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!