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COPYRIGHT 2007 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
They say you can't take it with you, but why not? That's why we have luggage--not to mention suitcases on wheels, expandable pockets, and porters. If what they're really worked up about is the airline surcharge for bags that weigh more than fifty pounds, then suggest that they send the baggage ahead. (With Luggage Free, the minimum charge domestically is $110, with a $40 pick-up fee within forty miles of the airport; 800-361-6871.) I am currently in need of a suitcase. I have places to get to and only a single bag to my name--a smallish black upright from Costco (Kirkland Signature Executive twenty-two-inch Rolling Carry-On; $109.99) that looks like every other black upright made of Cordura nylon. I once tied a piece of fuzzy orange yarn to the handle to make it conspicuous and was deflated to discover my case circling on the carrousel next to a piece exactly like it, also adorned with orange yarn.
"Sixty to seventy per cent of the business is in black," Dan Bettinger, a salesclerk at Altman Luggage (135 Orchard Street), told me recently. According to Bettinger, red is on the way out, olive is a powerful runner-up, brown is on the rise, and the walnut-colored nylon tweed on Hartmann luggage is the longest continuously used fabric in the industry. Altman guarantees the best prices for luggage. Then again, luggage is one of those things, like bed linens and yesterday's bread, that you have to go out of your way to buy when they're not on sale. Altman also carries pen-and-pencil sets, perhaps because the store specializes in bar- and bat-mitzvah gifts that don't require...
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