The print version of HTSI is on holiday for the next two weeks, but don’t expect a lull in digital stories. Revving you up for summer is our biannual packing guide, where a chic selection of HTSI editors share what’s in their suitcases.

Top of the list is travel editor and packing maestro Maria Shollenbarger, who is off to Cairo; she compiles the ultimate edit for the globetrotter heading to very hot climes. “Everything in the suitcase is full-coverage, light fabrics, and wash-and-go, with one pair of standout earrings in case a dinner party breaks out.”

Benjamin Canares spotlights the fashionable footwear to mainline while city sightseeing (Miu Miu boat shoes, as it happens), and also steers you towards the packing cubes ne plus ultra: “Each zipped compartment compresses and keeps everything in order, which suits my hyper-organised Virgo brain.” Rosanna Dodds packs for Glasto, but even if you aren’t a festival-goer there are tips – I like the deluxe hand sanitiser. Louis Wise and Aylin Bayhan counterbalance Rosie’s cool with suggestions for the impossibly elegant beach goer. I, meanwhile, share what’s in my bag for a family trip to North Wales – wooden swords and kids’ suntan lotion at the ready. (Look out also for the various book recommendations scattered throughout.)

For those less interested in the journey and more in holiday feasting, indulge in Ajesh Patalay’s feature about eating your way round the high seas. From wine- and gastronomy-themed cruises to Fiona Sims’ The Boat Cookbook – catering to “a niche but sizeable audience of leisure sailors who want to become more creative in their galley kitchens” – it is a tasty offering. Just be sure to note Sims’ ultimate advice: “Only cook at anchor, or when the sea is calm. It’s no fun in the galley when you’re rocking about – even for the sturdiest stomachs.”

No plans to travel? Marion Willingham nurtures the interiors trend where brutalist architecture meets botanical plenty. Blossoming from Olivia Broome’s new book, Brutalist Plants, which charts the author’s obsession with sizeable “concrete structures teeming with plant life”, Marion looks at designers running with the aesthetic. I like the concrete planters from Montreal-based designer David Umemoto, who was influenced by Le Corbusier, old grain silos, pre-Columbian monuments and Las Pozas – a surrealist concrete playground in the Mexican rainforest.

Aaah, the question many may have been pondering… Is there life after the Samba? Lifelong fan Inès Cross looks at what to wear now that the shoe’s ubiquity (even, famously, on Rishi Sunak) is threatening its cool. “Throughout, I’ve remained steadfast,” she writes, but she also highlights the alternatives to step into. (I, however, say: BRING BACK DUNLOP’S GREEN FLASH. Its discontinuation is a travesty.)

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THREE MORE STORIES TO READ THIS WEEK

Mirror, mirror: the infinite charm of reflecting rooms Turn your house into a temple of reflection Nadine Ghosn’s totally Crayola jewels The designer wants to draw out your inner child Why watchmakers are obsessed with the lunar cycle Haute horlogerie is going through a phase

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