There's a way to make traveling exciting for children this holiday season, and it doesn't involve a movie marathon. With fun luggage pieces, they'll be able to carry their own things and feel like a big kid. Whether you're flying across the country or hitting the road for just a few hours, these pieces will make everything from packing to snacking seem like a big adventure!
One of the most stressful parts of flying isn't getting to the airport or sprinting through security on time; it's figuring out how to make it onto the flight while still looking chic. Enter Hermès and its new Calèche-Express Luggage. With its luxe, water-resistant canvas — trimmed in the brand's signature natural leather, of course — it practically guarantees you will always be rolling in style. The first trolly luggage to be produced by the brand, it comes in three sizes, all of which are conveniently carry-on sized. Priced from $6,800 to $7,750, all three sizes are available at Hermès boutiques and on Hermes.com now.
— Reporting by Robert Khederian
Get your little ones extra excited for your next vacation with these playful, practical luggage picks. There's a smart, sensible option for any occasion, whether you're heading cross-country or just to grandma's house across town. Here are some of our favorite luggage choices for tots, featuring everything from sports to animals to popular Disney characters.
If you don't want to bother with the hassle of checking in your luggage, being charged baggage fees, and potentially losing your bags, consider an adaptable carry-on. If you're wondering what that is, it's a flexible luggage that has bags attached to it so it'll still be counted as one piece since they are all stuck together. These adaptable bags are measured to easily fit into the cabin storage space. If you're keen on getting one, check out the Balanzza Truco ($199). Remember, you can always make the most of your carry-on by using vacuum bags!
If you're Blair Waldorf, it's only natural that you have a luggage rack to prop up and display your luxe Louis Vuitton suitcase. But for the rest of us who own less glamorous nylon Samsonite-style rolling bags, a luggage rack isn't exactly a decorative item, but merely a functional one! After a trip, I'm definitely guilty of the drag and drop in my house. In any case, do you own one?
While most luggage comes with locks and keys, admittedly they look like something a five year old could pry open with little more than a bobby pin. The locks aren't meant to keep everyone out — they need to be TSA approved regardless — but seeing this clasp can cause criminals to pass on the bag because of the sheer hassle and opt for an unlocked case instead.
For this reason, I could see the point that any sort of lock acts as a deterrent anyway while others could argue that the flimsy lock is pointless based on its security (or lack there of). Are you nitpicking at my logic that the ease to pick out and pick these locks doesn't matter or will you be picking them up only to toss them away in the future?
Still reeling from the parade of friends and family in your home this Summer? Prepare your house for the next busy season by outfitting guest rooms with the Pottery Barn Rattan Luggage Rack ($59.99, reduced from $89). The durable rack, made of thick rattan poles and wrapped with rattan strips, will host a revolving door of suitcases and seasonal gear.
Don't get many visitors? I'd transform it into a chic side table by having a glass top cut to fit, or even just setting a leather, rattan, or metal tray on top it. A portable tray top would be great for cocktail parties. Or you can buy two, and use them as bedside tables. What do you think?
Hopefully, you've learned to pack by now. But once you've rolled up your socks perfectly and handed your suitcase off to an airport employee, you don't have much control over where it goes. Sometimes luggage disappears, and when that happens, Is This Your Luggage is there to save the day. The mysterious person behind this website collects lost luggage, photographs it, and then tries to find its owners.
Where does the luggage come from, you ask? Well, apparently, after a bag sits at an airport for a certain amount of time unclaimed, and its owner can't be identified, the airline will auction it off and send the profit to a charity. Then this odd, voyeuristic, web-savvy person, goes to these auctions and buys those suitcases in hopes of returning them to owners through the site. So, if you've lost luggage and the airline has had no luck in tracking it down, check out Is This Your Luggage.
What is it with this fake "down home" country as value resurgance we are seeing these days and no we aren't talking about America's hokiest Vice Presidential candidate. We find "straight talking straight shooters" to be contrived in politics and frankly we like it even less when it shows up in our fashion. And now we have not one but two major shows asking us to ride into the sunset thanks to an urban cowboy resurgance at Givenchy and Hermés.
Maybe the ride'em cowboy aesthetic was mere idle inspiration at Givenchy and admittedly we thought the black hat bad cowboy vibe worked in a strange way towards Ricardi Tisci's wider vision for Givenchy. But John Paul Gaultier's preposterously kitschy Wild Wild West theme for Hermés Spring 2009, complete with cacti, was clearly premeditated spectacle. And it doesn't make a damn bit of sense.
If country is the new urban, down home the new luxury, and meaningless clichés the new value then who the hell knows what feels "right" for the next season. We want no part of this clunky contrived artificial pandering. Not in politics and not in fashion. Sure, they say that cowboy is a perennial trend that pops up like clockwork but are any other designers genuinely doing a return to country seriously? We think not. And it feels even weirder coming culturally twice removed from a man who probably doesn't spend a lot of time on the open range if you catch our drift. Its cultural appropriation at its worst.
We are going to recycle another pony paddock bon mot and say you can only polish a turd so much. Country themes just don't make a lot of sense in luxury goods regardless of current events, even if you are a leather goods house. Its one thing if you make saddles but we are pretty sure no rancher we've ever met (and we're from Colorado) ever bought Hermés tack.
Thank God Hermés has separate merchandising and accessories teams or we would be forced to write off this entire mawkishly sentimental season as a complete and total farce. Blessedly someone took care of making sure reasonable luggage, belts, gloves and other proper commercial goods made it onto the runway so those of us concerned with the actual products shown have something to focus on. It is times like this when we wonder if Gucci doesn't have the right idea by putting a merchandiser instead of a designer in the creative director slot.
