Learning how to fold a dress shirt for travel may sound easy, but there are a few things to take note of if you want to reduce wrinkles.
After all, you want a shirt you can wear straight out of your luggage, not something that still needs ironing.
Of course, you can resort to the ever-trusty bathroom steam to get your shirts conference-ready, but that would take time too.
Not to mention, it doesn’t work quite as well on folded shirts.
Today, we’ll look at the right way to fold dress shirts in your carry-on so that you don’t have to worry about imperfections forming on them.
How To Fold a Dress Shirt for Travel
Men typically wear dress shirts for formal or semi-formal events, which means they should look pristine on you.
Thus, if you’re traveling somewhere for an event, make sure to fold your dress shirt as indicated below.
Doing so ensures you will look nothing less than presentable in it.
Step 1: Lay Your Shirt Out
Your shirt should be laid out flat and nicely on a clean and level surface.
Do not place it over a bouncy or uneven surface, like a couch or bed, as that will only cause imperfections to multiply.
Then, smooth out creases and wrinkles until all sides of the shirt are even.
Check that the sides of the shirt are crisp and straight because flaws in these areas are easily seen from a distance.
Step 2: Button Your Shirt
Before doing any folding or packing, make sure your dress shirt is buttoned. This keeps it from getting creases when in your carry-on.
Button the shirt up all the way, and don’t skip on some buttons. Doing only a few defeats the purpose of buttoning the shirt up in the first place.
When all the buttons are fastened, you reduce the chances of creases and wrinkles forming on the shirt.
Step 3: Start Folding
Now that your dress shirt is all buttoned-up and prepared, you can begin the folding process. As you might imagine, it’s not that complicated.
Start by folding the arms of your shirt, beginning with one sleeve before moving on to the next.
Keep both sleeves nice and straight to ensure minimal to no movement when inside your baggage.
The technique for preventing faults in these areas is to fold right along the crease of the shoulder.
Step 4: Fold the Shirt Again
After the initial folding of the shirt sleeves comes the diagonal folding.
You will have to do this twice until the cuffs are diagonal and are lined up with the shirt’s collar.
Step 5: Repeat Folding Process on the Other Sleeve
Folding the other sleeve should take the same amount of effort. Yes, it can be quite tedious, but you’ll get the hang of it eventually.
Plus, seeing your shirts come out crisp and pristine is worth all the trouble of learning the folding technique.
An Alternative Folding Method
Outside of the folding method we just discussed is one that’s just as effective and might work for you better.
To do it, begin by making sure the buttons of your shirt face downward toward the folding surface.
In a process very similar to the first, fold the sleeves diagonally across the shirt’s broader area.
Lay sleeves diagonally across one another in a straight, wrinkle-free way. Keep them tight and close to the collar so that creases don’t form.
No matter how you choose to handle the sleeves, there isn’t much change in the next steps.
Once the sleeves are done, you then fold the shirt starting from the bottom. Use both your hands to keep the folds even and wrinkle-free.
Move the bottom fold upward towards the collar, which should result in a half-folded shirt.
If you’re folding a shorter dress shirt, you may opt to stop the process by this point. However, if it’s a longer shirt or there isn’t much room in your luggage, fold the shirt once more.
Keep the folds even and lined up so that the shirt maintains a pressed look.
How To Pack Two or More Dress Shirts
Chances are, you will need more than one dress shirt for a business trip or special event.
In this section, we will look at how you can keep more than one dress shirt in good shape inside your baggage.
Proper dress-shirt folding can be time-consuming, so you might be tempted to cut corners every once in a while.
In most cases, that results in creased or wrinkled shirts that will have fellow guests or colleagues wondering if you went to bed in your clothes.
Fortunately, this hack for multiple-shirt folding is time-saving, keeping you from cheating the process.
What’s great about it is that it’s even more effective at keeping wrinkles at bay.
Here’s how you do it:
Step 1: Fold each shirt using the five-step guide, but with slight changes.
Instead of diagonal folds, fold straight down so that the cuffs end up pointing at the dress shirt’s tail.
Take note that you should still fold along the seams and creases that connect the shirt body and the sleeves.
Step 2: Focus on one sleeve at a time, smoothing out wrinkles as you go along.
Step 3: Once both sleeves are folded correctly, smooth them out again for good measure.
Step 4: Repeat the process on the other dress shirts before stacking them neatly over one another in your suitcase.
Conclusion
Folding long-sleeved shirts is among the activities that make packing headache-inducing.
Even so, it is perfectly understandable how one would rather roll their stuff in than fold them neatly.
After all, this helps save time and space—two things that tend to escape you when traveling.
While dress shirt folding comes with several steps and alternatives, it is actually worth learning once you see the results.And when you finally know how to fold a dress shirt for travel, you may realize there is really not much to it.