One of the easiest ways to lose your personal style is to start packing for the destination. All of a sudden, you’re buying linen shirts you’d never normally wear for a beach holiday, technical gear for the countryside, and some vaguely European fit for a city break. The result is a suitcase full of stuff that doesn’t really feel like you – and half of it rarely makes it out of the wardrobe again once you’re home.
After travelling across a ton of countries for both business and leisure – from humid coastal towns to freezing winter cities – I’ve realised the trick isn’t packing a completely different wardrobe for every location. It’s bringing a handful of reliable pieces everywhere: trousers that fit well, a shirt that works day or night, comfy sneakers, and maybe a baseball cap for red-hot suns and red-eye flights. Once those pieces are in the suitcase, the rest is simply about styling them slightly differently depending on where you land. The destinations change, sure, but the wardrobe barely does.
The city
Cities are where the slightly sharper version of the travel wardrobe comes out. Whether it’s Paris, Tokyo or New York, you’re usually on your feet for most of the day – weaving between cafés, museums, and shops before eventually landing somewhere you found on TikTok for dinner.
My go-to formula almost always starts with the same relaxed trousers I packed for the entire trip, paired with a crisp shirt and the lightweight jacket that works pretty much anywhere. The white sneakers that handled the airport and the train ride into town suddenly become the shoes you’ll wear for miles of city wandering. If the sun’s out or I know I’ll be outside most of the day, a baseball cap tends to come along too.
Nothing about this fit is city-specific. It’s just the cleanest version of the same wardrobe – slightly sharper, slightly more put together, but still comfortable enough to walk across an entire neighbourhood without thinking about your feet.
