Two of the most falsely glamorous words around are business travel. The fantasy is you looking like Vogue editor Anna Wintour airily leaving the airport, status bag slung over your shoulder. The reality is trying to identify your black tow-along among the gazillion other black bags and the growing suspicion, as you sense the local fashion vibe, that you’ve packed the wrong things entirely and everyone will immediately peg you as the ultimate hick.

Suggestions for what to take on a business trip are the theme of the upcoming Impact: An Event for Change. It’s the ninth annual fundraiser for Dress for Success Vancouver, the local chapter of the international organization that donates business wear to low-income women. Not all women have a work-worthy wardrobe to choose from, and it’s a Catch-22 when you’re unemployed, explains volunteer Sarah Murray. To get the job, you’ve got to look good, and to come across as professional, you need the funds to buy the clothes. Every year, working with local social agencies, Dress for Success Vancouver donates professional, interview-suitable clothing to more than 1,500 women. Each client gets a personal shopper, and together they “shop the store” of donated items. Get a job and you get a second suit (although these days, suit can be a misnomer).

“It’s [dressing for business travel is] a logical extension of dressing for business,” says Murray, who personally piles up the air miles as a fashion publicist who travels up to four times a year on fashion-related business for a minimum of five days each time. While she has yet to edit her packing to that one carryon bag that lets the super well-organized be in the cab lineup while everyone else stands forlornly by the baggage carousel, she does limit herself to a single piece of checked luggage. More to the point, she says, she doesn’t come home with anything she hasn’t gotten use out of, thanks to a careful system.

As soon as she knows a trip is in the offing, Murray makes a calendar. “You want to know your itinerary—desk, meetings, evening events. It helps you figure out how many clothes you actually need, and what you can mix and match. I write all the outfits down.” The other step that simplifies packing, she reckons, is picking and sticking with a single core colour, usually black or brown. That decision alone, says Murray, can halve your accessories. With black, she takes black boots, black dressy heels, and silver jewellery. With brown, it’s brown footwear and gold. When she can, she tries to get away with a single pair of shoes—and they’re on her feet.

Like many women who roam outside the traditional work world, Murray doesn’t own a classic suit but like most, she can pull together a professional look with pieces. “My equivalent [of a suit] would be a chocolate-brown pant and a tan mandarin-collar jacket,” she says, both from Jacqueline Conoir, a local label and a Dress for Success supporter. To her “suit”, says Murray, she would add a brown faux-leather skirt or one in denim. “I’d change the tops a bunch, from a patterned blouse to a punchy electric-blue top to a creamy-white sweater.” She doesn’t take belts when she travels, although she admits that a flashy belt could switch a daytime jacket to evening. “It’s important to organize around your coat too,” she adds. Her own current preferences—“I’m a fashion girl, I change my favourites”—is a Jacqueline Conoir brocade coat, “kind of brown, purple, black—a weird colour. It’s fitted, almost cut like a blouse.”

If you’re on a long-haul flight, think about comfort. “Wear layers—it can get cold,” Murray advises, “and also think about the end of the trip. Is someone from the office coming to pick you up?” If this is the case, you might not want to slouch off in comfy cargo pants. Check the long-term forecast too, says Murray, who will head to Calgary in mid April. She wishes she had checked the forecast last June when she attended a conference in San Francisco. “It would have been smart to take layers. I thought [I’m going to] California, but I froze my butt off.”

Finally, take a look at your luggage. Having the right kind (which means clean and not falling apart) is a good career move, Murray says. Hers is burgundy-and-beige brocade, appropriate for her career in the fashion biz, and easy to recognize when it tumbles onto the carousel. Once everything is unpacked, it’s a cinch from then on. “You’ve got it all written down,” says Murray, “so you know what you’ve got to wear each day.”

Impact takes place on Tuesday (April 15) from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Birks (698 West Hastings Street). Tickets for the event, which includes a live-auction fashion presentation, are $60, and get you a beverage, a chance at the door-prize draw, and endless networking possibilities; see www.supportdfsvan.org/ for details.