On a recent afternoon, Emil came over to shoot some photos for the Hill-side's Spring '10 lookbook. On top of digging the ties and scarves(which are great. Take a look at some HERE), I was quite taken with the simple navy canvas duffle he carried it all in.Inujirushi, Dog Brand, of Japan is manufactured in the same facilities that it's occupied for some 50 odd years. Having depended on word of mouth, a simple quality product line and an intense customer loyalty, the small shop recently opened to sell their bags is said to have the occasional line of people already queued up before opening.
And if you're even a moderate cycling nerd, as I am, you surely know of the handmade frames from Jitensha Studio in Berkley, CA(an elegant bike shop). Well, Jitensha happens to carry a limited selection of Inujirushi's handlebar bags; sturdy, well-made and damn good looking.
I bothered Emil to take some photos of the couple of bags he's picked up on trips to Japan.
And if you're a Monocle subscriber, (I'm not) click HERE to read a recent article on Inujirushi.
if you go to Japan next time, rather than going to the store. go to their factory nearby (ask the salesperson at the store) it is 10 min walk away.
ReplyDeleteThen you can pick colour, style, your name, initial, extra pockets... it takes 45 days to send to whenever you are.
That gray canvas bag looks amazing! Are these only available in Japan, or do the also have carriers in the US?
ReplyDeleteThese are incredible. I'm a bag nerd and these might be some of my favorite bags I've seen. I took a look at their site and I'm loving all their stuff. Something about them (hardware details and something about the shapes of some of the bags perhaps) remind me of the standard Japanese school backpack that I carried around when I went to Japanese school on Saturdays (hated it). Landocel is what they're called, although I'm not sure if that's the correct english interpretation of the word...ランドセル in Japanese. Just copy/paste that into google to see what I'm talking about.
ReplyDeleteJames thanks for the mention, and Emil awesome bags!
ReplyDeleteThat Japanese says "randoseru," which is as close as you can get.
ReplyDeleteI have one of the jitensha bags, it doubled as my sons diaper bag
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know if these are carried by anyone in Canada or the US?
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