Move over, suitcase. The trunk is making a travel comeback

In the summer of 2022, during the mad rush to hit the road and resume international holidays, travel became synonymous with chaos. Flights were cancelled, hotels were understaffed and luggage went missing for weeks if not months. To gain some sense of control, travellers turned to carry-on bags as a means of making sure that, if nothing else, their suitcases would arrive at their destination at the same time they did.

Just two years later, the world has slowed down. The lineups at airports have returned to the cadence of prepandemic traffic, the rush to book has subsided and travellers are seeking a more leisurely pace when they’re away. Mastercard Economics Institute’s travel trends report for 2024 revealed that vacationers are booking trips an average of one-to-two days longer than they were in 2019.

New travel patterns inevitably affect luggage choices. Longer getaways and a more leisurely pace afford more opportunities to express yourself through your attire – and in the case in which it’s all packed.

Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon, a Miami-based travel journalist, is typically on the road three weeks per month. After her standard check-in suitcase was damaged, she was loaned a Briggs & Riley trunk to try for a cruise in Antarctica. She quickly became a fan.

“There are some times when you just can’t stuff everything into a carry on, no matter how much of a professional traveller you are,” she says. “The trunk is a new silhouette that I was interested to try out and I’m pleased with how utilitarian it is. I love the clamshell design that allows me to pack the two sections separately.”

Greaves-Gabbadon chronicles her fashion choices while she’s on the road via an Instagram account (@jetsetshops), and typically packs to make a statement. The trunk, she says, allows her to easily organize her holiday wardrobe, “by weather, for example, or I might decide to only put soft clothes in the larger side of the case,” she says. “The narrower side of the case is reserved for shoes, toiletries and accessories,” so that everything is easily found at all times.

That utilitarian nature is why the trunk became a travel essential in the late 1800s, which Michael Warwick, co-owner and partner at Toronto leather goods and luggage shop B Hemmings & Co., describes as the golden age of travel. It was a time when brands such as Moreau, Louis Vuitton and Goyard were making trunk luggage for members of a newly mobile middle class who were travelling by carriage or train.

Those original trunks blended fashion with function. The pieces were aesthetically attractive, but their main selling point was their durability – something that’s just as relevant today as bags move between airports, planes and other modes of transit.

“I think we’re in a second golden age,” Warwick says of the state of travel today and the trunk’s resurgence as a suitcase of choice. He adds that travellers have become more aware of the opportunity to use luggage as a form of self-expression. “Luggage has become a lot more fashionable. It used to be a box on wheels. I think people are seeing it differently,” he says.

The beauty, for many, is the simplicity of a trunk’s configuration; open the lid and a traveller has a blank canvas to fill as they wish, no pockets or compartments eating up interior space. Materials like leather are used for the exterior, while the inside of the trunk is lined with cotton or even silk.

Warwick points to trunks crafted by the British luggage brand Globe-Trotter, which has been making cases by hand since 1897, as examples of modern trunks that still abide by traditional manufacturing techniques. “Some of the machines they use actually date back to the Victorian age,” he says. The trunks are lightweight but durable, functional but design-forward with leather straps and handles that make a statement.

Inspired by such traditions and traveller demand, newer luggage companies, such as Monos, are adding trunk cases to their collections. “We understand the challenges of weaving through crowds of people at the airport, especially if you have a very wide, heavy suitcase without 360-degree spinner wheels,” says Kathleen Westerhout, the Vancouver brand’s senior director of product. “The Hybrid Trunk was designed to improve this experience. Its overall footprint is much narrower than a classic check-in, making travel, especially during longer journeys, a breeze.”

The versatility of a trunk’s blank canvas is useful whether you’re travelling as a family, packing for special engagements or for an extended journey. But it’s the romance of the luggage’s history that sets it apart from every other case on the baggage carousel.

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