Travelling with jewelry. Some tips for you
As co-president and design director of Chopard, Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele is used to traveling with jewelry.
She spends about six months of the year on the road, and she always brings along pieces to wear that will represent the watch and jewelry label well at business meetings and events.
While Ms. Gruosi-Scheufele has the luxury of borrowing jewelry from Geneva-based Chopard, which has been in the watch business since 1860, she always travels with a few personal favorites as well. She tries to minimize the number of pieces she carries for insurance reasons and always matches her outfits with jewelry before she packs.
“I always pick the jewelry first and then I pick the dress,” says Ms. Gruosi-Scheufele, who notes that she tends to choose dresses based on whether they are “good jewelry dresses” that won’t outshine the pieces. “They’re feminine and sexy but not overloaded with sequins or colors — something plain but very well-cut.”
Her travel staples include a diamond watch with a relatively large face, for easy time-telling during meetings, she says. She likes having a few diamonds on the watch-face, because “when you have a bad day they always make you smile,” but also because a piece with a little flash will work well with both day and night ensembles, so she won’t have to bring another watch. Calling herself an “earrings freak,” Ms. Gruosi-Scheufele brings several pairs on each trip, favoring large, sparkly diamond studs or earrings that extend no more than an inch beneath the earlobe for business meetings. (Longer ones “can be distracting,” she says.) For daytime, she favors a long, simple gold necklace with a large pendant, which she calls versatile and not too showy. She’s always careful to wear just one striking piece with each ensemble, whether it is the earrings, a brooch or a necklace.
When packing her jewelry, she places each item in a small suede drawstring pouch, ties it up, and then places the pouch in a large suede drawstring bag with pockets to hold the pouches. The suede protects the jewelry, she says, and the malleable pouch is easy to pack. She is careful not to pack diamonds in the large pouch if it contains pearls or colored stones — which are softer — as the diamonds can scratch up or damage those pieces. If she is bringing a piece that combines diamonds and softer stones, she transports it in the box it came in; usually, a jeweler’s box will hold the piece in place so the stones don’t rub up against one another.
If Ms. Gruosi-Scheufele wants to give her jewelry some added sparkle while she is on the road, she sometimes gives it a quick cleaning using her grandmother’s “old, old-fashioned” method: Dip the piece for about five minutes in lukewarm, slightly soapy water (using regular hotel bar soap), rinse it in lukewarm water and then dry it with a suede cloth. “If you’re careful, you can clean anything in that,” she says.
Protect your jewelry when traveling
D’packaging for air transport can be especially difficult as you try to protect your valuable jewelry and often emotional damage without sacrificing too much space in your luggage. When you travel with jewelry, you want to make sure it reaches its destination and that it remains unscathed. The Transportation Security Administration recommends that air passengers refrain from wearing jewelry containing the metal to expedite security checks, but also recommends that you keep valuable items, including jewelry with you rather than in checked baggage during the journey. Many people do not want to have to sacrifice jewelry with them during their trip, leading to the need for an effective defense and ensuring jewelry in a carryon bag or purse.
One way of protecting and transporting jewelry is conveniently with the purchase of a jewelry travel that is equipped to ensure and protect the nature and quantity of jewels will be in charge. Travel cases for jewelry are available from many sources and vary in quality, price and design. By purchasing a trip, be sure to take into consideration the types and quantity of jewels that will travel with you, and select a case that will fit your needs still consume little space in your luggage. Packaging
jewelry Any security in your suitcase, however, does not necessarily involve an investment in a matter of jewelry. You can safely and economically your jewelry box safe with cardboard or heavy paper. Colliers individual can be packaged in cardboard boxes created by the first cut rectangles of cardboard that measure a little more than twice the length of each string. This can be accomplished by providing each necklace in the two slots that have been reduced to one end of each rectangle and rectangle folding in half to cover the chain. The cardboard box can then be stored together or placed in a snug baggie which allows the chain to spend a minimal space. Earrings and bracelets can be guaranteed, cardboard or heavy paper in the same way. The goal is to create a robust housing that prevents necklaces to take all the jewelry and protects against damage caused by compression and the potential impact.
Keep valuable items such as jewelry to assure you that you travel with you that they will arrive at their destination, in the circumstances unlikely that your checked baggage only. Whether you opt for DIY or buying a jewelry travel to meet your needs, you can request a private security screening if you travel with large amounts of valuables and would prefer to protect your privacy.
Madonna Jewelry Travel Tip
Learn from Madonna’s mistake when traveling. Keep the Jewelry light. Before going through the scanner, I always remove my watch, belt, change etc and put it in my laptop bag to save time going through the scanner. Jewelry will often cause you repeated trips through the scanner and possibly a full blown search. Prime Example:
Even superstars are not spared the privations of airport security scanners.
As a bejewelled Madonna discovered when she flew into Heathrow yesterday, travelling commercial can be problematic when you’re dripping in bling.
As the pop queen elected to take a more environmentally-friendly British Airways flight from New York to London rather than fly by her usual private jet, she had to remove her shoes and jewellery before taking her first-class seat.
Says a fellow passenger: “She went through the metal detector three times and kept setting it off so had to take off more jewellery.
“First, she tried to take off her bracelet but couldn’t undo the clasp so stuck her arm out for her assistant to do it for her. Then she had to take off her watch, and again she couldn’t do it so got her assistant to.
“On the third try, she got through without the detector beeping and raised her fists in triumph.”