The authentic and timeless world of Ralph Lauren
March 2025
RL/People

THE RL Q&A:NNEYA RICHARDS

The travel writer and expert on bucket list trips and navigating personal style
Travel advice is everywhere and nowhere these days. Despite a collective thirst for globe-trotting, the pursuit of elusive locales and compelling narratives in the spirit of great travel voices like Ernest Hemingway, Anthony Bourdain, and Paul Theroux has been replaced by cursory SEO listicles and a monotony of gorgeous but skin-deep scenic views on social media. That’s where Nneya Richards comes in. The travel writer and expert excels in meeting audiences where they are (on reels, podcasts, and her blog ’N A Perfect World, with lighthearted lists, pop culture relevance, and great outfits), but she also makes sure to offer unexpected details and a distinctive point of view. That can include anything from uncovering Jamaican food in Sicily to finding the South African designer who works with local tribes on the best beaded jewelry to bring home. Here, Richards—who spends time between her hometown of Brooklyn, NY, and Bergamo, Italy, outside Milan—talks about the first trip that inspired her, why she thinks kids are a great travel companion, and her most important packing rituals for each journey.

—Shannon Adducci
CLASSIC LAYERS
Chino Wide-Leg Pant
C$258.00
Spring layering needs a compelling color palette. An oversize end-on-end shirt in French blue feels freshly styled when contrasted with an olive twill car coat and matching suede Polo ID shoulder bag, while a wide chestnut suede belt, strappy sandals, and a white tee provide a foundation for the season’s hues

What was the first trip that made you fall in love with travel?

It was Christmas in Barbados; I was probably 8 or 9 years old. There’s something about traveling to the Caribbean. As soon as that air hits my skin after landing, it feels like home to me. My family is originally from Jamaica, but I grew up between Brooklyn and the Upper West Side in Manhattan. We had family in London, in Toronto, so I was on a plane a lot as a little kid. My grandmother also had a big influence on me; she loved to travel. She loved Lufthansa [airlines] and she loved to go on solo cruises in Alaska for the salmon. She always encouraged me to travel.

You worked in fashion before moving into travel. Why did you make that jump?

In high school, I was a founding teen editor and contributor to Teen Vogue. After college, I went back to fashion for PR, and every job I took was for companies that had had an international office. I was at Zac Posen, who’s very much a New York designer, but he loved Paris and would have a trunk show there every season. I was also at Topshop, which was expanding a lot back then. At the time, they were looking to open something in Brazil, and I offered to learn Portuguese. With fashion, I also love to see the original hand that is making something. It could be a handbag that was inspired by a straw basket made in Haiti. I always want to go see those artisans.
ON THE GO
Cable-Knit Cotton Full-Zip Hoodie
C$398.00
Style travel-friendly separates with the right accessories and you’ll be both the best dressed and the coziest on a red-eye. Wide-leg jersey drawstring pants and a white tee are topped with a cable-knit zip-up, a bright canvas Play tote, and an equally vivid leather Play crossbody

How have you developed a personal style that’s travel attuned?

The little stint that I spent in Paris has really informed my style. You get a Breton stripe shirt at a market and suddenly your style clicks. It was a time when I started shopping for silhouettes that really fit me. It was also when I got a trench coat, realizing that around 3 p.m., it would rain every day. Now I use a trench for travel, as it really helps in looking put together—you never know who you are going to run into at the airport.

How do you approach packing for both style and function?

I pack a lot of separates. When you have them, there’s so much more versatility in your packing. You get to a new hotel, you get to a new house stay, and you hang it all up in a new closet. It looks completely different than it does in your own closet; you have a fresh eye on it.
“People started to ask about my experience as a black woman, and I realized how valuable my lens was in painting these experiences. I find it important to create safe spaces so that people can feel comfortable reaching out.”
BRETON STRIPE
Double-Breasted Twill Trench Coat
C$1,028.00
High-Rise Relaxed Straight Jean
C$348.00
A striped crewneck cardigan over the shoulders gives that je ne sais quoi to the classic formula of jeans, white tee, and khaki trench coat, taking it from quotidian to peripatetic with one swoop of a sleeve. An oversize Big Pony raffia tote officially brings the look to flea-market chic

You travel a lot with your daughter. What is that like?

When I got pregnant, I really worried that things would have to change, that I couldn’t really be a travel writer with a kid. People were suggesting that I go into family travel, like Disney resorts—which have really great food and beverage programs, as I have come to find out. But then I went on a press trip and met a fellow journalist who had older kids and told me about balancing work and life and different types of coverage, taking your kid with you when you can. We got my daughter’s passport at 1 month old, and then she got on an airplane at 3 months to go to Italy, where my husband is from and where we live most of the time. Now she’s almost 2 and I travel often with her; she is becoming her own toddler travel expert. It’s been fun to see travel through her eyes. I make more thoughtful decisions, and there’s less room for burnout. It’s forced me to slow down in the best of ways; I’ve always been interested in slow travel, but I have more of a reason with my daughter.

When did you start to develop your own point of view in travel?

When I was writing for publications like Travel + Leisure or Condé Nast Traveler, people didn’t know that it was a black woman writing the story. You wouldn’t necessarily know that from the byline. When I would go on press trips, it was mostly white men in these spaces. When I started visiting predominantly black and brown countries, it made me start to question who should be telling these stories, who had the authority to tell them. On social media, people started to ask about my experience as a black woman, if I felt safe traveling to a specific place. I started to realize how valuable my lens was in painting these experiences. And it’s not just being a black person, it’s being a woman who is traveling alone. When I went to Jordan on a solo trip, many people asked me if I felt safe traveling by myself in the Middle East—and I was also pregnant during that trip. There were a lot of women’s initiatives there, encouraging women to earn money and feel empowered by that. I took a cooking class with a group of women who turned their family home into a cooking school. When I first started traveling by myself, one of the ways I did a temperature check on a place is if you see women walking alone by themselves on the streets. These perspectives have brought a lot of my audience to me, and I find it really important to create safe spaces so that people can feel comfortable reaching out.
WELL SUITED
Heritage Rowing-Stripe Round Sunglasses
C$280.00
Leather Kitten-Heel Sandal
C$648.00
A double-breasted cotton chambray jacket with peak lapels and matching pleated wide-leg trousers keep their cool with a crewneck tee underneath. It’s a look that speaks the Italian sprezzatura, especially when unexpectedly paired with a structured raffia bag and strappy leather kitten heels

Do you have any travel rituals?

For me, it’s around food. I’m always researching what is the local thing to try, the local delicacy. I start by asking my taxi driver about it. I will have my research and notes on certain dishes, and I’ll have a few places in mind. But it’s important for me to know what the local take is. I always make sure that the hotel concierge knows that I want to go to a local place and have that experience. I don’t mind walking or taking public transportation. I was on a trip in Grenada, where the concierge recommended a local spot for an “oil down,” the country’s national dish, which is a callaloo stew. We ended up going to the driver’s cousin’s side-of-the-road spot for the most authentic version!

What are the places that you always return to?

Sicily holds a special place in my heart because I got engaged in Taormina. A few months later, we did a road trip through southeast Sicily, the Val di Noto, and then we’ve been back a few times. It’s everything I could ever want in Italy. Jamaica is another place I keep wanting to return to, especially the Rockhouse Hotel and the Negril area. You have to get Murph’s Devil’s Chicken (from Murphy’s West End, a restaurant in Negril).

What’s on your bucket list?

Accra in Ghana, and Senegal. I really want to go to Grasse, France, the perfume capital of the world, to make my own scent. And Alaska. It was one of my grandmother’s favorite places, so I want to make it happen.
SOFT POWER
Polo ID Calfskin Mini Shoulder Bag
C$648.00 C$519.99
Looking put together in comfortable separates is possible with the right pieces. A breezy linen-blend navy trench tops a swingy, fluted knit skirt and a slim fit ribbed cotton tee. Navy canvas cutout espadrilles and a calfskin leather mini Polo ID keep things polished
SHANNON ADDUCCI, is a writer and fashion editor based in New York. Her work has appeared in Elle, GQ, Departures, Robb Report, WWD, and T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
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