Pretty little thing

One of my local favourite stores is the custom leather shop at The Heeren. I have a great respect for the store owner because he knows the A-Z of leather, not to mention crafting them into the most gorgeous bags. I had him made me a leather and canvas military backpack sometime back, and it was definitely not disappointing. So two days ago, I went back to the store again in search of another plain leather bag for me to customise.

Then I saw this beauty. Ok so it is a duplicate of the Birkin, but the similarities end there. Made of the thickest cowhide (about 1.8″-3/16″ or 0.4 cm), it’s huge, sturdy, and pebble-grained, while a Birkin is usually made of soft leather, be it goat, calf or croc. The shade’s kinda pinkish at the moment, but when exposed to sunlight over a period of time, it’ll turn to light tan brown, and then to dark distressed brown. I drooled. My pictures definitely didn’t do any justice to it. I would say the price is more than reasonable for such a beautiful one-of-a-kind bag, but it is by no means a small sum. Another downside is that it is very heavy, and the handles are pretty short. As soon as I start stuffing books into it my arm might just break in an hour.

By then I realised that I have strayed away from my aim to get a cheap bag to customize. Decisions, decisions…