Garment Bags Key Terms

Use garment bags terminology to choose luggage and inventory storage options wisely

By Emily Lugg

Garment bags are very important to business travelers so they can ensure that their professional clothing will stay looking as tailored as when it was picked up at the dry cleaners. From the plastic sheeting garment bag to the folding garment bag, these luggage and storage bags keep clothes safe and make travel easy. The rolling garment bag offers easy portability while the polyvinyl bag keeps out mildew. Become familiar with garment bags key terms to keep your business apparel looking good and to offer the right selection of bags to clients.

Hanging garment bags

Hanging garment bags keep items such as suits and dresses from becoming wrinkled while traveling or in storage. They are mostly used for formal wear and coats. Hanging garment bags have a hole at the top of the bag for hangers to come through.
Try: Crate and Barrel details a traditional hanging garment bag.

Rolling garment bags

A rolling garment bag starts out long and flat, but can be folded and has wheels attached for easy travelling. This type of bag is smaller than a traditional garment bag, but allows easy movement through airports and busy terminals.
Try: Packing Light describes the benefits of using a rolling garment bag.

Plastic sheeting

Plastic sheeting is a type of disposable garment bag. Rather than using this type of garment bag for traveling, it is often used for protecting clothing at the dry cleaners or when transporting it from one destination to another. Since the plastic sheeting is fairly thin and delicate, it isn't the best option to use for packing or taking clothing long distances.
Try: Nu-Era outlines plastic sheeting garment bags.

Polyvinyl

Polyvinyl is a much thicker, durable material used to make garment bags. It is often water and mildew resistant and keeps clothes much safer while traveling or for storage. Polyvinyl is also easily customized with a logo or design for bag recognition for business travelers.
Try: Basic Ltd. describes a durable polyvinyl garment bag.

Dress length

In order to accommodate many different garments, garment bags come in a variety of lengths. Dress length is long enough to fit a dress without it bunching up in the bottom of the bag. The length of the garment bag is especially important in order to keep the garments wrinkle free which is why a dress length garment bag would be longer than a suit garment bag.
Try: Garment Bags details a 54-inch dress length garment bag.

Folding garment bags

A folding garment bag provides you the ease of packing clothes flat, but without the bulky, awkward shape of a garment bag. A folding garment bag can be folded twice, or three times, in order to make for a bag that is easier to carry.
Try: Ebags describes why the folding garment bag makes travel easy.