Put a bird on it!
Orla Kiely’s Birdwatch print in indigo covers my newest bag acquisition from the ever-charming Daytrip Society. Hopefully I’m taking this on a special trip soon, details of which I will disclose later.
Real-life cartoon bags!
JumpFromPaper™ is a playful and innovative line of handbags. Cartoon-like outlines, bright and vibrant colors will be sure to turn heads and be the talk of the town. Are they real? Yes they’re real.
Found here.
It should come as a surprise to exactly nobody that knows me that I am a complete bagwhore. I can’t help it. I will never cease to be compelled by well-designed, amazingly crafted bags. And when my new best buddies at NewDuds (posted about their shirt and scarf awesomeness a couple of posts back) put this bag in their shop, I didn’t stand a chance. The pebbled leather, the long strap closure, the redundant but much appreciated magnetic closure, and did you see that lining?! Hand-printed by the awesome duo Tessa and Torrey at NewDuds. Go give them some business, I can’t express enough how great their stuff is and I don’t even have this bag in my hands yet.
I justify this (and pay for my habit, basically) by subsequently selling one of my other bags that I no longer use. This time around I’m selling an Orla Kiely bag that should more than cover the cost of this new one. Plus this is handmade! Very excited.
So I stumbled upon a more simple, modern version of a waxed canvas bag by bookhou, a little design company in Toronto cofounded by John Booth and Arounna Khounnoraj in 2002 to showcase their individual and collaborative work. They are a multidisciplinary studio that emphasizes natural handmade materials and small production pieces.
This bag uses waxed canvas made by the same American family since the 1800s, and upcycled leather for the zipper pull and strap. And guess what, I bought it. Yay bags!
I’ve been an admirer of bookhou for over a year and I’m excited to support them and own some of their work.
Here is the other bag I mentioned, made by Strawfoot Handmade. I love the whole concept/idea here; independent artist, US-made, hand-sewn on a vintage machine…
Inspired by styles and designs from the early 1900‘s, waxed canvas is the primary fabric used, as well as vegetable-tanned natural leather and solid copper rivets. This creates not only an extremely strong bag, but one that looks slightly weathered and that will age beautifully with time. I work in a small workshop in Santa Cruz, Ca with a vintage sewing machine and hand tools. All bags are designed and sewn by myself on a part-time basis, which means that production is rather limited. Strawfoot Handmade values American-handmade products that will last a lifetime and serve as a functional part of daily use.
- Garrett Kautz
Check out his blog here and shop here. This is probably my favorite color combination for the tote bag but is unfortunately sold out, so I’m going to keep my eye on the shop for a while and see what comes up.
I have a thing for bags. I love how they are so utilitarian and necessary (and have probably existed as long or longer than clothing has in human history), but at the same time can be almost infinitely customized and arted up. I own several bags I really love, though I’m always chasing that elusive ‘perfect’ bag (simultaneously realizing there probably isn’t one).
Currently I’m stuck on this idea of handmade bags, namely waxed cotton canvas utilitarian-yet-awesome bags. This one by Peg and Awl is seriously cool — the leather is reclaimed from vintage military applications. It might just find its way into my collection. There is a competitor bag for my waxed-canvas affections however; I’ll post about it soon.
