The Travel Edit

Everything in it has been in a suitcase for twenty-four hours and then hung up and looked at. Some of what we expected to survive did not.

Have it pulled

This is the only edit with a test that is not a matter of taste. Andriana packs each candidate into a cabin bag, folded the way people actually fold, leaves it a full day, hangs it in the fitting room and photographs it after twenty minutes. If it needs an iron it does not go in. That is the entire selection process and it removes about half of what we assumed would qualify.

Linen never gets in, which annoys everybody including us. Silk gets in more often than expected, provided the weave is not flat. And the biggest surprise across four years of doing this is that weight is almost irrelevant — a heavy crepe travels beautifully and a light viscose comes out looking slept in.

What survives the bag

Crepe, in almost any weight

The best travelling cloth there is, and the least glamorous thing to say about a dress. Three of the twelve pieces are crepe.

Fine merino

Rolls rather than folds, recovers in about ten minutes, and washes in a hotel basin. The one piece nobody has ever returned.

Heavy silk with texture

Crepe de chine and washed silk survive; flat charmeuse does not, and comes out with fold lines you can read across a room.

A knit dress that is not a knit dress

The single most useful garment for ten days with one bag. Wears as a dress, wears under a coat, and sleeps on a night train.

One coat that is also a blanket

Unlined wool, deep pockets, and long enough to sit on. Aeroplanes are cold and nobody has ever regretted this.

The bag itself

Not fashion. A soft-sided cabin bag that has done four years of Élise’s buying trips, and which we stock because we got tired of being asked what it was.

Ten days, one bag

Count the evenings, not the daysAlmost everybody over-packs daytime and under-packs the two evenings that actually matter. Pack those first and the rest gets easier.
One colour family, one accentNot a rule about elegance. It is what lets nine pieces make fourteen outfits, and it is the only reason the edit fits in a cabin bag.
Wear the coat and the bootsThe two heaviest things never go in the bag. Obvious, and reliably ignored.
Leave a third of it emptyYou will buy something. Everyone buys something. A bag packed full is a bag that comes back badly.