5/29/2023 0 Comments Stylish patina![]() It cost me over £400, but I knew I’d value everything I was paying for, and I could find a good home for it if the style didn’t work out. I also wasn’t prepared to wait months for the right one to come up on eBay.įor all these things I know I have to pay, and Bentley’s had the perfect one. Linings are often the first things to go.īeing the leather nerd that I am, I wanted one in traditional pigskin and solid brass, at the perfect point of having a beautiful patina but still all its stitching. Watch for one that has attractive signs of age, without actually falling apart. Vintage ones can be picked up on eBay for £40 or £50, though the cheap ones are often in split, coated leathers that look very plasticky. Most hunting-related companies make one, and they differ in terms of materials rather than design. There’s no shortage of old and new cartridge bags out there. But as an accessory, an interesting alternative in an age when casualisation has robbed us of so many accessories, I think it’s nice, and certainly practical. So it’s not proving that versatile not something for that reader that wanted an everyday workhorse. With more rural outerwear like the Wax Walker, the bag is almost too on the nose, and it doesn’t work with something more rugged like a horsehide jacket. That works OK, though only with the collar up and I wouldn’t do so with a smarter coat, like a navy or charcoal. I have worn the bag with a tailored coat, like my Ciardi ulster below. And I’m not about to adopt the street-style look of wearing a bum bag (for the American audience, fanny pack) across my chest the whole time. The flap is designed for that - when used for shooting, it would sit open under the arm to give ready access to the cartridges.īut the frequency with which I need my phone makes even this a little too fussy. The cartridge bag can actually swing round very easily, and be accessed on the chest. The only thing that occasionally makes it back into the coat is my phone, just because these days it is out so frequently: to pay for the train, to buy a coffee, to check the train times, to send a message, to check the calendar etc. Most could go in the pockets of a coat, but it would struggle to contain them all, and it’s nice not to have all those pockets all filled. In the bag I carry an assortment of small items: phone, wallet, keys, headphones, hat, notebook, pen. Worn with the grey-herringbone donegal above, it seems to have a similar level of casualness, and be sympathetic in terms of craft and texture. I wear this old cartridge bag mostly with my raglan coats. It’s just a lot better if it’s lightweight - so not shortening the life of the coat underneath - and fits with the required formality. However, this doesn’t mean that a bag worn on the shoulder can’t be good or look good. We end up with a short, lifeless, plastic coat rather than a long, stylish woollen one. It can be a slippery slope that leads to the abandonment of much that is pleasurable in clothing, certainly elegant clothing. We should guard against prioritising functionality too highly. I stand by that advice - I think men tend to revert to a backpack or similar out of functionality and even laziness, and once they have the freedom of both hands, find it hard to go back. My initial reaction was to suggest that he shouldn’t - that it wouldn’t look that smart (he was dressing smartly) and would damage whatever clothes sat underneath the strap, being rubbed at constantly. It started when a reader asked about a crossbody bag he could carry to work. Over the past few months, I’ve been enjoying wearing this vintage cartridge bag as an occasional day bag - for when I don’t need to carry a computer or other bulky things. ![]()
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