Travel Report
Packing Lists and a Trip to a Tailor
Early in the year a friend, knowing my love of tailoring, asked me about getting a suit for some upcoming weddings. Normally, this would be easy. We’d load into my car, stop at Buc-ees, and make a day trip to Houston to see my pals at Sid Mashburn. But for this friend that simply wouldn’t do. Not because they don’t make a great suit, but they simply don’t make the right suit.
This is Jolene. When she asked me about finally getting the suit that she’s been wanting for years, I knew exactly who needed to make her suit: Clementina by J. Mueser.
Of course, I wasn’t going to send Jolene off to her first tailoring experience alone. I’d been looking for an excuse to go back to NYC, and what better reason than to bring a friend into the fold of tailoring, and get a suit of my own made along the way.
There will be an entire dispatch devoted to the making of those suits once they arrive. This missive is about packing for a trip where you want to flex your tailoring a bit.
Onward.
Typically, I travel in a chore coat or a blazer, but knowing I wanted to take a suit (Virgil No. 3 from Sid Mashburn) for this trip, I opted to wear it on the plane to avoid ending up with a wrinkled mess for the rest of the trip. I added an Upgrade Shirt and navy knit tie. I also wore my Alden Indy boots because they’re heavy and take up valuable space in my Filson Medium Duffle. Normally I’d prefer to travel in a loafer or Chelsea boot for ease and speed in the airport, but I’ve put enough miles on the Indys in all sorts of conditions to know they were what I wanted for the NYC streets. Traveling in a suit was easy, and, it might surprise you, comfortable. The half lining on the jacket kept me from overheating, and having the extra interior pockets to stash things on the plane was great.
I wore the suit three different times on the trip: travel day, then all day Thursday, out for dinner Saturday night, and then all day and for travel home on Sunday.
The other jacket that I brought was a Mashburn Butcher Jacket in an olive camouflage flannel wool. I tried it on when the Mashburn guys were in Austin for an On The Road and couldn’t get it out of my head, so when I saw it hit the end of season sale I had to pounce. I’m sad I didn’t get the matching trousers to have an absurd camo suit. Being an unstructured, unlined, wool flannel, this jacket kept me warm without being stifling, but it was lacking in the interior pocket department. After wearing the suit that has three internal pockets, the Butcher’s one, small, interior pocket felt limiting.
As the trip drew nearer, I was filled with dread as the forecast showed temperatures in the mid-thirties and a near certainty of rain for at least one of the days. With that in mind, I chose to take up valuable space in my bag with the Barbour x Tokito Sapper jacket in olive. Given that it would be mostly worn while walking, I opted to leave the wool liner at home, but had it been ten degrees cooler, I would have packed it. It held up beautifully in a Saturday downpour, and kept me comfortably warm while out walking in temps ranging from thirty-five to sixty. Being able to open the tricep and upper back vents to get some airflow while moving is a boon. My one complaint—which is not the fault of the jacket and more of a gap in my wardrobe—is that when worn over a suit or sport coat, it is a bit short and the bottom of my suit would peek out from under it.
For pants, I admittedly chose to live dangerously. Other than the suit pants, I only packed my beloved white Observer Denim. With all the possible stains of travel and life in NYC, I know this probably sounds crazy, but if their designer, Robert Spangle, can wear them in active war zones, then I can wear them in the subways and shops of NYC.
I also figured if something happened, I could go into one of the many stores on my list and pick up a pair of olive chinos to replace an aging pair of my staple RRL Officer Chinos, and I’d just figure out how to make room in my bag for them on the way home. Fortunately, despite a lot of rainy walking on Saturday, my jeans stayed white.
With the pants and the suit sorted, I kept the tops simple: a mix of fabrics, all blue, solids or stripes. I packed my vintage Brooks Brothers suit shirt because I love the texture and the way the shirt works with or without a tie. I also packed my sky multi stripe shirt because I wanted to show the monogram homage to my late maternal grandparents to a dear friend (hi Molly). The wool polo was a last minute substitution because the forecast was dipping colder. It was great for dressing down the suit while maintaining warmth out and about during the day.
Four shirts for four days doesn’t leave room for outfit changes—something much appreciated after spending all day walking and eating in lower Manhattan. I travel with a few packets of Soak and a travel clothes line. I will sink wash my clothes at night, hang them to dry in front of an AC vent, and then will hit them with an iron the next day if needed. I’ve adopted this from my parents who travel almost entirely in technical gear for hiking, regardless of the environment they’ll be in, but I’m not the only wearer of dress shirts that does this.
It’s a shirt that i can wash myself as opposed to like a dress shirt that wrinkles really easily. And also i think it’s the height of civilization to wash your own shirt in a hotel room … I just made that up. I have no idea if that’s true.
As an alternate to my Indys, which got the most wear given the weather, I brought my loden suede Sagan Strides from Baudoin & Lange. With their rubber sole they offered great cushion for walking the streets, and they were simply a fun change from brown shoes. I could have easily worn a pair of brown loafers though.
If you read my last Capsule Dispatch, the rest of my elemental protection will look familiar: Drake’s x Aimé Leon Dore donegal beanie, J. Crew leather gloves, and a shemagh, used mostly as a scarf but also as an eye mask on our early morning flight. I know I look crazy, but the fact that I was able to sleep for ninety minutes of the flight is a testament to the power of creating your own little cocoon out of noise cancelling headphones and a scarf.
The last thing on the list is, admittedly, the most silly. I packed my set of Observer Collection PT PJs to bring some luxury to lounging. These take up little space but made for an incredibly comfortable outfit to change into at the end of the night, and they were totally worth it.
There was one piece of clothing I didn’t end up wearing, but I was glad to have it anyway; my oatmeal cashmere crewneck. If it had been any colder, it would have been an excellent mid layer under either the suit or sport coat.
All of this fit into a duffle with a bit of shopping room to spare. If you read the Capsule Wardrobe Dispatches, you’ll notice that most everything I packed was taken from my winter capsule.
Here’s the TL;DR Full List:
Brown glen plaid suit
Olive camo sport coat
Olive waxed canvas jacket
Oatmeal cashmere crewneck
Sky poplin button down AKA The Upgrade Shirt
Blue spread collar shirt
Multi-stripe spread collar shirt
Heather blue wool polo
White Observer denim
PT PJs
Brown leather boots
Green suede loafers
Grey wool beanie
Brown leather gloves
Green shemagh scarf
If you’ve got a trip coming up and wanna talk packing lists and location specific fits to throw, drop me a message in the comments or reply to this email.