How do you pack a tailored jacket?
It can be easy to get overwhelmed when packing expensive or delicate clothes for a trip — especially when those clothes have to arrive in perfect (or at least immediately wearable) shape. For most people, the most complex clothing they’ll try to store or pack is a tailored jacket.
“A tailored jacket,” says Derek Guy, “is made from multiple layers of haircloth (a stiff cloth used for structure beneath finer materials), canvas, and padding, which have been carefully stitched together. And then, depending on the level of the garment that you buy, it has been pressed in a certain way using very heavy tailor’s iron to create shape. That is a way to transform two-dimensional cloth into a three-dimensional form.”
In most cases, we recommend packing a suit or tailored jacket in a carry-on suitcase by following certain folding instructions to make sure it remains supported and crease-free and doesn’t lose its tailored form (so to speak). Editor Alexander Aciman has a detailed guide on how to pack a suit, which walks you through the correct methods. YouTube also has plenty of instructional videos (here, here, and here).
How do you choose the right hanger?
If you choose to hang your clothes in a garment bag or store them hanging in a closet, you’ll want to choose a proper hanger. “When shopping for a hanger, remember what you’re going for: curved collar, curved shaped, and moulded shoulders. The more you achieve that, the better,” Guy said. “However, a curved shape will take more space in your closet, so it’s a trade-off.”
Guy recommends the wood hangers from Kirby Allison (which we also recommend in our guide to clothing hangers), though he also suggested some less expensive options from IKEA and Quality Hangers Store. If you have multiple suits, Hanger Store sells hangers in bulk. These are all shaped to help support the shoulders of your jackets and allow them to maintain their form.
