Travel Attire - What to wear when you have to travel by air

In the age where security is tough at airports one should be prepared. I cannot understand the fact that some people who fly frequently yet seem to forget that the security checks before you get to board a plane is pretty thorough these days. Especially on international flights. You have to remove anything and everything metallic and not attached to you - watches, jewellery, wallet, purses, keys, bags etc. All of these items would have to go through a x-ray scanner and you would have to then pass through a metal detector and may be patted down too.

So you should make things easy for yourself and to others.

These days I always wear a jacket with lots of pockets when I fly. I especially like safari jackets if I am going on holiday. If it were business I may end up with a blue blazer which is pretty universal. But, these days, it is usually business casual or just casual when I fly. So the safari style jacket comes in handy.

It is like walking around with a lot of drawers. It helps when you have to put your items through a scanner. What I do is make sure all belonging like the watch I wear, keys, wallet, cardholder and even the belt (if I am wearing one) and put them into the pockets of the jacket. The safari jacket you see here, which I got made in Hua Hin a couple of years ago was put to good use on my recent trip to Vietnam.

I stuffed everything in the pockets - my wallet, camera, phone, watch, keys, a packet of cough drops, pieces of paper and even the belt I wore into the pockets and buttoned them up before putting the jacket and my belongings in the tray which was then passed through the scanning machine. The only thing that was not inside the pockets were the pair of shoes I was wearing. Having all your belongings hidden from sight is also good as there is no chance of anything going missing. Sometimes, the people who are queuing have itchy fingers. And a visible watch or phone may be targeted. 

Which brings us to the shoes. I try not to wear laced shoes when I have to travel by air internationally. This is because it is mandatory to remove your shoes (as I mentioned earlier). So you will cause a traffic jam as people have to wait for you to remove your shoes and all that. Shoes are scanned these days as people may smuggle everything from drugs to a bomb in them. Some proper shoes also have metal shanks which could set off the metal detector in the walk through scanner.

So I now use what I call the perfect shoe for the airport, my pair of Trickers from the Junya Watanabe MAN for Comme des Garcons collection. A mouthful, I know. Sneaker sole but with a traditional penny loafer upper. So it would be quick to put on and to slip out of within a second or so. Comfortable shoes to wear at the airport whilst you wait to board and on the plane too. 

After done with the scanner and the metal detector, I just took the jacket, put it on, slipped on my shoes and walked off. It makes the checks seem very much shorter and you are more organised whilst going through it. So a jacket with lots of pockets and rubber soled shoes help a lot to speed things up. 

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