Excess baggage

I am a fan of traveling in style...trying to recreate, or at least pay homage to, the bygone ages when it was perfectly acceptable take enough luggage to (pardon the expression) sink a ship...trunks, suitcases, and bags filled to the brim with clothing and impedimentia to cover any eventuality. A sudden whim to paint a watercolor of Niagara Falls? How handy that I brought my collapsible easel and paint set. An invitation to go on a picnic? The portable record player is in the large trunk on the left.

That's my ideal...the reality is somewhat different. In reality, the cabin on a train is large enough for a small carryall and two people. Anything larger and you're getting into serious lack-of-room-for-cat-swinging-purposes territory. Let's not even mention the fact that there is no need to dress up to visit the restaurant car...actually, let's not even use the term "restaurant car"...it's a diner on wheels. It's the same with traveling by ship. I've sailed the Atlantic twice and it's a wonderful, leisurely, way to get from point A to point B. Much nicer than flying but lacking some of the luxury that the method of transportation suggests. I need to face facts, I'm a 1930's traveler stuck in a noughties world...but I'm not alone, at least if Wes Anderson's movies are anything to go by. Especially "The Darjeeling Express"** which opens this Friday. A train ride across India? Maybe. A train ride across India with a one-off set of Louis Vuitton luggage? Sign me up, now!

If you're a fellow fan of luggage with a capital L...and have a bank balance that could keep a small country chugging along happily for a little while...the Vuitton luggage is being auctioned off for charity, specifically UNICEF and the Rawal Mallinathji Foundation in India. Silent bids can be dropped off at the Vuitton store in New York. And if the future owner of the luggage would like to make an additional donation of say, a small duffel from the set, to the "Hebden Needs Better Luggage Fund"...well, I would definitely be a happy little camper...sailor...passenger...


**For a sneak preview of the luggage in action, take a look at Wes Anderson's short companion film "Hotel Chevalier"...available as a free download on iTunes.