My favorite luggage of yore was a Diane von Furstenberg set that I bought off eBay — I think, although it was new. The outside was black and white and the inside was BRIGHT pink, and there was a large and a smaller case, both of which I routinely took to Fashion Week because I am a TERRIBLE packer and it was a 10-day trip and sometimes there were coats involved, and how could I POSSIBLY anticipate what shoes or sweaters I would want to wear in a given day??? (This imagined pressure eased up significantly the longer we covered it, because we realized nobody cares how the reporters look. It was so freeing.)
That all gave way to boring practical suitcases that Kevin and I will use until they die: a Tumi hard-shell that’s taken a real beating in the last umpteen years, but it’s still standing; a soft-sided grey Samsonite; and a red Briggs & Riley, the latter of which is heaviest when empty so we use it the least (also I don’t recall it or the Tumi being anywhere near so expensive back when we bought them???). I am always tempted by sexy new luggage, but much like Fashion Week, have also realized it doesn’t matter if my clothes look cool when they arrive so long as they DO arrive and I can wrangle them to my transportation. So I will once again ride my cases until they fall apart, and am way, way out of the loop on the new stuff.
However, my kids are going on a school trip next year and they need suitcases, which will likely arrive as Christmas gifts. The boys have never had their own; we just use color-coded packing cubes and cram all our stuff into as few bags as we can, because we are always traveling together. This is the first time they’ll be without us, and while they may still end up sharing one suitcase, they’re also old enough that having their own is not a terrible idea. But everything we have is either too large or too small, so I suspect medium will end up being the right fit here. And I’d like it to have legs. Durability, I mean, although if it can walk itself around that would be nifty too.
What do you swear by? Are you a soft-shell person, or do the hard shells have your heart? For a while, it felt like Away had all the heat around it, but they became SO omnipresent that it felt a little like propaganda after a while. Maybe that’s unfair. And then Beis swooped in and stole a lot of that thunder. Calpak has a bunch of suitcases, and I’ve read good things about Monos. A brand called July also turned up in my search, and I have heard people recommend Rimowa for its lifetime warranty, but those are way too expensive for teens. Hell no, NICE TRY. Antler looks very nice, as well, in that same colorful hard-shell vein; not as expensive but certainly not cheap, either. They offered us one to try, but we declined, because neither Jess nor I have a trip coming up and we didn’t want to accept unless we could really put it through its paces and report back. Wait, why didn’t we immediately book a trip?!? We are bad at this. (Antler is currently running a 30% off promotion, FYI.) Also, right after I started poking around, a company called Nobl turned up relentlessly on Instagram and the cases look cool, but it’s also one of those brands that says, “I’m sorry, we lied to you… we thought the price couldn’t be lower BUT IT CAN,” and pretends its sales are a limited time only, when they seem to be perpetual. So I don’t know if I trust it.
Also, do you have a favorite travel bag? When I say “travel bag” I am thinking of the non-purse personal item you stuff to the gills with everything you need to stay entertained, fed, and functional on a long plane trip, and which ideally can fit under the seat in front of you. I bought a Calpak gold carry-on for our trip to France, and stuffed the shoe compartment with spare undies and shirts for us in case our other bags didn’t make it. I can’t make it hold clothes for short trips the way I would like, but as a plane bag for longer flights, full of snacks, laptop, First Aid, small toiletries, and spare clothes, it works a treat. I also eyeballed one of the Beis bags with the shoe spot underneath it, but heard mixed reviews about whether those fit under the seats. I LOVE using the space under the seat. I am not getting up every time I want to swap my Switch for my Kindle or dig out the inflatable pillow, and I am not unpacking my entire bag into the seatback pouch. The boys use regular old backpacks, and I guess we could get them something nicer, but…?!? I’m not sure they need it. Fun fact: For years Liam has used one with One Tree Hill embroidered on it, because Kevin won it at a poker game where all the prizes were surplus show swag donated by a friend who works at Warner Bros, and Liam did not stop to wonder what the hell “One Tree Hill” even was. I love that kid. (Jessica here: I use a plain old Boat and Tote for my carry on, but next time I travel, I’m going to use my Vee collective tote. It has SO MANY POCKETS and compartments. Like their website does not even make clear how many pockets.)
Please shower me with your insights.
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