The Bag Maker's Project

A few weeks ago, I met this guy at a party at the Soho Grand, a bag designer, and he pulled out his phone and he showed me his stuff, and it was minimal and masculine and elegant---New York is great just like that, filled with brilliant, creative people who make beautiful things. Last week, I paid a visit to Will Lisak, the designer, and while he let me watch him craft a custom-order for a client, we had a little chat about his line ETWAS.

the ETWAS Standard # 1, the company's first bag (photograph via ETWAS)

The bags are elegant and minimal and simply crafted out of thick, sturdy leather. They are certainly heavy, and though the brand has plans of doing bags in lighter, thinner leather, there is a charm in carrying the rugged, thick-skin leather bags that only become more beautiful with age.

Tell us about ETWAS. What do you make, and what makes it different?

ETWAS is premised on the idea that the design of systems has more impact than just designing products. We want to make graceful objects in an equally graceful way, using means of production to reflect and manifest the aesthetic of our customers. When you buy an ETWAS bag you are not only conveying your sentiments through image, your aesthetic will is acting upon the world in more tangible ways.

ETWAS' designer, Will Lisak, at work

What made you shift into crafting bags after working in graphics and illustration?

I never wanted to make fake things. I decided I needed to pursue a project where I had total control and could design every step of the process. It was impossible for me then to tell a beautiful story via the medium of an ugly publishing industry. I'm not creating stories with vast and ephemeral worlds anymore as I was with illustration, but I am creating a small world and small narrative that is very tangible.

Will walked me through a few of the processes involved in making a bag. Holes are pre-punched into the leather before hand-sewing.

The corners on the thick leather are shaved off and rounded for a better hand-feel.

Lisak uses his own vegetable-based recipe to burnish and condition the leather.

Holes on straps are hand-punched as well.

What inspires you?

People. People with inventive ways of living that allow them to enjoy their lives to the fullest. They are the greatest designers.

my favorite piece, the ETWAS light pack in the special rough out black wax leather

The briefcase can be converted into a backpack by simply untucking the shoulder straps from under the flap.

Your bags are simply made and free of embellishments. What are your views on minimalism and design?

I think for what we are doing it is necessary. We are an egalitarian process, our workers are paid well, we are comfortable, but no one is getting rich. It's not a decadent process. It is empowering to the worker, and on the consumer end it is a bit rugged. Our customers are not afraid to get their hands dirty. So it's a bit socialist in that way I guess. There's not much decadence about it. The design needs to be clean then to be honest, and reflect the values of all involved. Not that I'm against decadence. It's just not suitable for this project.

a tote and the toolbag, which was originally designed to carry tools on vehicles, but has captured the fancy of many a menswear-loving woman

hardware finished with a hand-aged patina

I came across this quote on your website: "Consider not only the things we are making, but the things we are destroying." Tell us about your project, and why you choose to work this way.

I think I may have touched on this in the earlier questions, but basically we are interested in creating the most beautiful thing, and I feel it's cheating a bit when you make a beautiful product in an ugly system, which is easier, but you are making the world uglier at the same time as you are making something beautiful, so you're stuck. Not having much impact, just moving things around. I want to make the world less distasteful.

a sketch of a custom-designed duffel bag for a Canadian client

What are your plans for the future?

Our major plan is take advantage of our means of production in another way--because we are manufacturing ourselves we don't have to place large factory orders, and therefore do not have to standardize so much.

trying out a new mechanical (electricity-free) hand-sewing machine for the possibility of offering a line of machine-sewn bags at a lower price point

I want to make a line of bags that is scaleable, where customers and stores can alter the dimensions to their liking though an online interface. There is a lot of potential in giving people a little freedom, and no one else is really doing anything like this.

Will Lisak, Williamsburg, 1/11/12

ETWAS bags are available here.

Sequins, Spots, and Self-expression

Last Saturday, I walked over the bridge to DUMBO in Brooklyn for their annual Arts Festival: a weekend-long celebration of "the best in local, national, and international art amid the breathtaking backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline". It was an exhilarating afternoon---think Fashion's Night Out, minus all the tourists; swap fashion for art, and free drinks for food trucks. Expecting that the art set would be a little more accepting than the fashion folk, I decided to wear two items in the much-maligned materials, sequins and leopard print.

Illesteva sunglasses, Junya Watanabe x Comme des Garcons shirt, Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons bracelet, Uniqlo jeans, leopard-print shoes from Lane Crawford

The sequins on this Junya Watanabe shirt seem to be oxidized and almost crumpled, and are embroidered on to the faintly printed black-and-brown batik fabric with very thin copper wire.

This horsehair and leather bracelet, on loan from Black Sheep and Prodigal Sons, has been my alternative to the multiple-layered bracelets, a.k.a. "arm parties" that abound. Sometimes the most enjoyable parties are those you rock with just one else.

Prada saffiano briefcase and leopard-print shoes from Lane Crawford. I don't seem to be getting that much wear from these shoes in today's sole du jour, the Vibram thick wedge. I find the wearable comfortable footwear to be proper dress shoes with slim all-leather soles.

Enough about about my artfully put-together outfit, let me share with you the art my eyes saw at the DUMBO Arts Fair:

sparkling walls

and twinkling rain

light boxes

and backlit black shingles

love you

and f*ck you (It rotates!)

twigs

and twilight.

photographs by Tiffany Gong and Izzy Tuason

Nibbles: Brass in Braids

antique finish braided brass ring by Cold Picnic

The wonderful folks at Cold Picnic were ever so kind as to send me their braided brass ring that I had been admiring at an event in Williamsburg a few weeks ago. I've been wearing it since; I think it packs a lot of character for something so small and subtle. This ring, charmingly asymmetrical and resembling a piece of string braided and twisted and spray-painted gold, was actually forged out of brass from a mold made with plaster, cast over braided and twisted string. Or something like that.

Scout Original, the Antidote to Trade Show Fatigue

There was an epidemic of sameness at the recent menswear trade shows in New York. I share Style Salvage's feelings of fatigue with the trade shows, but mine more of a sense that many brands merely rehashed clippings from their inspiration boards over the last five years, somehow pushed through into production, content that the line had been sufficiently freshened up with the novel idea of doing one double-breasted wool jacket in...wait for it...peach. At trade shows, which are designers' exhibitions of their next-season offerings, mostly for buyers and partly for press---in essence, clothes on racks en masse at convention centers---devoid of the glare and stomp of runway shows and the magic of styling and accessories and the beguiling beauty of models, one gets to see the clothes for what they really are, what they would possibly look like if they make it into production, and subsequently, into the hands of consumers checking them out in stores.

I was about to lose all hope in fashionkind in the stroke-inducing heat on the last day of Capsule when I stumbled upon Scout Original, a new Brooklyn-based label by Gianna Galli, Ryan Sneden, and Jon Sneden, whose clothes I thought transcended the conventions of fashion and tickled a childlike fascination in me.

hand-painted reworked vintage jacket by Scout Original

Granted the DIY-er in me favors those who do customization in a similar vein, these exquisite pieces are created with such skill that I could only dream about recreating them with my kindergarten-level manual dexterity.

The caricature jacket in its entirety: the drawings are a kitschy nod to Old Hollywood (and a fresh take on those much-maligned two words!), but they also remind me of those for-hire pencil portrait artists in sleepy little Shoppesville in Manila.

the back: more drawings and distressed oversize leather elbow patches

These hand-painted khakis in an interesting capri length that is longer-than-Abercrombie but not-quite-Thom-Browne are oddball-beautiful. The doodles on the patched and frayed pants make me think of an artistic soldier who chose to stay in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor and whiles away the time drawing figures of fantasy on his now tattered army-issue uniform.

hand-painted khakis by Scout Original

They like to pair objects of history with their pieces, and this vintage compass comes with the pants.

This painted white t-shirt would look terrific worn over and over in the summer until it's stained and semi-sheer and the colors are muted and falling off.

botanical hand-painted-tshirt by Scout Original

For the dreamers, the star-gazers, and those perpetually starstruck---

this reworked vintage work jacket hand-painted with a constellation print is an interesting mix of romance and masculinity.

And the orange scarf elevates it to the state of painterly.

What they did with the belts was brilliant:

vintage leather cut and pieced together with brass hinges.

These long shorts are an exercise in subtlety and an exhibition of technical prowess. They started out an almost-black indigo, and were repeatedly washed until supersoft and pale ice blue.

washed long shorts by Scout Original

a close-up of the color variation due to the repeated wash and the natural folds and frays all over the piece

The commentary on Americana that is strung through the entire collection and their fresh take on heritage are so versatile that those like myself with a penchant for darkness could easily incorporate a piece or two in their wardrobe, say, the caricature jacket, and those who prefer a more joyful, colorful take on clothing would appreciate pieces like this apple-stamped military jacket:

The kooky take on Americana is amusing,

and with the map-print pocket square, also quite global!

The line had just been picked up by Barney's, and I only expect to hear great things about this label in the near future.

Scout Original's official site

Color and Collar

Eleven Objects collar and vintage embroidered dress on Linh Thi

At an event at Union Pool in Brooklyn, I snapped a few photos of Eleven Objects' Linh Thi, who I thought, wore color beautifully and displayed an ease and elegance quite rare in a sea of contrived darkness and manufactured grit. I must confess I had to talk her into letting me photograph her in the Sambas, which she was somewhat ashamed of, but I though this particular sneaker-dress combination was quite charming.

Cazal sunglasses, fan, and dress, all vintage, collar by Eleven Objects, Adidas Sambas

aqua-tinted vintage Cazals

weathered Adidas Sambas

queenly

Eleven Objects' collars, originally made for women, have been featured in The New York Times and Style.com. In the first men's collection, designers Linh Thi Do and Christine Rhee were inspired by vacation photos of their fathers in the 70s, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, and more recently, fashion blogger Steve of Hard Liquor, Soft Holes, of the grandly gauche style and signature gift bow concealing his identity. Here are photos from their lookbook:

the ferocious ones of the bunch

The one in white perforated leather would beautifully top off a minimal outfit.

lemon yellow pony hair good enough to eat

lookbook photos via Eleven Objects

Cold Picnic at Pool Supplies

Fellow Boston-to-New-York transplants, and two of my favorite fledgling designers Phoebe Sung and Peter Buer showcased Cold Picnic's new goods at Pool Supplies in Brooklyn, an outdoor pop-up marketplace featuring emerging, independent clothing, jewelry, and accessories designers from the area.

Teepee charm bracelets and teepee charm rings. I purchased one of the mobile rings, and have been wearing it nonstop.

The duo seems to have been inspired by knots and tangles as of late.

This braided brass ring was forged out of a mold that was made with rope braided and twisted to this form.

The new macrame necklaces: Phoebe wears one in the background, as a soft accent to her white dress.

Cold Picnic's online shop