Talking Travel: Travel in style with a Hollywood A-list fashionista (part 2)

by Jerry Guo on

Jeane Beiter is a style consultant to celebrities who want to remake their wardrobe or pick out the perfect dress for a red-carpet event. She’s also author of “The Be. System, Completing the Circle Between You and Your Style,” and former host of “Modern Girl’s Guide to Life” on E! Style Network.

She’s here to give us some tips on traveling in style. Read part 1 here.

What’s your packing process for a trip? Any tips for cutting down the time it takes?

My packing process for a trip is quite easy actually. I have a list, and I stick to it. Actually it is the list that I have in my book, “The Be.System, Completing the Circle between You and Your Style.”

Even if I am going on a trip that will last more than a week, I still pack only for one week. I can hand wash or re-wear anything at least three times, and let’s be honest, who wants to lug three bags around Europe or an island, especially in these restricted luggage times! Plus it is just so freeing to not have to worry about packing and repacking extensively!
I usually take just a black Coach rolling carry on bag and a matching diaper bag which acts as my laptop / magazine tote for the trip. I don’t have a baby, but this tote really works great for this purpose! There are lots of pockets to store documents, cords, etc. I even wrap the laptop in the changing table cover to protect it from getting bumped around too much!

I pack all my shoes/accessories and cosmetic items around the outside of the carry on, and roll the clothing into one big roll to avoid wrinkling and put it in the center of the bag. I wear the heaviest clothing to travel in, so I don’t waste space at all!

Jewelry is minimal as I am not going on vacation to advertise my economic status, and I generally pick up any liquid toiletries, vitamins, etc. when I get there to avoid wasting valuable luggage weight and space.

What are some outfits you would recommend for a day at the beach? How about for a shopping trip in New York.

For a day at the beach I would recommend:

  • A large tote to carry book/towel
  • 85 spf sunscreen and hair spray with sun shield in it, 30 spf lip gloss
  • Head band/ hair tie or bandana for a man
  • Huge sun hat (with sunshield in lining) or baseball hat for men.
  • Large sized sunglasses
  • Bathing suit
  • Haviana’s (my all time favorite for summer flip flops and admitted huge addiction…I am a collector!)
  • Loose shorts and shirt combo in gauzy linen or cotton
  • Pareo or extra large cotton scarf to use as cover up or extra lounge area

For a day of shopping in NYC I would recommend:

  • Black simple pants, black lightweight knit v-neck cardigan in ¾ sleeve for woman. For Man, black pants, black jersey knit tee top.
  • Light leather jacket , weather permitting.
  • Simple pearl necklace or gold chain/ hoop earrings for woman
  • Black or tortoiseshell sunglasses.
  • Ballet flats in animal print theme, with gel sole inserts for extra cushioning and support for woman. Black driving shoes for man.
  • Extra large black tote to stash the spoils of your labor for woman.
  • The idea here is to dress chicly, but simply as you may have to be in and out of clothing to try things on . Black will hide dirt and always looks appropriate in any large city.

I always feel like a total dork when I’m back stateside decked out in whatever “native” gear I just bought. Are there outfits from overseas that can work here?

Any thing bought in Europe or the UK, such as France, Italy and England, is going to look great in the states. If you try to wear a sarong you bought in India here, it may not work too well, so stick to interesting accessories like tote bags, necklaces, earrings, or scarves to bring the culture home with you. Personally, I try to pick up scarves when I travel because they are light, unique and serve many purposes. Plus they are easy to take on other travels with me and act as active “postcards” of my travels at home and abroad!

Talking Travel: Travel in style with a Hollywood A-list fashionista (part 1)

by Jerry Guo on

Jeane Beiter is a style consultant to celebrities who want to remake their wardrobe or pick out the perfect dress for a red-carpet event. She’s also author of “The Be. System, Completing the Circle Between You and Your Style,” and former host of “Modern Girl’s Guide to Life” on E! Style Network.

She’s here to give us some tips on traveling in style.

Give us your travel creds. What have been some of your favorite trips?

Oh, I love to travel! Some of my favorite trips include a several week adventure in London and the English countryside, including the bucolic Cotswolds and historical Bath! I could easily live in England! It is not only one of the main fashion and style influences in the world, and therefore incredibly inspirational for me, it is also full of amazing history, engaging people, wonderful museums and vast amounts of land to explore and enjoy.

I also have been fortunate enough to travel to Hawaii on many occasions, most frequently to the remote island of Lana’i, where there are two fantastic sister resorts, The Manele Bay resort and the Lodge at Koele in the upland area of the island. Lanai has been a source of great solitude and interestingly enough, also creative inspiration for me, and I always look forward to going back to the peaceful energy there, eating lots of fresh tropical fruit everyday and playing board games at night on the open terrace of the hotel, listening the waves crash onto the shore below.
I have traveled extensively through the Mexican Riviera, and Caribbean as well, and Nevis is one of my favorite islands there. I particularly enjoy the goats and the monkeys which consider themselves to be quite equal to the residents and guest there!

I just came back a few months ago from several weeks in Alaska and Canada. I really enjoyed Vancouver and British Columbia immensely. The people were warm and friendly, it is truly cosmopolitan, and the food was top notch cuisine and very diverse. The scenery was spectacular! I now live in the Arizona desert, so it was so refreshing! It reminded me a lot of San Francisco, my hometown, which is another one of my very favorite locations in the world, one which I am fortunate enough to be able to visit often. I am currently planning several weeks in Northern Italy for this Fall, and I am extremely excited about that…the food, the culture, and of course the fashion!

What’s a typical day for you? What exactly does a “fashion/style consultant” do, if that’s even an accurate label?

I am an expert in the area of “Personal Image Analysis, Development and Management”, in short, an image expert. Clients hire me to basically take “the guess work out of looking great” and help them translate who they are inside, effectively to the outside! I work with women and men of all different walks of life and age groups, and it is fascinating and fulfilling work. I have been in the style and fashion industries for over three decades, which is, admittedly, 75% of my life! Needless to say, I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up and began working in the business as a model when I was a teenager. It just grew legs from there on.

My work is also very physical so I am frequently in client’s homes doing wardrobe editing, planning and packing them for trips. I am also in various boutiques and department stores pulling clothing and accessories for clients, working with clients who I am shopping in dressing rooms, or putting outfits together for photo shoots and television segments I am working on. I do editorial styling for publications and companies as well, so I handle literally thousands of garments and accessories each year. By the time I hit the bed at night, I do not have one bit of trouble falling asleep!

What are three must-have accessories / items you take when you travel?

My laptop, my black pashmina wrap, and my pinkish beige lip gloss.

What are this summer’s hot fashion trends, and how can we incorporate that into a travel wardrobe?

  • Shiny patent leather accessories like belts, headbands, and large hobo handbags and sandals. Best in black or white.
  • Brightly ”crayola” colored pieces in dresses, skirts, tops shorts and pants, as well as accessories of all types.
  • Safari inspired clothing in various shades of greens, beiges and whites. Jackets, shorts and pants are the most popular, but I have seen some dresses that are darling and versatile as well.
  • Metallic footwear and large geometric jewelry to compliment any skin tone in rose gold, bronze, and silver.
  • Jersey knit separates in grey, black and white. Easy to pack and easy to love! Universally figure flattering!

The best way to incorporate these into a travel wardrobe is to pick two or three neutral colors for your wardrobe pieces and use the accessories, such as your handbag, shoes or jewelry to punch up the color quotient! Some examples:

  • One khaki safari inspired jacket and pants, one black lightweight knit dress, and a pair of white shorts.
  • One black patent leather simple handbag, high heeled sandals and a belt, (that can work day and night) all which coordinate with the dress/ shorts and pants .
  • One light weight tote in beige with metallic accents.
  • One brightly colored swimsuit which can also be worn as a layering top.
  • One brightly accented large scarf which can be worn as a wrap, shawl or cleverly tied bandeau top.
  • Two pairs of flat shoes. One in metallic and one in a bright color.
  • Several jersey knit tee shirts/ sweaters in bright colors and two matching neutrals to the pants/ shorts/ jacket.

Galley Gossip: Should airlines restrict how much we pack?

by Heather Poole on

I was reading Grant Martin’s post, Should airlines charge you by your weight? and immediately thought of The Husband, who has recently become obsessed with the weight of my bag. The tote bag. That little black bag that attaches to the big black rolling bag, the one that gets placed in the overhead bin closest to my jumpseat.

Just last week I was on the floor, packing up the old tote bag, getting ready to commute back to work, as The Husband leaned against the wall of our bedroom watching me struggle with the zipper. With all my might I pressed as hard as I could, squishing down the contents inside, so I could just…get…the thing…zipped. There!

The Husband began to shake his head. I must tell you that I really do not like when he shakes his head like that, because when he starts in with all that head shaking business it means that he’s got something to say and I usually don’t care to hear what he has to say, especially in situations like this. Trust me, I’ve heard it a million times already.

“Unbelievable,” he said, and that’s all he said, yet that pretty much said it all, did it not?

“Go away,” I said, because I was just about to start filling up the suitcase, and that, I have to say, can get ugly. Very ugly.

He handed me a stack of magazines I’d left on the dresser, and smirked. “Don’t forget these.”

“Oh thanks” I said, as I unzipped the tote bag. I moved a few things around and proceeded to get a copy of Us, Writer, Budget Travel and Vanity Fair inside. Then I remembered the books! Yes, books, as in more than one, because I only had ten pages left to go in Margo Candela’s latest novel, More Than This, therefore I needed a backup book, so I grabbed a paperback copy of Lolita, a book I’ve been meaning to read for what, maybe ten years now, and somehow managed to get it all inside. With all my might I pressed as hard as I could and tried…to get..the thing….zipped. There, got it! I don’t know how I did it. But I did.

The Husband continued to shake his head. “What are you doing? Why are you taking all that?”

“I need. it.”

“You need it?”

“Yes, I need it. I’m going to be gone for five days. I need it.”

Okay, we’ve been married for five years now, so you’d think by now the guy would know that a flight attendant never leaves home without her reading material. I mean, hello!

As I rolled my empty suitcase out of the closet, I asked “What?” because he was at again, the head was shaking.

“You know the airline would save a lot of money if they fired you.”

“Go away,” I said, and meant it.

So he’s probably right, the airline would save a TON of money if they started putting restrictions on what we pack, even so, I’m not giving up my reading material. No. Freakin. Way. I don’t care how much money it saves the company, not after all I’ve given up already – pay, meals, pay, vacation, pay, you get the picture. I’m taking it all with me. And maybe a little more. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for instance, just in case, ya know, I get hungry during a six hour flight. And my Ipod, so I can relax in a dumpy airport layover hotel after a long day at work. And a couple packets of oatmeal, so I can eat before the flight in the morning since we usually leave so early we don’t have time to grab anything. And a couple extra packets of nondairy creamer, because…well..there’s never enough creamer in the hotel room, and this girls gotta have her creamer. And antibacterial hand lotion, in case we have a sniffling passenger or two onboard. And cold medicine, in case the antibacterial hand lotion does not work. Oh and Tums, in case there’s left over food on the airplane and I actually decide to eat it. And water, in case, you know, I get thirsty while I’m gone for five days. And….well…do I really need to go on? The bag gets packed. Full. And The Husband continues to shake his head.

Gadling Gear: Aloksak Plastic Bags

by Tynan on

Wait… don’t skip this article. I know on the surface it looks like an article about zip lock bags, but soon you’ll realize that it’s a lot more.

It’s a story about love, lust, and the beautiful simplicity of good design.

We were in Panama, taking a motorized dugout canoe to the tiny island of Isla Robinson. Our first warning sign should have been when the pilot of the canoe handed us a tablecloth.

The entire thirty minute boat ride was spent with us frantically trying to use the tablecloth to parry the spray’s advances towards our cameras. The video camera didn’t make it – now it stays zoomed all the way in all the time.

“We’ve got to get waterproof.”

And so, when we returned to civilization, we scoured the internet for a good waterproofing solution. It had to be reliable, lightweight, ultra-packable, and preferably cheap because we now had plans to waterproof everything in our bags.

We discovered Aloksak. These bags appear, look, and feel very similar to regular zip lock bags, but they’re actually quite different. In fact, they’re certified waterproof by none other than the US Navy.

A large order was placed and we waited for our friend to bring them to us in Japan when she visited.

True to the advertisement they really are totally waterproof, lightweight, and easy to pack. But besides waterproofing, they have a lot of other uses. And as you know, multi-function items are key to efficient packing.

Believe it or not, they actually take up negative room in your backpack. Why? Because you can pack your clothes in them, squeeze the air out, and then seal them into nice little vacuum packed packages. To see how effective this is, check out this video of me packing everything I own into a tiny 28L backpack.

Even if you use them for nothing else, they’re worth their modest cost for this one use. There’s also a 1 quart TSA sized one for your liquids. If you’ve ever had your shampoo explode in your bag, you know why you want a high quality bag to hold them.

The bags will also, in a pinch, make a halfway decent pillow. I’ve slept on trains, in a cave, on the roof of a building, and in a mountain hut, using the halfway (actually more like 1/3) inflated bag as a pillow. For an added bonus, wrap it in a fleece, jacket, or heavy shirt to make it a bit more comfy.

They come in a variety of sizes. I personally went with the multi pack (a 12×12, 6×9, and two smaller ones that are good for cell phones, wallets, and ipods), and an additonal three pack of 12x12s The 12x12s are perfect for clothes packing as well as impromptu pillow creation.

You can get them at Amazon

Ten tips for smarter packing

by Kent Wien on

If you haven’t checked out the search engine Mahalo, you might be pleasantly surprised. Mahalo’s goal is to hand-write and maintain the top 50,000 search terms. The effort they’re putting into these articles is refreshing. They’ve even tackled a subject near and dear to Gadling; ten packing tips for your next trip.

I was glad to see that I’ve incorporated at least eight out of ten of the tips when flying. For now, I might pass on donating my clothes at my destination, and I would add a couple of others, like making a checklist–which admittedly I still haven’t done even after forgetting to bring pants on my last London trip. To avoid the real horror of forgetting a power adapter for my laptop, I’ve bought an extra to leave in the suitcase permanently, along with my second set of toiletries which are a must.

How about you? Let us know of any tips that you’ve discovered to make packing less of a pain or if you’ve found a better way to travel light.