Start from your day, not from a photograph
Most women who write to us describe their day before they describe a bag, and that is the right order. If you leave the house with a laptop, a lunch and a pair of shoes, you want a tote with a flat base and a handle drop that clears your shoulder in a coat. If you commute with a laptop and nothing else, a laptop tote is lighter and easier to get in and out of. If your daily load is a phone, a purse and keys, a small tote will serve you better than a large one you carry half empty.
Right now every bag we make is a tote, in nine shapes across ten colours. We would rather make nine shapes properly than list forty and buy most of them in.
What full grain does over five years
Full grain keeps the top layer of the hide with nothing sanded off, so the grain, the old scars and the insect marks all stay. That is why no two of our bags are identical, and why a scratch buffs out with a thumb instead of showing pale split underneath. It is also the strongest part of the skin, which is why we can stitch a handle through the body panel rather than glue it to a tab.
The trade is that it arrives lighter in colour than it ends up. A tan bag lands somewhere near chestnut after two summers of use, and the handles go first. The leather guide explains the grades properly, including what the phrase genuine leather actually means, which is not what most people assume.
Sizing, honestly
Bag dimensions online are close to meaningless because most listings give one width and leave you guessing. Here is the rule we work to, and every product page lists these four numbers separately.
| What you carry | Opening you need | Base depth | Handle drop |
| 13 inch laptop | 35cm | 12cm | 22cm or more |
| 15 to 16 inch laptop | 40cm and a flat base | 14cm | 22cm or more |
| Water bottle standing upright | any | 13cm at the base, not at the widest point | any |
| Carried over a winter coat | any | any | 24cm |
| Phone, purse, keys, glasses | 26cm | 11cm | 18cm if carried in the hand |
The monogram
Three letters, in gold foil, silver foil or a blind press with no colour at all, set by hand before the bag is boxed. It is free on every bag in this section and adds about a day. A blind press is the one most people regret least, because it reads as a maker's mark rather than a label. See personalised bags and gifts for the placement options.
Who makes them
The same small team, in one workshop in Sialkot, for two years. We choose the hides, reject about one in seven for scarring in the wrong place, and repair rather than replace anything that fails. Stitching and hardware are covered for as long as you own the bag. Unmonogrammed bags go back inside 60 days and we pay the return postage within the US. Our story covers how we got here and how our bags are made walks through it from hide to box.