The one with climates in it
Working in three countries in one week
Packing for business travel across climates and cultures, where the weather and the local norms both change mid-trip.
Leaving 6°C and rain, landing in 29°C and humidity, with a client meeting three hours after you get off the plane. Then doing it again in the other direction on Thursday.
The wardrobe problem here is not variety. It is that two incompatible sets of requirements have to fit in one bag, and the requirements are not only about temperature.
Climate
What happens
You dress for the destination and freeze in the departure airport, or dress for home and land in a coat you now carry for four days.
What DROBE does
Both ends are on the calendar with their own weather. The layer you remove on the plane is a planned item, not a mistake.
What happens
29°C and humid, and the linen shirt that works in dry heat is transparent when damp.
What DROBE does
Humidity is a different problem from temperature, and the item that solves one does not solve the other. Noted per item, per destination.
What happens
Air conditioning indoors is 18°C while it is 34°C outside. You are dressed for one of them all day.
What DROBE does
Planned as indoor and outdoor rather than as a single temperature. The cardigan is on the list because the meeting room is cold.
What happens
Rain that arrives at four every afternoon in the tropics, which is not the same as rain in Manchester.
What DROBE does
Shoes that dry, not shoes that are waterproof, is a different decision - and one made at packing time rather than in a doorway.
Local norms
This is the part that has nothing to do with weather and catches people hardest, because getting it wrong reads as disrespect rather than as a wardrobe error.
What happens
Shoulders and knees covered for a site visit, a temple, a mosque, or a government building - and you brought a sleeveless dress because it was 34°C.
What DROBE does
The constraint sits on the destination, alongside the weather, so it is visible when you pack rather than at the door.
What happens
Business formal in one office and pointedly informal in another. Turning up in a suit can be as wrong as turning up without one.
What DROBE does
Each meeting is its own event with its own dress code, so one trip can hold two different answers.
What happens
Shoes that come off at the door, worn with the socks you have had on since a 6am flight.
What DROBE does
A small thing, entirely avoidable, and only avoidable if you thought about it before you packed.
The bag
- One shoe colour. It is the heaviest thing you pack and the hardest to double up.
- A base that works in both climates. Usually trousers in a mid-weight fabric that is neither hot nor thin.
- Layers for the difference, not two separate wardrobes.
- The modest option, always. One long-sleeved layer that covers shoulders, regardless of forecast. It weighs nothing and it is the one you will need.
- Meeting-ready on arrival. Whatever you wear on the plane is the outfit for the first meeting, because your bag might not arrive.