Room Service? Four Outfits, Please.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: If there's one topic we like to return to again and again here at JRW, it's packing for travel. Not so much fun travel - if no one except your spouse and a stream of random strangers are going to see you, the only real question is how comfortably ugly are you willing to go when it comes to footwear. But a LOT of our travel involves business. 

Sometimes, that means a research trip to London, Paris, or Venice. (Or, of you're me, to upstate New York. Sigh.) When you're taking pictures, getting tours, asking questions and interviewing people, you need to A) look respectable and B) be prepared for the weather. 

Even more often, our travel involves book tours and conferences, meetings with people from our publishing houses and awards dinners. Those are the most complicated trips to pack for. What to do when it's 40° in New England and 85° in Houston? How do you fit two cocktail dresses plus accessories into your rollerboard? When do people get sick of seeing you in the same three outfits in all your Facebook/Twitter/Instagram pictures?

Friends, I may at last have this sorted. I was thrilled to read an article in Tuesday's New York Times about a new sort of concierge service being offered at hotels and resorts around the country: pairing with clothing rental companies to deliver wowza outfits straight to your room.  

Last December, W Hotels teamed up with the subscription fashion service Rent the Runway to launch a closet concierge amenity at select hotels, including W Aspen, W South Beach, W Washington D.C. and W Hollywood. Upon booking, guests at these hotels gain access to Rent the Runway’s more than 15,000 women’s styles, as well as an edited selection of clothing and accessories based on each destination. For a one-time fee of $69, guests can rent four items for up to eight days; everything will be pressed and ready-to-wear upon arrival. When checking out, guests just return the rented items to the front desk.

I'm already a fan of Rent the Runway, having used it to deliver fancy outfits for Agatha and Anthony Award evenings. Leaving the clothing when checking out is even easier than dropping it into the nearest UPS box.

Other places are partnering with Trvl Porter and Lady Jetset to get Insta-worthy clothing into travelers' hands. In some cases, instead of renting, guests can borrow all the necessaries for outdoor trekking, or select from the hotel's collection of Rhone or Lululemon workout gear - no carrying sweaty gym clothes home!

Reds, what do you think? Would you use services like these? 

HALLIE EPHRON: “Cocktail dresses, cabana wear, ski wear”??? These people live in a different world. Though I have to say whenever I get ready to go to the airport I wish I didn’t have to schlep luggage. Are they renting underwear, too? Curious minds. I suppose it might make sense to not have to schlep a coat and boots, especially if you live year ‘round somewhere you’d never need them.

However, I could see an entire murder plot that involves rented clothing at a fancy hotel.  

LUCY BURDETTE: OMG, I was sort of in until I read the part about “the selfie effect”--that is, not wanting to repeat the same outfit on Instagram. Sigh. If I was going skiing once a year for example, it would make sense to rent outdoor clothes and skis. John rents skis when he goes on his yearly family trip because they are hard to ship and the technology keeps improving. (I’ve given up skiing BTW--too cold and too many crazy people hurtling down the mountain ready to take me out.)

And our daughter used Rent the Runway for a while--but she’s tall and thin, and can look good in most anything. I, on the other hand, have to try a lot of clothes on before I settle on something that could be flattering. So no, I won’t be renting my clothes at the next hotel!

As for the plot, Hallie, what are you thinking, blood on the delivered rental clothes??

JENN McKINLAY: Yes, please! At least for the winter clothes for this desert dweller. We never had boots or coats that fit when the boys were younger and I hated buying clothes that they’d wear for one week and then outgrow before the next trip. Argh.

JULIA: Oh, Jenn, that must have been a pain. My version of that was discovering, a week before going to Cancun or Hawaii or Key West in the winter, that the kids had outgrown their swim suits. Have you ever tried buying a child's bathing suit in Maine in December?

HANK PHILLLIPPI RYAN: Nope nope nope. I do not need workout clothes.  Because: I am not gonna workout when I am on the road. (I walk and walk on tour,  getting many steps on my fitbit in the hotel hallways, wearing flats and very packable leggings, and no one sees me.  Luckily for them!) I also don’t want clothes from someone else. I see the point, I do, and if I am in New York and suddenly get invited to the Queen’s ball, I will go to a store.  Whatever fits in my carryon bag, that’s what I can wear. 

I agree, I am tired of lugging stuff, but that’s the way it goes.

RHYS BOWEN: I do book tours, go to Europe, on cruises and manage to get by with black slacks and fancy jackets. However, if one of my projects is Oscar-worthy I shall certainly rent one of Helen Mirren’s dresses!

JULIA: What do you think, Dear Readers? A fabulous convenience, or another sign of the impending apocalypse?

Beaucoup de Packing Tips! Merci, Cara Black!

Before we start: CLICK HERE for a fabulous offer. Just saying. Then come back.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Bonjour, Rouges de la Jungle! Aujourd hui, notre amie celebre, la fabulouse (made that up I think) Cara Black. Et aussi, quelle excitement, elle est en Le Booktour! Mais, je pense qu’il voudrait tres dificile, um, to pack.  Mais, who better to tell us comment de faire cela than la fashioniste extraordinaire?

(I know, I know, it’s pitiful, but it’s supposed to be FUNNY.)

  

CARA BLACK: Oh la la, packing for a three week book tour in le roller bag!

Bonjour Reds, Thanks for inviting me back! Hank asked me to share tips on packing for a book tour. You’d think I’d have it down to a science by now, right?

Murder on the Quai comes out next week - the 16th Aimée Leduc investigation. Yet packing still feels like alchemy - how in the world will I concoct the mixture and do this? Certainly not with smoke and mirrors. 

Trial and error has shown me it’s all about stripping down to essentials and fitting everything - and I mean toutes - in one roller bag. One roller bag, three weeks and 27 book events. Sucking in breath here. The added challenge on this three week book tour is not only packing for multi temperatures from rainy Seattle to muggy Houston and Ann Arbor and parts East but ending up at my editor’s July wedding in Massachusetts.

A wedding outfit? Mission Impossible?

My book tour wardrobe is simple, black on black and nightly washouts. Scarfs for color, an Eileen Fisher knock off swingy wrap. 

Fabrics - I keep to cotton, silk, linen to make it lightweight and easy to layer up for cold planes. This year presents a new packing challenge, June and July in the midwest, South and East coast. Isn’t that muggy and humid? I’m going for a linen tunic - the little wrinkle linen type, alternating my staple black cotton tunic with leggings and silk shell to layer over for evenings.

But what in the world to wear to my editors wedding that will bear up for three weeks on the road? Suggestions Reds? The wedding outfit stymies me.

Now to footwear - whatever covers my feet presents the biggest space challenge. Right, Hank? How in the world to fit boots apart from wearing them non-stop. At least this time I don’t need them. 

For 15 years every March I’ve toured when Aimée’s next investigation came out which presented winter packing challenges - below zero in Minnesota, sleet, down coats and soggy footwear. Not to mention March madness and snow closing the airport in Detroit. So this time it’s Skeecher’s super comfy ballet flats for hiking through the airport, low platform espadrilles for events and flip flops for driving.

Voilà.

My rule of thumb has been to go with a staple outfit - which becomes my uniform - always black, washable and without buckles and metal straps to hold up the line at TSA.

Let’s talk toiletries. Cleanser, astringent goes in little plastic bottles, perfume samples from Nordstrom - you know those tiny capsules that offer an amazing spritz and take no room, makeup (they have great travel sized at Sephora) fits in the Baggie or it STAYS home.

Electric toothbrush? Not any more just a toothbrush 6-pack easy to break off and stick in a pocket, use and discard. Three pairs of undies and leggings washed out at night, a paperback to read in case I’m on a runway three hours. An extra charger. Oh and the heaviest thing - bookmarks for 27 events! That’s all due to dear Rhys but that’s another story.

The book tour packing isn’t so different from what I pack for Paris - everything must fit in one roller bag - or le rollaire as the man at the shop in Belleville calls it where I get the best price on his newest model. Last month he sold me on the hardshell four wheeler lightweight swivel special that fits into the European sized overhead.

I discovered the hard way that our overhead requirements are different from European and had to pay extra on the runway in Easy Jet. 

Don’t call it cheating, but over my shoulder I sling a hardback-book-sized super light weight nylon rucksack that expands and holds the ipad, chargers, medications, and tiny wallet - my new find from Galleries Lafayette - carrying essential ID. The small rucksack is a shapeshifter - easypeasey - and scrunches into a pocket. 

Have you ever seen the tips for packing videos? I recommend them. One changed my life - rolling up everything i.e. all your T-shirts into thin little rolls like sausages, even jeans, and presto life fits.

I go for the cigarettes in a box approach.

Here’s a great slide show ten days in a carry on

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/05/06/business/businessspecial/20100506-pack-ss.html?_r=0

I would love to see you if I’m in your ‘ood

 http://carablack.com/events/

Thank you, Reds and appreciate any tips for a lightweight outfit for my editors wedding!

Cara

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I tried the rolled-up-thing method. I gave up, because I bring jackets, and they..don’t roll.  And I swear by tissue paper.

And I so agree--if it doesn't fit in le rollaire--I will never think of it another way--it STAYS home.

And I ship my bookmarks ahead, and they (usually) meet me at the hotel.

So, chere Rouges, any packing tips? And are you heading anywhere this summer?



And--speaking of AIR TIME--don't forget to CLICK HERE! (It's re-pub day!) Especially if you're traveling this summer! I'd love to send you some limited edition gifts!