Fiorucci Fioruscha

Late 70's Fiorucci shopping bag. Above, from The Official Preppy Handbook; and top, on our kitchen wall by way of Ebay, years ago (this is the actual auction photo- 17 dollars,framed under glass!)

Fiorucci put out some amazing graphics during their heyday but this is my favorite. Equal parts Ed Ruscha and the actual gas station down the road from where I used to live in Italy, which I'd either ride my bike by or hitchhike by just about every day.

Standard Station, Ed Ruscha 1966

Total Station, S.S. 222 from Greti to Greve in Chianti

Valley Guy

Living Treasure of California ceramicist Stan Bitters making a cameo in his friends' Joyce Aiken and Jean Ray Laury's 1977 classic, "The Total Tote Bag Book", which, along with their "Handmade Rugs from Practically Anything", and "Creating Body Coverings", complete the must-have holy trinity of 70's craft books (with Alexandra Jacopetti's "Native Funk & Flash" and Peter Beagle's "American Denim" coming in close behind.

* Google mapping that address adds a healthy dose of 70's California Valley provenance.

The weekend's bags

Unneeded, as usual, but...

From 3 different yard sales: above, an Invicta-striped Regent Belt Co. bag, an old Swiss leather and canvas creel, and yet another old L.L. Bean duffle, this time with the old cursive label and a nice patina to the webbing (that was how I tried to explain the purchase to Linda). Top, a vintage Jansport internal frame pack with its lower outside rack sawn off. This makes it a Kanken-like super sturdy backpack. Below that is a pair of vintage Bean hunting boots in children's size, which they don't make anymore, and never too soon to shop for back-to-school 2016.

Total for everything was 7 dollars, which is hard to resist.

Boat Basins and Swap Meets

Sun-bleached lobster claw, sun-bleached old Cape Cod t-shirt, typewriter case stuffed with paints, and more old LL Bean bags.

Vintage Gregory Backpack

25 cents at a church sale. 

Nice removable fannypack (not allowed- Linda)/ bike bag. 

Made in San Diego, 1978

Flea & Easy

Miscellaneous things we found at yard sales, mostly last summer. 

Nothing was over a couple dollars.

Land Rover

Navy Bean

Speaking of Mainers in World War II, this is a US Navy Officer's Briefcase, made by L.L. Bean for officers who were being trained as navigators to hold their maps, charts, instructions, cotton twine, hemp, etc... Designed by Warnie Bean, L.L.'s son. From his original shop drawings, the sides were "to be printed by the Freeport Press, 1/4" cuts to be made by S. Barker, and notches & marks (lining piece) by us". Zipper by Talon. May 26, 1943.

The things they carried

Never able to pass up an interesting bag at a yard sale, we've accumulated kind of a lot, especially of the canvas/tote variety. Most are kept in the car (ostensibly) to make grocery shopping more fun, and to convince Linda that they're actually useful and we should probably keep buying them, unlike the giant leather gladstone bags she's put the kibosh on.

1. An old heavy canvas workhorse, stencilled "Dennet's Wood-Yard", used for hauling coal way back when, with convenient handles on the bottom for dumping everything out. Soon to be filled with wooden blocks.

2. L.L. Bean zippered duffles. At one time we had about 14 of these, my reasoning being that at some conceivable point years from now, it would be fun to send our conceivable son off on a hypothetical Boy Scout trip and outfit the whole Troop with old Bean duffles, but realistically when that day comes I'm sure he'd rather have a Transformers backpack, or whatever's popular, or at least a normal hands-free backpack (which we also have...), or, ideally, take one of these and and sew Lego: The Movie patches all over it.

3. An old Liddesdale (Scotland) Creel. This was at a stoop sale, and the woman who had it said "Oh I used to use that all the time back when everybody had those!" I didn't ask, but I assumed it was the late 70's Stephanie Powers/William Holden-early Banana Republic-Safari time.

4. Museum of Modern Art bag. Probably from the same time period as above. The leather band goes all the way around, and the stitching has come loose, so it acts interestingly like a canvas totebag in a leather sling.

5. The big bag is an old LL Bean boat-and-tote, watertight for filling with ice or bailing out your sinking ship. This one is from the 60's and stiffened in this shape from years of salt water interaction. In front of it is a neat compartmentalized tote, specifically for going out in risky weather. Like our unpictured collection of "Le Bag"s and old Channel 13 (Herb Lubalin) totes, we're fans of type on bags, and "raincoat" in Hot Dog font was too funny. Lastly a well-worn denim and leather bag made in 1960's Massachusetts.

6. Tracey Emin's "This Way Mice" (there's a cat on the other side) tote bag from the 2007 Venice Biennial, thoughtfully brought back by our friend Friederike.

Finally, a nice article by Zachary Sachs about Dmitri Siegel's enlightening article on Design Observer about the proliferation of canvas tote bags. Here.

Tanner Krolle

$2, from the moving sale of a young British doctor and his wife. 

Tanner Krolle has a long history of making luxury leather suitcases and gladstone bags for the well-heeled English, especially those who drove Aston Martins (always optional was a custom-fit set of Tanner Krolle luggage). This particular suitcase was made in London for Harrods, and has that nice country-look of leather and canvas with big brass fittings, a plaid interior and long leather belting if you choose to strap it to your car boot. 

The young doctor said it was a wedding present, and he used it on their around-the-world honeymoon, and it was a good one, but now it just takes up too much space. 

Penn

We drove down to New York and on the way detoured over to my parents' house in Connecticut to preview their yard sale. Among the things we bought (back) was this old copy of  Irving Penn's Moments Preserved, for $1. Penn is the master of composition and still life, and his portable studio with the canvas backdrop is eternally inspiring. If you're in Los Angeles this September, The Getty Museum is having a massive retrospective. 

also at the tag sale: