Name it! How to pack for a weekend trip

9 tips for travelling light, and the 5 outfits I plan to wear in Copenhagen this weekend

I am travelling two weekends in a row, this weekend to Copenhagen and the next to Madrid, and thought it would be fun to show you how my brain works during the packing process.

I always try to only bring a carry on, regardless of the duration of a trip. The limitations make me extra creative, and the packing process almost becomes a game, like Tetris. So I’ll let you in on a couple of tips I’ve learnt by doing.

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Tip 1: Find out how many outfits you need to pack (duh)

Seems obvious, but I’ve come to understand some people don’t think about this and just throw everything they think they want to wear in a suitcase…

So instead, find out how many outfits you need on your trip. This doesn’t mean the number of unique outfits, but how many times you need to get dressed.

For Copenhagen I need three daytime looks and two evening looks, aka five in total (keep scrolling to see the result)

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Tip 2: Get yourself a Rimowa

I’ve had mine for almost 10 years. It has been the best travel companion on countless of trips and makes packing in a carry-on fun (and achievable). Fits everything, lightweight and (most importantly) looks good.

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Tip 3: Start with footwear

Shoes often take up the most space in your luggage, limiting the number of shoes it’s physically possible to bring on a trip. I often plan my outfits around the shoes, both because footwear is often decided by the weather (check the weather forecast before travelling obviously), and because it in my opinion is often the hero of an outfit.

For this trip I allowed myself to bring two pairs of heels, one for each night out, one pair of boots and one pair of loafers. The loafers are in case I want to change shoes, but in theory all daytime outfits are planned around my new boots.

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Tip 4: Pack around a specific colour palette

Packing too many colours makes the mixing and matching of clothing difficult. However, packing around a specific colour palette allows for improvisation during the trip, because all the clothes you’ve brought work together.

My colour palette for this weekend: black, cream, camel and grey with a hint of pink and navy.

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Tip 5: Hang everything on a clothes rack

Related to Tip 4, hanging everything you plan to bring on a clothes rack makes it easier to visualize.

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Tip 6: Wear the same trousers during the day as you did for dinner the night before

It is important that you don’t do this the other way round, as you don’t want to wear the clothes you’ve been walking around the city in for dinner.

I recently purchased these Levi’s jeans in cream, as I’ve been looking for the perfect cream pair for so so long (why is it so difficult to find?). I think cream jeans are a perfect transitional piece as they look great with darker colours, e.g. black, navy and charcoal. I also think they allow me to wear my new Khaite boots a little longer. Which is what I plan on doing during the day, with this look:

Levi’s 501 cropped jeans, Massimo Dutti men’s shirt, Cos t-shirt, Toteme jacket, Khaite Apollo boots

But to maximise, I need to wear them for an evening out too. So the evening before I plan to wear them with my python sandals from Saint Laurent and a black shirt from Mark Kenly Domino Tan (previously worn here):