Everyone knows that the best way to travel with a suit is to hang it up… it avoids wrinkles, which can be one of the worst things you can encounter in a society where the clothes make the man. After all, how many times has some savvy businessman opened his suitcase after checking into a hotel only to find that the suit he had thrown into his suitcase was creased and wrinkled from the trip? Unfortunately, it’s not always practical to travel with a suit hanger… luckily, there are ways to fold and pack suits to greatly reduce the wrinkling that might otherwise occur.
The first thing that you need to do is lay out the suit flat to get it ready for packing. Lay the jacket flat on its back, bringing the fronts together and fastening one button. Place one leg of the pants on top of the other so that the front and back creases align, and smooth out any surface wrinkles. Now begin to fold the suit, starting with the jacket.
Lay the upper part of the jacket sleeves down from the shoulder, so that they are more or less parallel with the sides of the jacket. Fold over the sleeves at the elbows, bending them at a 90 degree angle and crossing the sleeves on top of the chest of the jacket. Smooth out any wrinkles that may occur in the sleeves, and then bring up the bottom of the jacket (starting at the waist), laying it across the sleeves and the collars. The sleeves should still be crossed in the same place, with the bottom “wrapped” over them.
Next, move to the pants. Make sure that all of the pockets are lying flat, and then fold the let upward just below the knee (approximately 1/3 of the way down the leg.) Straighten the cuffs so that they are lined up with each other as much as you can get them, and then fold the leg upward again, taking up the remaining 1/3 and placing the knee even with the top of the pants. Lay the pants on top of the jacket, and place the jacket and pants onto the top of the luggage you have in your suitcase. (If the suitcase isn’t full, you might consider placing the suit face down in the bottom of the suitcase, so that the other clothes and items can help to keep it in place.
Should you find that the suit still wrinkles, don’t panic! A simple solution to wrinkles is to place the wrinkled items on hangars in the bathroom, and turn the shower on hot. Let the shower run for 10-20 minutes (taking a long, hot shower might be a good idea, so as not to waste water.) The steam from the water will loosen the wrinkles, and you can use your hand to brush them out immediately afterward. An alternative to this method is to buy a portable hand steamer (a small device like an iron that blows steam for the purpose of removing wrinkles), a can of spray wrinkle remover, or even a portable iron that can be taken with you and used when needed.
