How to Pack the Perfect Suitcase

There’s an art to packing for trips that goes beyond rolling your socks into balls and stuffing them in your shoes- and while it’s a skill that comes with practice, well seasoned travellers know the inside tips that can really be quite revelatory, changing your travel game from “meh” to Air Miles maestro.

As the founder of London-based curated menswear boutique Trunk, the Swedish born former financier Mats Klingberg is on the road more often than not, so with his advice say goodbye to wrinkled trousers and overstuffed laundry bags, and hello to a streamlined well-edited wardrobe that can go from day to night and business to pleasure with the switch of a few key items.

Choose the Right Bag

Travelling with a carry-on only saves time and eliminates the chance of lost luggage – Klingberg does this whenever possible, and specifically suggests the combination of a four-wheel trolley with a smaller bag that can be easily stacked on top, such as the Trunk by Porter Boston Bag, which features plenty of internal pockets to separate objects such as passports and personal items. “This allows you to move through airports quickly without having to carry anything,” he says. Alternatively, a backpack like the Trunk by Porter Daypack allows you to get from A to B, hands-free.
Pare Down Your Selection

“Aim to get as many outfits as possible from as few items as possible,” Klingberg says, reminding to look for pieces that can work seamlessly across both casual and smart dress codes. Adaptable items like the Trunk Wigmore High Twist Wool Suit Trousers, “work equally well with a pair of loafers, a crisp white shirt, a tie and a jacket as with a pair of sneakers and a T-shirt,” he says. A neutral palette ensures you can mix and match easily and efficiently.
Think Fabrics

Always pause to contemplate fabric thickness before committing to bringing it. Trunk’s Weymouth Super 130 wool suit is a multifunctional unstructured jacket-and-trousers duet forged of a luxurious Loro Piana wool that is suitable in all four seasons. Unless you want to spend time during your trip ironing or waiting for the hotel to steam your suit, then wrinkle-free fabrics are the way to go, and the Wigmore High Twist Wool Suit Trousers are another winner: “High twist yarn makes it pretty much wrinkle resistant, so it can easily be folded up without having to worry about putting it in a suit carrier,” explains Klingberg.
Know How to Style

Research the weather at your destination, and start by selecting key items that would work in different scenarios. “The idea with the Trunk Private Label collection is that most items should work both in summer and winter bearing in mind that at some parts of the world summers can get a bit chilly and winters can be fairly warm,” says Klingberg. The Lightweight Merino Crew can be slung over the shoulders with a polo at a country club mixer, worn alone on a breezy fall evening or become a great layering piece between a collared shirt and suit jacket.
Lay it All Out

Like with cooking, a packing mise-en-place can be useful and ultimately time-saving. Instead of transferring everything directly from your closet to your case, lay out all the items you intend to bring so they can be placed in the suitcase logically. Think: laptops and liquids on top to be accessed for security checks, charger cables in pockets, heavier items near the bottom, etc. “Fold shirts, trousers, sweaters, jackets, etc in the right way and dimensions to maximise the use of all space. You don’t want any empty ‘air pockets’,” explains Klingberg.