How to Improve Upon Japan's Best Bags?
What does it matter that one of New York's most relevant young retailers created a couple collaborative bags with one of Japan's oldest accessories companies? Well, if there ever was a "making it" moment — at least within this fashion niche — this'd have to be it.
Colbo is one of New York's youngest but buzziest retailers, a savvy blend of patiently progressive fashion and come-as-you-like hangout. PORTER, like prior Colbo partner Maidens, is a tastemaking Japanese establishment founded decades ago and still operated on the strength of pure personal passion.
But instead of PORTER coming to Colbo, like Maidens did in September, Colbo is coming to PORTER in an act of cross-cultural cosigning — game recognize game.
Colbo founder Tal Silberstein will be in Ginza to commemorate the Colbo x PORTER bag collaboration on November 2, a concise limited capsule that gets right to the point of what makes each partner so great.
The two bags at the heart of it all are two retooled PORTER classics graced by the Colbo touch. There's a drawstring bag, a minute pochette that reframes militaristic personal effects pouches, and a messenger-style shoulder bag, both unified by PORTER's "Smoky" brown canvas, a tough textile destined to take a beating and only improve with age.
These bags aren't entirely unique PORTER styles but it hasn't produced similar shapes in this material for many moons, and certainly not quite with this level of detail. Thanks to Colbo, the shoulder bag is stuffed with easily organizable compartments and the drawstring bag offers two types of strap.
And perhaps most importantly, the rusty tone of the typically gray-tinged "Smoky" canvas humbly aligns with the earthy palette that informs Colbo's in-house collections (and many of its corresponding third-party offerings).
Thus, anyone can wear these two bags any time but they make the most sense within Colbo's impressively cohesive worldview. Those who know, know. Small improvements add up, improving on PORTER's typical perfection with understated purpose — it's not like these things could be made any better, you know, but the veneer of intent does go a long way.
That a just barely three-year-old boutique has the international agency to not only partner with a true Japanese fashion power player but take to Tokyo to premiere their collaborative works is reflective of just how fleshed-out that worldview truly is.
Colbo, which previously partnered with PORTER on a NYC pop-up, has a POV potent enough to operate not just as a purveyor of clothes but of taste itself, as these two terrifically toteable bags make entirely clear.
