From the time you pack your bags to the time you get to your hotel traveling with a suit and tie is a race against the inevitable. Wrinkles happen; it's a fact of life and frequent travelers know better than anyone that unless they give careful consideration to the way they packed their clothing they will end up at their destination with a wrinkled mass of fabrics rather than sharp ready-to-wear articles of clothing.

The Ideal Situation
If you are traveling under ideal situations a garment bag is your best option for traveling with a suit and tie. Nothing protects the integrity of a suit and tie better than a garment bag. It allows the fabrics to flow freely and avoid becoming wrinkled.

The Next Best Solution
Obviously not everyone can travel with a garment bag. For whatever reason, space, price or anything in between garment bags are particularly cumbersome and difficult to travel with. In this scenario it is important to take an educated approach to packing your suit and tie.

To keep your tie protected a good idea is to loosely roll the tie as you would a belt and place it in one of your packed shoes. Obviously make sure that the shoe is clean first. This will work with one or two ties; however if you are going on an extended trip and have to pack many ties you probably wont have enough shoes. In this event fold your ties once and pack them between soft pieces of clothing. This will help keep the silk protected and prevent wrinkles.

To protect your suit and dress shirt make sure everything is loosely folded in a stiff lined suitcase and not packed tightly. This will help prevent most of the stubborn wrinkles that arise from over packing; however it is still likely that you will arrive at your destination with slightly wrinkled clothing.
Luckily these wrinkles are easy to get out in short order. If you have time at your hotel room you can quickly iron your clothes or in a worst-case scenario where you have to dress up for an event immediately after arriving at your destination you could try misting your shirt and suit lightly with water after putting on the suit. True, you will be wearing slightly damp clothing however your body heat will evaporate the light misting your clothes received and work out any delicate wrinkles.

By: Hendrik Pohl