This British Luggage Maker Just Debuted a Garment Bag Designed to Avoid Wrinkling Your Clothes
Is there anything sadder than a suit carrier? Typically made from cheap, synthetic fabric in a flat, dull color, they’re a common sight in overhead bins and on pub floors, their tailored contents assuredly wrinkled and creased.
So, leave it to Bennett Winch, which has been producing thoughtfully designed travel accessories in England for a decade, to find a better way. “Our reason to start Bennett Winch was, and remains to this day, a desire to create the things we couldn’t find,” says Robin Bennett, who co-founded the business with his business partner Robin Winch in 2014.
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The newly launched Bennett Winch Trifold is such a solution, intended to redeem a design considered a folly by many in the industry. “Trifolds notoriously don’t work,” says Bennet Winch design director Rupert Shreeve. “For all their promise they have a tendency to crease suits, twice as much as a bifold carrier.”
And when the rare functioning trifold can be found, it often proves an aesthetic disappointment.
“Even if they come close to working, they tend to be ‘techy’ looking things aimed at ‘businessmen,'” Shreeve continues. “We describe our customers as being ‘discerning minimalists,’ by which we mean they surround themselves with a curated set of tools that all have a coherent quality to them. Not only was the function not there, neither was the quality.”
Bennett Winch’s solution—which took 15 samples to perfect—incorporates lessons learned from the development of the maker’s well-received S.C. (“Suit Carrier”) Holdall. That two-piece product consists of a small, cylindrical travel bag over which an attached suit carrier can be folded, taking advantage of the former’s rounded shape to prevent its contents from creasing.
The Trifold functions on a similar principle. It has been designed with an open-sided format that maximizes the radius of each folding point, softening the ensuing folds and preventing hard creases from forming on the up to three suits it can carry. “The result has the convenient proportions of a trifold, with the soft fold capability of our S.C. Holdall,” Shreeve says.
Equally critical are the materials it is made from, and where. In this case, those are waterproof, high-performance nylon outer with Tuscan leather retaining straps and a detachable shoulder strap built from military-grade cotton webbing. Like all of Bennett Winch’s products, the Trifold is manufactured in the U.K., which Shreeve views as a design imperative.
“As a product designer, being completely immersed in our manufacturing and material capabilities is hugely important. Without fully understanding our strengths and weaknesses from a production point of view we can’t innovate effectively,” he tells Robb Report. “The design process for us is 50 percent in the sketchbook and 50 percent around the factory table.”
While Bennett Winch maintains a flagship store at 34 Savile Row, its team knows that dress codes have shifted towards the casual in recent years. Bennett assures us that the Trifold is equally capable of transporting chore coats, though he continues to champion its primary purpose.
“I would say with confidence that every man has to wear and travel with a suit at least once in his life, and if we can make that experience more of a joy than a burden, it will happen more often. Here’s to smarter travel!”
And with that same spirit of promoting smarter travel generally, we’ve scoured the market for other suit carriers worthy of mention. Four more fine choices below:
Briggs & Riley Baseline Garment Duffle
Call it the Optimus Prime of business travel. Baseline’s Garment Duffle is a weekender that shifts into a hanging garment bag in a snap.
Métier Closer Suit Carrier
Approaching serious “for the man who has it all” territory, Métier’s luxe suit carrier is crafted from veg-tanned buffalo leather and includes dedicated interior pockets for ties and cufflinks. Ideal for that long-distance black tie affair.
Tumi Alpha Garment Bag Tri-Fold Carry-On
By merging a conventional carry-on with a trifold capable of carrying two suits, Tumi’s Alpha garment bag provides the peace of mind that comes with taking one less thing to the airport.
The Armoury by Frank Clegg Sunbrella Garment Bag
Waterproof “sunbrella” cloth is the secret sauce behind this Frank Clegg garment bag, which is trimmed with leather and made in Massachusetts exclusively for The Armoury.
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