Bags of Class
When two big-hitters on the London finance scene spotted a glaring gap in the men’s luggage market, they set about filling it with zealous abandon. The fruit of their efforts, Troubadour, is fast becoming one of the classiest players on the menswear scene
Article by Nick Scott
Like many great ideas, this was one borne of frustration. “We both realised that you just cannot buy a bag that you can take both to an office meeting and then a weekend break,” explains Samuel Bail, the Canadian former professional cyclist who co-founded leather travel bag company Troubadour with his friend and compatriot Abel Samet in 2009. “The only options were either heavily branded, covered in logos - too flashy, garish, in the sense of screaming out that they cost £3,000 – or just too formal and structured.”
The pair, both working in mergers and acquisitions for the London offices of financial advisory company Lazard Frères at the time, decided to tackle this quandary by creating the object of their desires themselves – as an experiment, as much as anything else. “We went on a year-and-a-half research mission, to find out how to go about making the bag we wanted,” explains Samet. “We scoured Europe and talked extensively to tanneries, to artisans, to existing manufacturers. Any country in the world that produces leather, we’ve been there, touched it, smelt it. We basically wanted this bag to be contemporary, smart, understated and – most importantly - the product of serious craftsmanship”.
ALL IN THE DETAIL
The unique features that make a Troubadour weekend bag a genuine investment:
- Galvanized buckle – the only external component to feature the Troubadour logo.
- The handle is made from a single-folded piece of veg-tanned leather.
- Handles and strap are attached with a rivet covered in a strip of leather.
- Each tooth on the zipper is individually polished before being attached to the zipper tape, ensuring smooth opening and closing.
- Signature grey Troubadour stitch in the corner of each folded pocket for reinforcement.
- Unique Troubadour feature to adjust strap length and keep it out of the way when not being used.
- Two externals pockets made from single piece of folded veg-tanned leather.
- The leather has not been spray painted or finished with any synthetic materials. Instead, natural vegetable dye helps build a natural patina, and ensures the bag will age well, and that its individual character will shine through.
- Two external pockets made from a single piece of folded veg-tanned leather. External pockets offer a convenient place to keep documents and electronics when travelling so you can keep your hands free.
Cherry-picking a roster of exceptional craftspeople who would live up to their philosophy and standards wasn’t all plain sailing - Tuscan manufacturers used to dealing with the likes of Chanel tend not to have much time for a pair of cold-calling chancers – but eventually, the bag they had envisaged came to fruition, and proved a huge hit in the pair’s immediate social circles. “We just kept getting asked, ‘Where did you get that bag – can you make one for me?’” says Bail. “It all spiraled out of control and we ended up quitting our jobs and doing this full time.”
Settling on a name was easy. “Troubadours were travelling storytellers in the Middle Ages,” says Abel, “and early on in the whole endeavour, the sharing the artisanal narrative became core to our outlook. We found that the people we were working with just cared so much about having their stories shared, via the product. The name also relates to our aim that, if I offered to replace your Troubadour briefcase in ten years’ time, you’d say, ‘Whoa no way - I’m keeping the one I have. This one carries tales, and has been on my adventures.” Adds Samet, “It should be like that briefcase your grandfather owned for years – it’s been taken to a lot of places, it’s impossible to find now, there are clearly a lot of stories in it… you know?”
To that end, longevity is, of course, a must – both in terms of design values and robustness. “Everything we produce is a long-term investment,” says Samet. “We’re not talking ‘In this season, out next season’. The way it’s made – right down to the way the handles are attached with rivets, in such a way that they’d stay on in a tornado – means that the product will wear in well. Same goes with everything from the zippers to the leather to the linings. It will look better with time.”
The artisans recruited by Bail and Abel all ended up being from Italy. Two tanneries in central Tuscany cure the leather without any artificial dyes, finishes or patterns; the zips are manufactured by a family firm, Raccagni, based near Bergamo in northern Italy, which not only makes the zippers, but also the machines that make the zippers; the final assembly of the bags takes place in a workshop, selected for its hyper-diligent approach, near Milan.
Now stocked in Harrods and Harvey Nichols, and busily branching out into international markets such as Asia and the US, Troubadour now boasts a range of 12 bags and accessories, including three recently added for Autumn/Winter 2014. They’re looking to expand, and have a bespoke service, TroubadourFor, in the pipeline. These connoisseurs of artisanal narrative have a hell of a story behind them already – and the plot, it seems, just keeps getting thicker.
Enquiries: www.troubadourgoods.com/