What Makes a Leather Bag Worth Keeping

A good bag is not the one you buy — it is the one you are still carrying ten years later.

The first scratch

The first scratch is the worst. After that, the bag is yours. It has stopped being a thing in a window and started being a thing in your life.

Honest leather

We look for leather that smells like leather. Not perfume, not plastic. Just the quiet, animal smell of a hide tanned slowly and treated kindly.

Stitches you can see

Good stitching is visible and a little uneven. It is the fingerprint of the person who made it.

The patina question

People ask how to keep their bag looking new. We never know what to say. The whole point is that it stops looking new.

Worth keeping

A bag is worth keeping when you cannot quite imagine giving it away.