Would you call yourself a good packer? Do you roll or fold your clothes? Do you pack so much that you have to sit on your suitcase to get it to close or so little that you don’t have what you need when you get there? Some people swear by packing everything in tissue paper to keep it from creasing while others just chuck it in and hope for the best.
But how do you pack if you’re a celebrity? Are there any packing secrets we should all know about? Victoria Beckham says you should pick pieces that mix and match to create different outfits and according to Alexa Chung, we should all pack a capsule wardrobe with six pieces to create 30 different looks.
When I worked on the travel desk of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, one of my jobs was to interview celebrities for the travel columns, ‘Heaven and Hell’ and ‘Case History’. I’d ask about their best and worst travel experiences, their favourite hotels and, of course, I’d quiz them on their packing secrets. I was keen to find out if there was some magical trick to packing well and wanted to know everything from what their suitcase looked like to how long it took them to pack. I wanted to know their worst packing mistakes and that must-have item that always travelled with them.
Here’s what I found out. If it makes you feel any better – it seems that celebrities don’t have any more answers to the perfectly packed suitcase than the rest of us.
What does your suitcase look like?
The celebrities’ suitcases came in all shapes and sizes from Elizabeth Hurley’s four beautiful silver Samsonites to Claudia Winkleman’s battered Army & Navy bag.
It was no surprise to learn that Mel and Sue, hosts of The Great British Bake Off, both had matching luggage, a hard purple case with wheels. According to Mel Giedroyc, “I badgered Sue to buy it for me because she had one and I was jealous of it. It makes us look like off-duty air hostesses.”
Raymond Blanc’s case is all about vintage glamour. He fell in love with the luggage used in the old film of The Great Gatsby and found a suitcase just like it in an antique shop in Florence, made of dark brown polished leather.
Kate Adie, who was Britain’s leading female war reporter, described her suitcase as “small, squashed and battered – with a large stain sustained when someone’s figs exploded on it in Bahrain.”
And I loved the sound of novelist, Barbara Trapido’s big, square multicoloured bag made from shredded plastic bags. “I bought it from a lady in South Africa who says the patterns she uses on her bags come to her in dreams.”
How do you pack?
So are there any secrets to packing well? Should we be rolling or folding, streamlining and sorting or just throwing it in and hoping for the best?
Simon Mayo, the Radio 2 DJ, admitted that he only takes a minute to pack but that whenever he arrives at his destination, he realised that he should have had a packing system.
Some celebrities have a system that works well for them. Actor, John Hannah arranges shirts so that they hang over the edge of the case, then folds them in when he’s packed everything else. That way, he can fill in all the gaps. “I hate ironing so I go for the crumpled look or press things under the bed”, he said.
Novelist James Patterson, the author of the Alex Cross novels, doesn’t spend time folding his clothes. “I’m a writer so it’s almost de rigueur to look a little wrinkled.”
It’s not a look that works for Dannii Minogue. “Years ago, a friend’s mother taught me to pack everything flat in the bottom of the case,” she told me. “It makes packing much easier and you don’t get as many creases.” But she admitted that “I usually take too many shoes. If I’m going away for a week, I’ll pack enough for a month – just in case.”
She’s not the only one to overpack. According to Mel Giedroyc, “I’m a kitchen-sink traveller. I only ever wear jeans and T-shirt but for some reason when I travel I seem to take galoshes, strapless ballgown, trilby, woollen gloves, boiler suit, wedding hat, court shoes, wellies, Lithuanian national costume…”
But some people spend ages deliberating about what to take and how to pack it. Ballet dancer, Deborah Bull puts dry cleaning plastic bags between most of her clothes and plastic over the top before tucking it in. Historian, Amanda Foreman admitted that it can take her weeks to pack a suitcase. “I try to fold my clothes in tissue paper, but by the end I’m madly scrunching things in.”
“People who use things like Cellophane to wrap around clothes scare me,” admitted Claudia Winkleman of Strictly Come Dancing. “I just chuck everything in that’s clean.” She’s not alone. There seemed to be more celebs that pack more haphazardly than there were careful packers.
“I just shove it all in until the case is full,” said Clive Anderson. It doesn’t take athlete Steve Cram long to pack either. “I can pack everything in about five minutes. I’m not a selective packer. I just pick up a pile of ironed clothes and put them all in.”
Mountaineer, Sir Chris Bonington, takes a couple of hours. “I leave my packing until the last moment and then turn the whole house upside down and leave an absolute mess. Generally, my trousers need turning up and altering 10 minutes before I go which drives my wife mad. I have no system whatsoever. I just stuff it all in.”
Mark Owen from Take That’s a last-minute packer too. “I usually start packing at midnight the night before and then realise I’ve got washing to do so I don’t generally finish until five in the morning. I try and fold my clothes but they always end up looking like a bag of rags when I unpack, no matter how careful I am.”
Worst Packing mistakes
Who hasn’t been guilty of not putting the lid on a bottle of shampoo properly and opening their case to find a gooey mess everywhere? Surely not just me? The celebrities had their fair share of stories of spilled suntan cream and smashed bottles of Jamaican rum. Anyone noticed that these things always happen on the trip home when you’re more likely to chuck it all in? Or is that just me again?
Mark Owen admitted to being a massive overpacker. “I once took a cowboy hat that I don’t even wear at home. I never wore it and I had to carry it around with me for three weeks because I didn’t want to crush it. Another time, I was going through a sarong phase and I packed four luminous sarongs. I wore one once at the beach but I got so many strange looks that I didn’t wear it again.”
James Patterson’s biggest packing mistake was taking Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment with him to read. “I spent the first half of the holiday feeling guilty for not picking it up and the second half feeling depressed because I had.”
Mel Giedroyc brings home “ludicrous pieces of clothing that look really great under Mediterranean skies but fall a bit flat in Surrey.”
And you really should be careful what you pack your souvenirs in. Novelist and former SAS soldier, Andy McNab, once made the mistake of bringing back coffee beans packed in unmarked silver foil from Colombia. He was searched twice by customs officers.
Oops! Forgot to pack?
Celebrities don’t seem to be any better than the rest of us about remembering what to pack. There were tales of ballet dancers forgetting their ballet shoes and runners who didn’t remember their spikes. Even hypnotists didn’t appear to have an advantage. Paul McKenna told me, “Because I’m a hypnotist, everyone expects me to be a memory guy but I’m always forgetting to pack something vital. I could have a car boot sale with all the cufflinks, bow ties and belts I’ve had to buy on my travels.”
And poor Rick Stein normally forgets to pack his pants and socks. “The last time I forgot everything, I wrote a detailed list for future reference of everything I need to pack. Unfortunately, I never look at it.”
What can’t you travel without?
And what about those things you really can’t travel without? There were lots of celebrities who, like me, refuse to travel without several books to read. Novelist, Marian Keyes is a prime example. “I always overpack. I take 20 outfits and wear only two. I always pack loads of books because I panic if I don’t have a book with me – we took 30 with us to Bali.”
John Simpson, BBC foreign correspondent, never travels without a bottle of Laphroaig whisky and Dannii Minogue always packs essential oils and her pillow. Mark Owen’s a fan of lavender essential oil too.
Most of the Brits I spoke to packed PG Tips tea or a jar of Marmite if they were going to be away for longer than a couple of weeks. In fact, most Brits take teabags with them even if they’re going away for a weekend. You might think we’re being fussy but tea just doesn’t taste the same outside of the UK.
Some answers made perfect sense. Manolo Blahnik never travels without his sketch books so that he can work on ideas for shoe designs and Antonio Carluccio always takes Italian coffee with him so he can have an espresso in the morning.
Others made me giggle, like when Meat Loaf confessed that he always packs his Hawaiian shirts in his suitcase. “I have a huge selection and I always wear them on holiday.”
And when asked what she’d pack if she could only take three things, punk icon Toyah Willcox quipped: “Brad Pitt, baby oil and handcuffs”.
Best Packing Tips?
And finally, surely some of the celebs had great packing tips? Lots advised taking pashminas or cashmere scarves to wear on the plane, something I always do myself – it’s one of my Ten Ways to Make a Low-Cost Flight More Glamorous. Socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson once told me that her best packing tip was “to try and get someone else to do it for you.” Great advice. If only I was able to take advantage of that one more often.
But the best tip was not to pack while drunk – if you listen to Elizabeth Hurley, who confessed that “Years ago, when filming in Rome, I packed late at night and very drunk. When I arrived, I discovered all I’d done was tip my knicker drawer into the suitcase.”
