I’m moving to London in about five weeks time, to work and live for a year or two. I need to take a few business suits with me for work attire–maybe three or four at first, plus I’ll have some more clothes sent over after I settle in.
My problem is getting my suits to London in a wearable state. In the past, I’ve only travelled for business for short periods, meaning I could carry my jacket on the plane. However, this time I don’t think I’ll be able to sneak an armful of suits onboard for an 18 hour journey.
Is there an easy way to travel with suits without getting them all crumpled up in one’s luggage? Or is it best just to jam them in a suitcase, then get them dry-cleaned on arrival to sort the wrinkles out?
Use a garment bag if you have one. If you don’t, lay the trousers flat, seams lined up and roll them up tightly. For The jacket, lay flat, fold in half and roll that as well. All but the cheapest hotels/motels will have an iron available. If they don’t, Take a long hot shower with lots of steam, hang your stuff next to the shower and then place them in between the mattress and box spring, carfefully laying out any creases. You’ll have creases you can live with. Or just leave them hanging on the towel rack. You might not have the sharpest creases, but you’ll get rid off errant wrinkles.
**Turbo Dog’s ** advice is spot on, IME. Rolling things really does reduce wrinkles, especially with soft-sided suitcases. Folding things flat, even with tissue tucked into the folds, will still result in more wrinkles.
It’s also much easier to remove things and re-pack them quickly during customs searches. Additional hint: gallon plastic (food) storage bags are great for rolled underwear, socks, etc. It keeps them all neatly together, even if they’re pulled out by customs searches, and they make finding things in suitcases a snap. It’s really handy if you’ll be living out of your suitcase in a hotel for a while. It sure makes unpacking easy too.
As funky as it sounds, the bathroom steaming thing actually does work pretty well. If things are badly wrinkled and an iron isn’t available, just hang them on the shower rod, blast hot water into the tub (plugged to retain the water) and then close the bathroom door to contain the steam. By the time the water has cooled down the worst of the wrinkles will fall out.
Otherwise, investing in even an inexpensive garment bag might be a good idea if you can take it as carry-on luggage. Go for one than hangs up, if at all possible. Buy a pack of wrapping tissue and tuck sheets around the folds and into the arms of the jackets. It’s slightly bulkier but not appreciably heavier. But call the airline first and ask if the cabin crew can hang it up for you. If not, squashing it into an overhead bin or a cargo hold will be wasted money and hassle.
Good luck! It sounds very exciting. Keep us posted, hmmm?
Check with the airlines to see if they will have a place to hang the garment bag.
If not, invest in one anyway and, as someone else suggested, fold everything neatly with tissue paper. You can always get them pressed anyway when you arrive.
I might try a hybrid of the above: one suit in a garment bag, which I’ll try to hang up or lie flat onboard the plane; the rest rolled up in my suitcase, to be steamed in the bathroom on arrival.
If you can invest in a travel steamer, they’re really handy. I went on a week long concert tour with a few pairs of linen suits - comfortable under stage lights, yes, but they wrinkle like a bitch. They were packed well enough in a semi-hard garment bag, but a travel steamer really helped me to spiff them up, especially for resetting the trouser seams.
Most of the larger planes I’ve been on have a spot in the front of the plane where the flight attendents can hang garment bags, so that’s probably your best bet. You can always have them dry cleaned when you arrive if they look wrinkled, but I doubt you’ll have trouble.
