PACKING Chic travel wear has come a long way

The line gives new meaning to 'packing light.'
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DETROIT -- Her name adorns a chic women's clothing store in Southfield, Mich., but Lynn Portnoy is an ardent traveler, a vagabond at heart.
Over the years, she has become an expert on wrinkle-free fabrics, packable raincoats and how to go anywhere with just two pairs of shoes -- techniques she shares in seminars called Travel with One Bag.
So imagine her surprise when a woman emerged from the audience at one of her seminars in New York announcing that she was marketing the perfect travel wardrobe.
The woman was Karin (pronounced CAR-in) Brownstein, a New York marketing consultant who created the line with partner Tanya Traykovski. The clothes were washable, mixable jersey separates carrying the label Voyage Style.
"I thought it was just the cutest thing," Portnoy remembers. "And some friends looked at it, one of them 28 and one of them 59, and they both liked it too. And I thought, that's a good sign."
It didn't hurt that Brownstein, like Portnoy, is a University of Michigan graduate. They found a kinship in their shared love of travel and their educational background. Both were English majors -- Brownstein graduated in 1988 and Portnoy in 1960.
Portnoy decided to take a chance on the new line, becoming one of the first retailers in the country to carry it. It debuted last November at the tony Henri Bendel store in New York and arrived at Portnoy's store in late February.
The collection
There are six garments in the collection: a short-sleeved T-shirt, a knee-length skirt, straight-legged pants, a knee-length dress and two loose jackets, one with buttons, one without.
Everything is made of wrinkle-free, machine-washable jersey. The pieces come in black, tan or bright pink, in sizes XS, S, M, L and XL. The clothes are sold in kits, packaged in zippered nylon cases that feature the Voyage Style logo.
Retailers can assemble the kits however they choose, and Portnoy is stocking three. One contains a buttonless jacket, pants and dress in black or tan. Another contains a buttonless jacket, pants and skirt in black or tan. A third contains three T-shirts, one each in black, tan and pink.
Because of the enthusiastic response to the clothes at a two-day trunk show at her store, Portnoy plans to offer a kit consisting of the dress and pants. That combination has been a surprise hit; when they planned the collection, Brownstein and Traykovski never considered that the dress might be worn as a tunic over pants. But many women love the combination.
History
The women met in Asia, and it was on a trip to the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia that the idea for Voyage Style was born.
"We basically had a suitcase of mismatched, uncomfortable, unattractive clothes," Traykovski says. "We thought, we're two women who work in fashion and this is completely unacceptable. Why don't we own anything appropriate? We wanted things for trips that are easy to care for and elegant."
The women researched fabrics and suppliers, choosing a wrinkle-free jersey for the first collection of garments. Traykovski, who also runs a knitwear company called Isadora Story, handles the design and production. Brownstein takes care of marketing and sales, and was on hand at Portnoy's store for the trunk show.
It was well-received. Portnoy sold out of her initial order of sizes small and medium. She already ordered more and is consulting with Brownstein and Traykovski about some additions to the line.
Brownstein and Traykovski plan to add colors, offer larger sizes and produce the garments in a heavier jersey fabric more suited for cold weather. Portnoy has urged them to add a third, longer jacket that would flatter all sizes.
Customers who visited Portnoy's store during the trunk show were impressed with the ease and versatility of the Voyage Style clothes.
Huntington Woods resident Susan Rabinovitz, an assistant principal at Ferndale High School, bought two kits: the T-shirt kit and the black jacket, pants and skirt.
"This is a wonderful idea," says Rabinovitz, 55, who plans a trip to Poland this summer. "I happen to travel lightly and I'm always looking for something to wear."
Linda Jolicoeur, who owns Target Equipment Leasing, also bought the T-shirt kit and will purchase the black jacket, pants and skirt when the next shipment arrives. She plans to use the clothes for her frequent business trips.
"This would be great for a three-day meeting," says Jolicoeur, 52, who lives in Farmington Hills, Mich. "You don't want to wear the same thing every day, but you don't want to pack a lot either. It would be very nice to mix and match."
And easy to pack, too, as Portnoy demonstrates, grabbing a squooshy acid-green tote from a rack in her store.
In goes a Voyage Style T-shirt kit. In goes a second kit with black jacket, pants and skirt. In goes a travel guide, an evening purse and a linen shawl.
"See?" she says, pulling open the bag to reveal plenty of unused space. "You could put a sweater, a pair of shoes and your cosmetics in there and be ready to go around the world."
XYou can view the collection online at www.voyagestyle.com.