NYC Travel Diary + Packing List
Slouching towards Balthazar
I recently took a week-long writing trip to New York. I hate checking luggage and I wanted to fit everything in a carry-on, so this was a serious challenge. Here is my version of the Joan Didion packing list modified a bit for the offensively cold February NY weather:
A quick aside on luggage: on one of my first live tours, Peanut Butter Wolf tried to justify to me the expense of a Rimowa luxury suitcase for someone who travels a lot. I laughed at him but when I got home from that 15 city tour dragging my mangled Ricardo bag held together with duct tape, I went and bought that fucking Rimowa and I have never looked back. I firmly believe it’s worth the investment if you fly more than a few times a year. Since LVMH acquired the brand in 2016, the quality has declined, but they are still better than most other luggage I’ve seen. You can sometimes find pre-2016 editions on ebay or from dealers in Japan. Even though the classic silver aluminum is incredibly sexy, I recommend the poly-carbonate for durability.
For hanging items like suits, dress shirts and nice pants I keep them on hangers with those thin clear plastic dry-cleaning bags around them. This absolute magic trick keeps them from getting wrinkled in the suitcase. (Seriously, it works.) And then I put them all in a garment bag and roll the garment bag up kind of like a flat burrito.
Shout out the Hotel Chelsea. I love Sean MacPherson’s hotels and I like to stay at Chelsea or The Bowery whenever the budget allows. His blend of history, vintage furniture and modern but cozy interior design is some of the best in the world.
This was probably my favorite fit of the week. I’m in love with this vintage yellow JPG sweatshirt. I’ve been taking a classic white short-sleeve polo shirt everywhere to layer under crew neck sweaters and sweatshirts. I just love how it makes anything feel kind of ivy and is more comfortable than wearing a white dress shirt. This one is vintage Ralph Lauren but I’m on the hunt for a softer one with a slightly bigger collar.
This outfit looked cool but was a super big fail because the sweater fuzz got stuck all over the corduroy pants. I should have worn jeans or some less matte fabric pants. This vintage wool sweater is also vintage JPG that I got from The RealReal and it is so fucking soft and nice.
Here’s the white polo layered again. People went crazy for this Cameron Conley sweater that my wife found at a consignment shop in Highland Park. So many comments. It’s so silly, I love it. Jeans are Levis 517s that I got from The Vintage Twin in NYC which was a very cool shopping experience. You basically tell them what you’re looking for, and your assigned concierge disappears into the denim dungeon and returns with multiple vintage options for you to try.
I had some excellent sushi at Nakazawa. I tried Wild Cherry (a very trendy new restaurant in New York from the team at Le Veau d’Or) and thought it was fun but not amazing (martini was killer). And I finally went to Quarters (a gorgeous concept store / showroom from the founders of In Common With lighting) where I found these super sick leather coaster sets in a brass or aluminum holder by Australian Studio Henry Wilson. A quote that always sticks with me is from Ellen DeGeneres (who has very good taste in furniture / art) when asked for design advice, she replied: “Use coasters.” Good coasters are weirdly very hard to find.
That’s all for now. I’m still getting the hang of this and trying to figure out what Love Notes will be so please tell me what you like or don’t like about this. Thanks for reading.
Peace and love,
came for the fit pics, stayed for the coasters