This post was written by Lindy Shopper.
As I clicked purchase on my third Daniel bag by ItalicHome, I thought to myself, “Maybe others would want to know about this bag?” At first glance, perhaps there’s nothing remarkable about this bag, other than it meets all of the criteria for a certain type of travel bag. Then I remembered all of you reading this blog, with similar needs and interests, so it’s high time ItalicHome got a post.
Let’s go back to 2015 – I had been attending the Jazz Age Lawn Party in New York for a few years at this point and was struggling with some of the logistics of attending an event that is both city and country at the same time. A good portion of this is dust management. After trashing a pair of Re-mix shoes in the mud in a previous year, I learned quickly not to wear nice shoes; likewise, to wear flats and washable garments because each at at JALP was a long, sweaty, dirty day of dancing and picnicking on the ground. I needed a bag that was also washable, durable, that could carry my necessities (wallet, phone, food for the day, a water bottle, extra pair of shoes, etc), and that looked like it would fit in with my 1920’s clothing. Vintage bag searches gave me the idea to look for canvas bags, and an Etsy search came up with ItalicHome’s page and the Daniel bag.
The original Daniel bag is made of cotton canvas, grommets, rope, paraffin and beeswax (the latter two optional) – very simple, no crazy modern zippers, and the more I read about it, the more I thought it would fit the bill. I messaged the shop owner, Colin Evan Pritchett, about the conditions under which I would be using the bag and we decided to go with un-waxed canvas, lest the wax melt all over a picnic blanket on a hot summer’s day.
Having a backpack was perfect for me, as I have struggled with back problems for the past decade and this was lightweight and evenly distributed the weight. I could roll it down to be small and stick it in my suitcase or my carry-on. It didn’t take up much space on the metro. When I arrived, I could throw it on the ground and not worry about it getting dirty, as I selected the caramel color and knew that the dirt would wash out easily. The bag is lined, so with a double layer of fabric, the contents did not get dirty. I sweated on the rope, which is a very soft rope to the touch, and it was OK. When I got home, it washed easily in my washer on the delicates setting with only minor shrinkage, and I folded it up for the next adventure.
It was such a success that I thought about getting another bag in a different color immediately following my return from JALP – ItalicHome tends toward neutrals and I really wanted something in green. Within a month I found a green canvas with rainbow arrows print that I fell in love with and messaged Colin about doing a custom bag in the arrow canvas. He was wonderful to work with and delivered his signature bag in a color scheme that goes with most of my wardrobe.
If you’ve seen me at an event in the last few years, you’ve probably seen this arrow bag. When I fly, I travel with a book bag and either a SkyRoll or Away suitcase – logistically, a purse doesn’t really fit into this scheme for me and I don’t always want to carry my book bag (which is a Girl Scout’s trove of air travel “just in case” items) to every destination in between flights on my gig travel. The Daniel bag fills that purse gap, but, again, is big enough for a change of shoes and a water bottle, in addition to my purse contents. Maybe you have bigger feet than me and this is the perfect heavy duty shoe bag.
The Daniel bag (and many other ItalicHome products) come in caramel, navy, black, gray, burgundy, natural and moss green. You can mix things up a bit, and select the top of the bag to be any of these colors and have a two-tone bag. You can select either natural or black rope. Or you can pull a Lindy Shopper and work out a custom order in a canvas print that you source and send to Colin.
Is it just a drawstring back pack? Maybe. But it’s exactly the draw string back pack I needed.
Lindy Shopper 