What's Your Fancy?: Tony-Winner Derek McLane's Go-To Packing List
What's Your Fancy?: Tony-Winner Derek McLane's Go-To Packing List
In our new series, "What's Your Fancy?," we ask expert tastemakers to share the little luxuries essential to their day-to-day lives.
Derek McLane has been busy. The set designer, who just won a Tony Award for Moulin Rouge!, spent the past few months traveling far and wide for work. He's setting up productions of Moulin Rouge! in Melbourne, London, and Cologne, and working on a Swarovski campaign in Austria. He is also responsible for the scenic design in the American Ballet Theater's ZigZag, a performance honoring Tony Bennett's music and career. McLane's scenery includes backdrops featuring Bennett’s own artwork, depicting the New York City skyline and Big Band musicians. The company will premiere the new performance on October 26.
In honor of his latest work, and his many travels, the New York-based designer shared his ultimate packing list with T&C. These are the items McLane can't live without on a trip—and he certainly has had plenty of practice. Below, find Derek McLane's travel essentials.
Phone Tripod
UBeesize
$15.99
McLane says the tripod is especially "good for doing a Zoom meeting or FaceTiming with somebody." Plus, he notes, "If I'm working out with my trainer and I'm traveling, you have to move the phone around constantly so the trainer can see you. It just makes the phone stand up super easily and it's more convenient. And it weighs almost nothing."
2021 Apple 11-inch iPad Pro
Apple
$949.00
"The iPad I just use for everything; I don't use a laptop anymore. It's lighter and with a keyboard, I can type all my emails on it. I have an iPad Pro and I use it to draw all the time on ProCreate," McLane shares. "For a long time I resisted drawing on a tablet, but now I've completely given up paper for drawing because ProCreate is such a brilliant program for doing stuff quickly."
484 Slim-fit Jean
J.Crew
$128.00
"I almost always take two pairs of J. Crew jeans. Now I just mail-order them," McLane says. "They just fit me really well and they're good on a trip."
Men's Trail Running Shoes
Nike
$130.00
McLane also brings an orange pair of Nike sneakers, sharing, "I don't wear a lot of color. I wear neutral shirts and jeans, and so I like the pop of orange in the sneakers. They're super comfortable; they're not terribly heavy, and they have a little stretch to them so I don't have to bother tying them. I can just pull them off and pull them on."
Madison Whole Cut Oxford
John Varvatos
$598.00
"I like the Oxford design and shape but they're just slightly more rugged," McLane says of the John Varvatos Oxfords. "You don't feel like you need to polish them. You get a little scratch on them and it's all part of the shoe."
He also noted that they are perfect for theater work. "When I'm in a theater, I'm hopping around onto the stage and back out into the house and I wouldn't want to wear anything that's more precious than [these]," he shares. "And, I do a lot of walking—I walk everywhere. I also ride my bike a lot too, so I want something I can ride on the bike pretty comfortably."
Lightest Jacket
Officine Générale
$540.00
McLane is particularly drawn to wrinkle-resistant travel clothes. Of the Officine jacket he says, "It's basically wrinkle-proof because it's seersucker, so nothing really happens to it. Sometimes I don't want to wear it on the plane, so I'll just throw it in a suitcase and I pull it out and it's fine."
Standard Shirt
James Perse
$145.00
"I usually travel with a bunch of James Perse shirts. They make a very simple, solid color cotton shirt with buttons and it's pretty lightweight cotton," McLane notes. "They're usually forgiving when you take them out of a suitcase—sometimes you have to give them a quick iron but not much. I wear a lot of those and also the James Perse t-shirts."
Resistance Bands with Handles
Tribe
$11.49
McLane says these bands are "what I use when I'm working out with my trainer all the time." He notes that "they're super portable—you can just throw them in your suitcase and they don't take up any space. They have a clip so that you can clip them under the door and do all sorts of exercises in a hotel room."
Plastic Shaker Bottle
Blender Bottle
$9.99
McLane uses a shaker bottle for protein shakes. He notes, "You dump your protein powder in there and water and you shake it up and make a shake."
"Once you start eating hotel breakfasts, you're dead," he shares. "It's way too much food and also it's super expensive. Suddenly you're spending $100 for breakfast, like what happened?"
Alpha 3 International Expandable 4-Wheel Carry-On
Tumi
$750.00
And, as for transporting his packing list? A Tumi carry-on: "It's super sturdy and it's very simple. It's got basically one big compartment and then it's got a couple of pockets on the outside, but not a whole lot," he says. "I've never run into a plane where I couldn't use it as a carry-on. And, it's got nice sturdy wheels so it's easy to walk fast at the airport with it."
The Moulin Rouge set designer shares his travel must-haves.