My last business trip was a total disaster. Not because of weather or any of the other things you might think would ruin a work trip, Im talking about wrinkles. Yes, wrinkles. All of my dress shirts that I had packed came out of my suitcase a total wrinkled mess. It was so bad, I ended up doing a deep dive into the subject of packing dress shirts, and what I found out may surprise you. You never think about how you pack when you’re actually packing, so what I found out might actually help, if you can follow my simple guide. I’ve included all of my knowledge in the following article titled Packing dress shirts: 3 great tips.
What kind of shirts you will be packing will be a huge factor in just how wrinkled they will be when you take them out of your suitcase or travel-on luggage. The fabric and weave of the fabric are the most influential when determining how wrinkle prone your outfits are before packing. Something like silk or terry cloth fabric will wrinkle so profoundly, it might be best to just leave these at home. However, for most standard dress shirts, no matter the cut or style, there are ways to truly minimize how wrinkled your shirts will be when traveling. The trick is how you fold your dress shirts before you pack them, and to do this correctly, you will need to follow the steps provided below.
Here’s how to pack a dress shirt without wrinkles: First, button the shirt up to the top button. Then, lay it facedown on a flat, hard surface like a table. Next, spread it out, sleeves to the side. Then, fold sleeves inward to the middle of the shirt (horizontal fold). This should be about halfway up the sleeve; repeat for the other side. Then fold in each side about 3 inches towards the middle of the shirt; if you’re doing it right, you’ll have a little “V” pattern at the top of the back of your shirt. Then you want to fold it in half, from the bottom up once. Fold in half again for a tighter fold (or if you really need the space. One last tip for this folding method I found useful is to put a dryer sheet in between one of the folds; it provides “interstitial suspension” so the fabric won’t bunch up once you finish folding it (yeah, physics is involved) also, it makes your bag smell great.
The above is the preferred method, but if your bag is short on space, and you are short on time, you can try this next approach called rolling your shirts. First, lay the shirt out and button every other button. Then fold the collar upwards. Next, fold the sleeves diagonally across the front of the shirt in an “X” shape. Next, you turn up a few inches of fabric on the bottom of the shirt and fold the sides of the shirt inwards in sections making up roughly one third of the width of the shirt. Then tightly roll downwards, starting at the collar. Use the few folded inches at the bottom of the shirt to hold the roll together.
No matter which way you choose to pack your shirts, there is one last tip I would impart on you before I go. This trick has been extremely handy and I want to stress to you guys how important it is.Im talking about a steam iron. A Portable steamer is such a must have for traveling for business, it’s really changed the game for me. But packing correctly is the cornerstone of making smart business traveling decisions, add the streamer and you have an unbeatable combo.
