Thanks to Nicoletters Twitter status that I read this morning in bed I found my blog idea for today: Saskia Diez, a jewelery designer, and Stefan Diez, one of my favourite product designers, designed a collection of bags made of paper. The bag is made of Tyvek®, a synthetic paper that is extremely lightweight. Their product is a succesful symbiosis between bag and paper: very lightweight, but robust and waterproof.
.jpg "Paper bag 1")
(pics above from Saskia Diez, linked to their sources)
Today it’s time for me to present one of my personal favourites: Moonlit6 by Ina Kent. (I wrote about Ina Kent some weeks ago. Read it here) For me it’s the perfect disco bag! Small, but still big enough to host the most necessary things I always carry with me, it’s sportive or less sportive depending on the way I carry it. It’s very simple and clear, but has a bit of the necessary finesse with the gathering on both sides . And then the fancy shining metallic-violet leather. Oh my god I love it. I think this bag will be officially mine sooner or later.
(pics from Marsupialia)
Already more than half a year a very nice client from Austria gave us a hint to look at an Austrian bag designer named Ina Kent (sorry her website is under construction at the moment). Well…we looked at it and forgot about it, we talked about it and forgot about it. But one day we really managed to write an email to Ina and asked here if we could sell her bags here in Berlin. And she said yes.
Since a few days in the shop and since a few minutes online we are now selling Ina Kent bags… we will see how they perform. What I already found out: these bags need explanation, because they are so well designed that they have lots of different functionalities. It even took me some tries to understand all the possibilities of attaching the straps and transforming the bags.
See here Monnlit6:
But fantastic leather: either in natural colour or metallic colours. I love both!
(pics by Marsupialia, linked to their sources)
Well… it’s quite some time ago that I have been to the leather fair in Offenbach. But I haven’t told you everything so far. I detected a new bags brand there called NICA. Nica is a UK based company whose designer is Korean. They do quite young bags for reasonable prices. I am sure that my small sister would like these. What I didn’t like: most of the bags are made of artificial leather. That’s why I couldn’t order these., because that is not working with the Beuteltiere philosophy to sell quality leather products. I just ordered colourful cloth bags with nice patterns for summer. Yes… christmas time has not even started yet and we are already thinking of summer?! We are about half a year in advance with ordering most of the products.
Sorry no pics of these Summer bags. You will see them, when they arrive at Beuteltiere in March.
(pics from Nica; linked to their sources)
Last weekend Beuteltiere were quite busy with shop openings. Two shop openings on one evening: so we had to split up. Well….Katrin went to the shop opening of Frau Dietel and I went to Gabriele’s shop opening in Mulackstraße in Berlin Mitte to see what the ‘bag competitor’ organized: No, Gabriele with her shop is not a real competitor, although her shop is a bag shop as well, but located in a different area of Berlin. Her shop is called Flapper and mostly sells Volker Lang bags and accessories and Ibruh Silk scarfs.
Have a look at some impressions:
The funny thing about it was that I recognized some things that Gabi told us about the renovation of the shop. She sometimes came by to our shop to tell us about her problems and things that didn’t work very well. It was a bit the same when we opened our shop 
. It seems that everybody encounters the same problems and discussions when opening a shop.
(pics from Marsupialia)
After last weeks introduction of Tom and Miller Family I want to show you a real beauty sparkling in our shop: Drew.
The company she comes from is named Thirtyfour and regular guests of our blog know, that we once met Diwa who showed us her friends work first. What a good fortune having met Diwa: Otherwise Drew wouldn’t be one of our new inhabitants. Above you see the laptop bag and downwards you see Barbara wearing the Sling version.
Too bad you can’t touch how soft the leather is! And by the way, what a great idea to take the jeans-front-pockets as inspiration for the design, right?
(pics from Marsupialia)
After I’ve introduced you the Tom family last week, it’s time for you to get to know the Miller family of Property of…. today. I like the Miller family a lot, because it has the same name than I have. Well ok, my name is a bit more German written with an ‘ü’ instead of the ‘i’ in Miller, but it almost sounds the same. Millers are made of a slightly glossy heavy nylon twill that is of course very easy to clean, robust and lightweight. Finished with some leather details Miller is the perfect laptop-bag for frequent travellers (men as well as women) who love to have a chic bag.
And the Miller kid is a very talented multi-pocket day bag.
(pics from Marsupialia)
Today’s topic of the about leather series is leather care. A subject that touches everyone, because we nearly all wear shoes or bags made of leather.
Leather is because of modern tanning and finishing processes a very easy to care material and does not need a lot of care. For the best care of each leather it is necessary to know which kind of leather you want to care. An easy test is to apply a drop of water to an invisible piece of the leather: If the wet spot gets a dark border the leather is absorbent and delicate like Anilin leather or Nubuck leather. Leather with a fine lacquer finishing or a coating is more easy to care.
Leather, if not coated with an impermeable covering (patent leather) it is porous, permeable to air and water. That is why leather easily absorbs dirt and fat. Leather care protects the leather form defilement.
Each care process starts with thorough cleaning of the surface to remove dirt and old leather care products. With leather care you want to make the leather “as new” and you want to equip it with a dirt and water-repellent product. Most leather care products only treat the surface. Used regularly they increase the life of a leather product.
According to their intended use we differ care products for smooth or hunting leather. For smooth leathers there are more different leather care products: shoe polish, leather sprays, washing emulsions that improve the look of the surface and protect from dirt and water (only on surface). Leather oil, wax and leather fat are products that penetrate into the leather to improve the soft and smooth characteristics of the leather and improve water-repellent effects.
Aniline leather:
Regularily dust it with a soft cloth. Remove insistent dirt with neutral soap dispersed in warm water.
Nappa leather:
Clean carefully with neutral soap dispersed in warm water. Make sure that the leather isn’t imbued. After drying the leather use leather care milk and polish with a soft cloth.
Suede, Nubuck, Hunting calf:
For sanded leather you can not use fat, wax or ail. They will paste the surface and stain it. Preventive use of an impregnation spray is recommended. For removing heavy dirt or greasy parts the use of a fine scratch brush, sandpaper or special erasers for leather is recommended.
Basically all leathers are finished with a protective coating. After first dirty parts you start with the leather care: rub the leather carefully with a damp cloth. If this is not enough than try a leather cleaning product. But please make sure that you try out leather products fist at a non visible part of your bag. Apply the leather care product quickly to a large area to avoid blur and rims. Never apply leather care products directly to the leather! Always apply it with a cloth on the leather. Polish it afterwards.
Today the postman brought two big packages full of bags: our Autumn Winter 2009 order at Fred’sBruder. Yippie! We were already waiting for them. It’s like Christmas, because we ordered all these bags almost half a year ago and I never remember in detail what I ordered. So every box full of bags is a little surprise.
Now it’s time to unwrap them, fill them, give them price tags and to redecorate the shop tomorrow.
(pics from Marsupialia)
Already some time ago I found out about the Danish bags and accessories company Backsöndergaard who manufactures bags and small leather goods from eel skin in fantastic colours for a reasonable price. Unfortunately I wasn’t clever enough to order them then. I still had them in mind, saw them again at the Premium during fashion week in Berlin and talked to the German agent. The end of the discussion was: Beuteltiere won’t get these bags and purses because they are already sold too much in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg according to the agent. Well I am quite angry about myself not having ordered them earlier, because they have really nice wallets that I would have loved to have in our shop. And I wonder where actually these bags are sold here in Prenzlauer Berg, because I have never seen them in a shop. And what makes me angry as well: We are always looking for products that are not that common in Germany and than we can’t get a product, because the German agent wants to keep these bags quite rare in Berlin. Grrr! Usually companies are more amused when we want to buy their products.
I have also seen a company that copies that eel skin products, but no way! I won’t order any copied products. I am against plagiarism.
(pics from Becksöndergaard; linked to their sources)
