3 Tips to Keep Your Conference Outfits Wrinkle-free

Packing for a conference isn’t as simple as packing for summer vacation. You have to plan each outfit meticulously, especially if you’re presenting at the event or are going to represent your company. It’s important to dress the part, which typically means packing the same type of clothes that you would wear to the office.

The problem is that all too often, those beautifully pressed shirts, blazers, blouses, and dresses tend to become wrinkled while in transit to the destination. You can iron them out in your hotel room, but not everyone has time to do this when they arrive. Most business trips are very tightly scheduled, which means that any free time at all must be reserved for things like preparing for the event and checking work emails. So what can you do to make sure those clothes look as good as they did at home? Here are a few suggestions to keep your conference clothes free of creases and wrinkles.

Pack With Intention

There’s a certain science involved in packing for business trips. Wrinkles develop when you pack your clothes too snugly in the bag or suitcase. The more clothes you cram in, the more wrinkles there will be. When you unfold your clothes, they’ll likely have plenty of those creases. You can prevent this by packing with intention. How does that work when it comes to packing for a conference? If it’s a two-day event, you’ll want at least two outfits — or one base piece, like a custom business dress, along with a cardigan and a blazer that you can wear on each day. The idea is to maximize the use of your garments. The more times you can wear a single piece, the better. It’s easy to give the same item a different look by swapping your jacket for a sweater, for example, or by wearing one blouse one day and another the next. This will help you save considerable space.

Roll Your Clothes

You may be familiar with the old rolling trick, which is one of the most effective ways to pack any time of garment so that it doesn’t wrinkle. It can work for some of your pieces of custom work uniforms, but be mindful of what you choose to roll. Things like cardigans, layering T-shirts, and skirts can be rolled with ease. Doing this will save some space and help you fit a little bit more into the bag. To pack properly, make sure to put the rolled items at the bottom and other garments that you can’t comfortably roll on top.

Prevent Rubbing

The more that your garments rub against one another, the more likely there’s going to be a few lines and creases in those carefully chosen work clothes when you start unpacking. One easy way to combat this is to create a barrier preventing your garments from making contact. Although tissue paper is one option, you might find that you need quite a bit of it in order to create distinctive layers between each piece in your bag. A more sensible alternative is a plastic dry-cleaning bag.

Take several bags and place individual items on top of each one, such as your crisp custom uniform work blouses, pants, blazers, and skirts. Prioritize those items made with delicate fabrics that are more vulnerable to developing creases, like silk, cotton, and linen. Then fold the garment just as you usually would normally, but fold the bag along with the clothing. The plastic serves as a heavy-duty protectant and will safeguard almost any piece beautifully while you’re in transit. As soon as you arrive, unpack everything and hang it up in the closet.

Bring Along an Anti-Wrinkle Spray

Despite your best efforts, you may still encounter the occasional line or faint crease on your custom business skirt and other garments. To perform a quicker fix than dragging out the iron and spending time doing that in your hotel room, bring along a travel-size bottle of a wrinkle release spray. You can quickly spritz it onto the affected area and it will smooth out easily. Because it’s imperative to look your best at your conference, wrinkle release spray is a valuable item to keep on hand. But if you happen to forget it, you can try a traveler’s favorite trick: shower steaming. Just take your outfit to the bathroom, turn on the hot water, and allow the steam to fill up the room for a little while. That should help minimize those unsightly lines.

By packing properly and filling your bag only with the essentials, you can trust that you’ve done your very best to keep your conference attire as smooth and free of wrinkles as possible.