of travel to get there, but I always pack more or less the same stuff on every three-to-four day work trip with slight variations for climate, so I'm able to pack it all quickly into the same Montblanc roller bag, the MY4810 (the code comes from the altitude in meters of Europe's highest peak; no prizes for guessing which one). The reason it works so well, apart from having the quietest wheels ever, is that it's made of tough polycarbonate, which makes it both lighter and less susceptible to dents than aluminum. If you read my last newsletter, you'll know I wish it was blue rather than black. No matter. Critically, it's more flexible and much easier to zip closed when I'm trying to cram an extra item in on the way home. I'm on my second one of these as the first finally gave up the ghost a year ago. Fair enough; it had probably done 100 transatlantic flights without a squeak in its lifespan, which makes the long-term investment more than worth it. |
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Better than a bucket: Métier's Closer All Day bag has internal pockets galore. |
The easiest solution to what airlines like to call "personal items" is a big old bucket bag, and I've used one—a voluminous tote—for a couple of years now. While you can throw it over your shoulder and it's great for chucking any amount of stuff in it, it has its limitations. Mainly because it's just too great for throwing stuff in. Mine usually has a floating population of detritus in the bottom from previous trips, making finding the stuff I actually need on the current trip problematic. The solution—I'm hoping—is the Closer All Day bag in suede by London leather specialist Métier, at whose new Manhattan store I was honored to co-host a cocktail last week with founder Melissa Morris and another Londoner of note, tailor Charlie Casely-Hayford. |
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A clever zippable sleeve keeps it secure on the handle of your roller bag. |
Métier is designed in the UK but made in Naples using the finest leathers on the market, most of it from the Italian leather-making hub Scandicci, not far from Florence. Luxury box checked. Now for the function. The Closer comes in supple calf or suede which makes it easy to—gently that is—shove it under the seat in front. When you're on the move, the zippable slot in the exterior pocket on one side allows you to slide it over the telescopic handle of your wheelie, which is a genius trick to stop it tumbling off. This is not unique to Metier, but it's a first to me. On the inside it has multiple pockets conceived for specific things like ear buds, books, laptops, and so on. Unlike a tote, it's not enormous, which means a certain rigor is required when packing it. But all those pockets mean—if you can remember where exactly you stashed your things—you can find them even without even removing your eye mask. |
A few in-flight essentials. |
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Brave Pudding's booties are the happy medium between socks and sneakers. |
And there's still plenty of room for the essentials: Brave Pudding's knitted booties (the perfect halfway house between sneakers and socks, and better than both); a cashmere beanie from Johnstons of Elgin (a better sleep aid than any pill); a good book (currently Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient and also a sleep aid); and, stretching the point, the Jet Lag Sandwich, a bundle of factory-processed joy bought at Newark before departure and shoved in the fridge at my eventual destination. At two in the morning the next night in some random European city, a humble airport sandwich is just the thing to get you back to sleep when the wideawakeys hit. Trust me, it works, so make space for it.
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| Johnstons of Elgin Lovat Green Cashmere Hat |
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