Pack Mentality

You’ll never pack perfect, but you can pack smart. Here’s how to achieve suitcase symbiosis...

- Hooman Majd

Years ago, before bespoke luggage maker Goyard was a brand well-known in the U.S. (or anywhere outside of France, for that matter) and while a certain Louis was not just a former French king but the king of handbags everywhere, I strolled into the Goyard store on the slightly less-travelled end of the Rue Saint Honoré and saw, on top of an assortment of handsome trunks, an odd-looking one. It was long and narrow and opened in the middle, revealing two sections with long leather belts to secure the contents. The salesperson, spying a potential tourist with money, immediately sidled up to me in the empty store and asked if I “knew” Goyard. Oui, I did, and I also knew the repeating chevron pattern was a mark of understated snobbery — only those “in the know” would recognise the mark. Above all, Goyard represented travel — stylish travel — and this particular piece I was eyeing was a trunk for books. Yes, books, or at least those impossible to live without on a journey.

The salesman assured me that the firm had made exactly the same case for Hemingway, who always travelled with his books. I wanted to remind him that the age of steamship travel was over and although we were not yet in the age of tablets, we were already in the age of undignified jet travel, too-short journeys to too-faraway places, travel with little time and very little space for leisure reading. So even though I couldn’t afford a Goyard trunk made for me, in the size I preferred, with my initials hand-painted on the side, I had other excuses to fall back on.