Jas M.B.London brown leather traveler bag

Backstock from early 2000 Handmade by this well known designer  Jas M.B. London leather traveler handmade bag that is very strong and  durable .Can be used by a man or a woman has a zippered side pocket with heavy gauge brass hardware and comes with dust bag
10"L× 16"W x 7" depth/thickness


In the designers own words 
Creations are appreciated by professionals who use them everyday for work: capacious bags made in the softest leather equally suited for carrying bits and pieces of your life at dinner, at the office or when travelling. Sold in a small cosy shop in the heart of London (Ganton street, Soho), Jas MB bags are stocked in chic department stores all over the world, from Barneys in New York to Luisa Via Roma in Florence. 

I meet Jas in his north London factory on a wet Saturday morning. His bags are all handmade in England, he explains while showing drawings for his next collection, and the label was founded 8 years ago. The place is packed with hundreds of cardboard models and is pervaded by a strong distinct smell of leather, which he doesn’t feel anymore, having become so used to it over the years. 

Sitting down over a cup of coffee, we start discussing about the creative process that leads him to imagine, design and produce a bag, a process which turns out to be a winding path full of surprises. 

Dazed Digital: What is the source of your inspiration? 
Jas MB: The major of source of inspiration for me is the Industrial Revolution. I think of that period as a time when production and manufacturing were driven by a sense of need. The need to make something. And I find materials very inspiring as well, rough materials, such as iron and wood. This need to manipulate other media translates in some large-scale works I have done, like some pieces of furniture or installations such as a big leather hammock which was displayed in Liberty’s. 

DD: Do you follow any criteria when conceiving a new design? 
JMB: My first concern is the buyer, intended as a person, an individual. Without people who make products alive, designers wouldn’t exist, or would design aimlessly. Secondly, I think of a shape. And the material comes third. In terms of the people for whom my bags are designed, I get very excited when I actually meet clients, people who are enthusiastic about my bags. I have made so many encounters, like a woman in the streets of Florence, a famous hairdresser in a London restaurant or a Korean filmmaker and in each case I was over the moon to get to know people who were using and experiencing a product I made. 

DD: What about the shapes?
JMB: When I think of a shape I like to think of a timeless shape, something that will last. I believe that a simple shape doesn’t wither. In fact my first bags are still produced and sold and that might be related to the fact that I never thought of bags as accessories, something that you wouldn’t use the next season, but rather as objects, shapes. And the inspiration for a shape can be, for example, a car, a vintage Porsche with beautiful clean lines. It is something exquisite but also simple, I think any 7-year-old child would draw something like this if asked to draw a car, which makes the shape timeless in its simplicity. 

DD: By mentioning children, do you mean that there is an aspect of  naïveté in this process? 
JMB: Absolutely! I believe that we have a child in our inner selves and the moment we let that child die then that’s the moment that we kill creativity. 

GB: Going back to your criteria, material is also important. 
JMB: We use top-quality Italian leather, although the bags are all made in England. 

DD: Looking at your background we realize that you are a melting pot of cultures… 
JMB:I’m an Indian Sikh but I was born in Africa. I moved back to India when I was little and that’s when I became fascinated by manual work. Both my father and my grandfather were furniture makers. I think that it was very inspiring for me to see them, to visit my grandfather’s workshop. Also, two weeks before he died, my father said two things that still guide me today: that as long as you do something with your bare hands, you stomach will never be empty; and that nothing is impossible. 

DD: What happened next?
JMB: I became a painter. I guess I felt the urge of expressing creativity. I never considered becoming a doctor or an accountant. I didn’t want to study on someone else’s book, but rather write my own book.