What's a Good Travel Garment Bag?

[Bugleboy10]

Last week, I went out of state for my grandfather's funeral. I packed up my newest and nicest suit, the one I've only worn twice, the one that fits me best and feels just awesome on me. 200 miles later, I open up the bag to see a glaring hole in the fabric that matched up perfectly with a zipper on one of the inside pockets. Frustrating!

So, before I drop hundreds on another suit again, what garment bag do you recommend that won't let me make that expensive mistake again?

To add insult to injury, the haberdasher no longer carries that model (it's been less than a year!), so what are your thoughts about salvaging the slacks by dressing them down with a black coat?

 

[Mathematicus]

That's awful, I understand. I've never had this experience, although I travel quite regularly by plane, commuting to the airports by long distance coaches, and I've never taken particular care packing my suits.

A good advice is to fold the jacket with lining facing outwards, so that the exterior fabric will not be stained or rubbed. Otherwise, there are garment bags in canvas or synthetic materials which avoid any contact with the suitcase at all.

If I have room, I try to keep the hanger and a dry-clean cover when packing a particularly dressy suit. The hanger helps retaining the shape a lot, espcially on modern fabrics.

About using the slacks as odd trousers: this is common practice. But be careful to choose a good combination - for instance, if the trousers are black, pairing them with a different black coat would be unsightly due to the colour mismatch. Try something more contrasting.

 

[Fading Fast]

Very frustrating. Must be one sharp zipper part exposed and one really poorly designed garment bag. I've used various garment bags over the past three decades and never had that happen. I'm sorry it happened to you.

One thought, if the hole isn't too big, one expensive (but less than the cost of a new suit) option might be invisible weaving. Invisible weaving is not a generic term but reflects a specific skill and technique in which a tailor painstakingly weaves extra material (usually from one of those "extra" pieces of material that comes in the pockets of your new suit, but it can also be taken from one of the inside seems) "thread by thread" to fill in the hole and pretty much make it disappear.

I had a hole on a suit (it looked like someone with a cigarette burned me from behind - so you have a sense of the hole's size) fixed that way many years ago and it was truly all but invisible. I had to study the garment in bright light to find the repair and, even then, it wasn't easy. It might be worth looking up a reputable shop that does invisible weaving and getting the repair estimated. Good luck, having been there, I know how upset you must be.

 

[Bugleboy10]

Much appreciated. I'll take more caution when packing a garment bag, and probably try to find one sans internal zippers.