{"id":60202,"date":"2025-01-14T16:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T05:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=264457"},"modified":"2025-01-14T10:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T06:36:13","slug":"excess-baggage-celebrity-packing-lists","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/excess-baggage-celebrity-packing-lists\/","title":{"rendered":"Excess Baggage: Notes On The Art Of Packing Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Excess Baggage: Why We’re So Captivated By The Art Of Packing Lists. Picutred: Joan Didion \/ Image: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Legendary magazine editor Diana Vreeland once deemed travel essential for the mind and body. \u201cIf you want to keep an open and fresh mind, you must travel,\u201d she said. \u201cTravelling is the only way to see things in their true perspective.\u201d And since the first commercial ships were rolled out and travel became the ultimate trend du jour of society\u2019s elite, we\u2019ve grappled with the conundrum of what to pack \u2013 and become infatuated with how others are doing it. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A simple YouTube or TikTok search will yield thousands (if not millions) of results about how to do it \u2018right\u2019; the best space-saving hacks and capsule wardrobe items worth schlepping around. But before the world became hyper-fixated on organisation and Marie Kondo-ing every element of life \u2013 as if an outer sterility was reflective of a clear mind \u2013 there were the figures who travelled in style, whose approach to packing still fills us with curiosity and admiration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take the persistent fascination with Joan Didion<\/a>\u2019s packing lists. If you\u2019re unfamiliar, the writer once published a checklist of her travel essentials taped to her closet doors. Much like her work, it has become a tableau of poetically refined taste. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With two skirts and a pullover, it begins. Then, a robe and slippers. Don\u2019t forget the cigarettes and bourbon or the mohair throw. So unsentimental yet full of wisdom. Every now and then, particularly after her 2021 passing<\/a>, the list makes its way around the Internet, inciting the same reactions of shock and deferential approval. Within its starkness, some see the effortless elegance achieved through a life of discipline, while others see it as the very picture of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Joan Didion’s packing lists from ‘The White Album’ \/ Image: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ironically, the author never thought any semblance of identity could be gouged from her suitcase contents. Didion herself acknowledged that the immortalised list wasn\u2019t an attempt to illustrate her style but actually permitted her to evade it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe list enabled me to pack, without thinking, for any piece I was likely to do,\u201d she wrote in her book. \u201cNotice the deliberate anonymity of costume: in a skirt, a leotard and stockings, I could pass on either side of the culture.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These days, we\u2019ve adapted to require a little more than deodorant and a typewriter while packing off somewhere. Or just notebooks, a flask and a copy of Tolstoy\u2019s War and Peace<\/i>\u00a0if you want to follow in Ernest Hemingway\u2019s spartan footsteps. <\/span><\/p>\n

Meticulous about her travel wardrobe \u2013 and rightfully so with her inimitable style \u2013 actress Marlene Dietrich<\/a> was never without her tailored suits and, in later years, reportedly travelled with her own lighting equipment to ensure she always looked flawless. A woman with a staunchly chic image to maintain. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But then there are the figures who manage to make something as dreary as a packing list rich with stamps of personality. When singer Patti Smith<\/a> shared her tour checklist, it read rather simple to fans. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Patti Smith’s Packing Lists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI always travel light,\u201d she shared in a blog post. \u201cBesides my dungarees and my trusty Ann Demeulemeester<\/a> black jackets, everything can be washed in a sink in a hotel room and laid out on a windowsill to dry. For instance, seven T-shirts (including four Electric Lady Studios T-shirts) and seven pairs of bee socks.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with a collection of Haruki Murakami books to reread, Smith sticks to her favourites.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI inventory Moleskine notebooks, seven small tubes of Weleda salt toothpaste, witch hazel wipes, Loquat leaf tea bags for cough, essentials like that,\u201d she continued. \u201cI guess I am ready.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As simple as her packing was, it should be noted that the plans were scrawled upside down on a photocopied receipt from a bookstore on the eve of her 40-date European tour, which is a little more of the Boheme we\u2019re used to. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Excess Baggage: Why We’re So Captivated By The Art Of Packing Lists. Pictured: Patti Smith \/ Image: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, we can\u2019t discuss travel style without looking at Jane Birkin<\/a>. With her weathered Herm\u00e8s bag<\/a> in tow, the British-French icon captivated the world with her artfully dishevelled hair and nonchalant style<\/a> \u2013 Birkin was respectably not a meticulous traveller. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI admire people who have a travel suit and haven\u2019t forgotten where they put their earplugs because they\u2019ve got everything stored in a little pouch \u2013 but I\u2019ve never been organised on a plane, ever,\u201d she told Smythson Travel<\/em><\/a> in an interview about her habits. \u201cI\u2019m always wearing the same thing, so I pack a couple of shirts, a couple of pairs of trousers and that\u2019s it! I go to Agn\u00e8s B \u2013 I always wear her silk tops. I have one that is 50 years old.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with silk shirts, Birkin said she always travelled with press cuttings of her children, Embryolisse moisturiser, and men\u2019s cashmere V-neck sweaters. A red ribbon around the handle of her suitcase helped her pick out her pack.<\/span><\/p>\n

While most are happy to mix and match at whim, there are the working figures who have always relied on granular organisation. Just look at Jackie Kennedy Onassis<\/a>. With her stoic presence and impenetrable elegance, the former First Lady of the United States relied heavily on her keen eye for fashion to curate her public persona. And being wrapped up in politics, there is still so much unknown to her fans about her as a person. <\/span><\/p>\n

The travel checklist Onassis penned for her tragic final tour with her husband, John F. Kennedy, in 1963 has long been a subject of intrigue.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Leave DC 11am.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Dedicate Aerospace 2.25pm.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Next to its dutifully scheduled plans \u2013 down to the minute \u2013 are her planned styling notes. <\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Chanel earrings, gold + navy bracelet, safety pin \u2013 emerald pin<\/s>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Black velvet Galitzine. Black satin gloves. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Black evening bag. White kid gloves<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Within these details, we get a sense of the woman behind the pillbox hat and white gloves: a dedicated person who cared deeply about her role and the impressions she inspired. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Given some access to laundry facilities, an absence of formal appearances required, and only minor fluctuations in temperature, there\u2019s really no reason not to travel light. But with all the possibility that travel promises, even if it\u2019s just a story we\u2019re telling ourselves, it\u2019s no wonder we\u2019ve become geared towards overpacking. From 10-step skincare routines and infinite makeup solutions, \u2018essential\u2019 toiletries alone threaten to eat up our entire baggage allowance. Throw in the infinite gadgets modern living begets, and that\u2019s a lot of stuff<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s impossible to discern a person\u2019s style through a two-dimensional checklist \u2013 we can\u2019t assume<\/em> the two skirts Didion thought to pack were as chic as her reputation \u2013 what a person packs, both what they plan to bring and what actually ends up in their suitcase, can tell us a lot about a person. Particularly for celebrities and creatives whose inner lives are shrouded in allure and mystery, a peek inside their carry-on might reveal as much intel as a meaningful conversation.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but by scouring these insights, we can essentially outsource our own dilemmas. Simply put, these lists and various iterations scratch a brain itch for the curation and decisiveness we crave when faced with endless options or an overflowing wardrobe and bathroom shelf. Perhaps it\u2019s not really about the stuff at all and more about getting some perspective.<\/p>\n

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