The rise of the man bag over women bag

 

In August, when Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, gave his first big speech in his new job, he wore a single-breasted dark blue suit, a medium blue tie, a light blue shirt and highly polished black lace-ups – the uniform, in other words, of most former Goldman Sachs financial bigwigs. Except for one thing: in his right hand he was carrying not a standard attaché case in brown or black leather but a boxy, soft-sided grey bag, trimmed in black, with a large side pocket and extra-long handles. He was carrying, in other words, a man bag.

And he’s not the only one. David Beckham (of course) has been spotted carrying a Valextra tote, Cristiano Ronaldo a monogram Gucci clutch, Liev Schreiber a brown leather Mulberry Brynmore and Hugh Jackman a Louis Vuitton Damier check holdall. When it comes to the male accessory of choice, I have reached, it seems, a tipping point.

Alessandro Sartori “The vogue for men’s bags has now hit full stride,” a creative director of menswear brand Berluti. “It has taken a decade to get here but bags are now an essential part of every menswear collection. Men carry them; we design them. They are everywhere.”

Dunhill grey leather document case, £825; black leather ‘Barnaby’ messenger bag by Mulberry, £650; tan leather tote bag by Hermès, £2,200; blue leather PdV bag by Louis Vuitton, £2,410

Mats Klingberg “My father had a briefcase – most men had papers that they needed to carry everywhere,” the owner of menswear retailer Trunk Clothiers and a bag enthusiast himself (he has 30). “Then, information became digital and all a man needed was his wallet and his phone. But gradually the office itself has become mobile and people are carrying iPads, laptops, a work phone and a personal one. All this will no longer fit in your jacket – you need a bag.” 

Hence Mulberry’s decision to invest in its men’s pieces over the past two years, with an exclusive line at Selfridges and a men’s product offering that is 50 per cent larger than last year’s. At Dunhill, Bourdon document cases and zip briefcases have been best-sellers, while other brands to respond to the trend include Burberry, with its small cross-body bag, and Coach, whose sling bag was conceived in 2009 by its Japanese marketing team and is now its top seller among men in Asia.

Mulberry brown leather briefcase, £1,100; tan leather satchel by Burberry, £895; Valextra tan leather bag, £2,915;

Then there are new brands. Foremost among these are Troubadour and J Panther, both started by friends looking to make a product they and their social circle would use. J Panther Luggage Company (to give it its full title) is based in New York and draws on American traditions to make functional bags (from $390) in heavy-duty canvas and leather tanned by the Horween tannery in Chicago. Troubadour was started by two financiers in London who quit the City to make a bag “that looked different to everything else out there”. The result (from £975) is made in Italy with vegetable-tanned leathers and hand detailing alongside very contemporary styling, including oversized zips.