What I'm packing for 5 days in Venice in October

And the tricks I’ve learned from a life of work travel

The anchoring feature piece of my packing plan.

The prospect of packing for any trip always fills me with horror. Which is crazy when I think how many times I’ve had to do it over the past forty years for work, let alone fun travel.

I think it was packing to cover the fashion shows in London, Milan and Paris that gave me the fear. Knowing you were going to spend three weeks with the most stylish women on the planet, in an environment where everyone would be noticing what you were wearing. Because that was all of our jobs.

Many of those women also appeared to have bottomless funds to stock their wardrobes.

There was one who had at least three Birken bags. She had a white one, which I thought was so cool, because it was like a billboard saying ‘I’ve got black, tan, navy and red already, so I thought white would be fun…’

She carried it in winter in Milan with a navy cashmere coat and white jeans. So cool.

But once I actually start assembling the garb – the putting it all on the bed stage – the…