Hartmann's new Perfect Packers: dress for Venus complete with pearls and sweater.
I’ll cop to not being the world’s most macho man, but even I felt out of place at a trunk show for a new, very girlie, luggage line at a posh hotel on the Sunset Strip. Called the Pirouette Collection by Hartmann, the luggage’s exterior (a color I’m informed is deep fig) is covered in balletic swirls. Inside, the bags are soft amethyst (another new color for me) with pretty little ruffled edges. “Clearly I don’t belong here,” I thought.
But then, Barbara Barry, the luggage’s designer, produced her “perfect packers” from inside one of the cases, and my inner gadget geek was transfixed. These clear vinyl packets, in various sizes, seal with zippers and a Velcro flap. Lose the soft amethyst and ruffles, and I’d buy them. Barry cheerfully demonstrated how you’d pack an entire day’s outfit in each one, blouse, pearls, skirt, sweater…
“No way!” I thought. “You pack socks in one, t-shirts in another, boxers in the third…” That’s when it hit me: men pack for Mars, women for Venus.
Continue reading this post on my Forbes blog, Seat 1A