Dark green bridle leather briefcase with yellow stitching, a brass combination lock, two brass latches and a top handle, on white

The Last of the Green

ByPeter Joeseph 'Briefcase Maker' Kalafatis

A British racing green briefcase with a red inside and yellow stitching, made with a client on the phone

When a color runs out, the work gets quieter. I had a limited amount of green, blue and red English bridle leather, and the green was nearly gone. The client wanted a big briefcase. We had the color. So the last of the green became the Tycho Brahe 2505.

Video: “Tycho Braha 2505 British Racing Green bridle Leather Classic Briefcase,” Marcellino NY Briefcase Maker on YouTube, November 2016.

Three colors that shouldn’t agree

A dark green leather briefcase with yellow stitching, a brass combination lock in the center, two brass latches, a top handle and rings at each side

Dark green leather, a red lining, yellow thread. On paper it’s a pub sign. In the hand it works. The yellow stitching draws a line along every edge and strap, so the green stops being a flat dark mass and becomes a drawing of itself. I said in the video that this might be one of the most beautiful bags I’ve built, because of the colors and the enormous size. I still think the colors did most of the work.

That’s an opinion, and a maker’s opinion of his own bag is worth what you’d expect.

Thick on purpose

My normal briefcases are thick. This one went further. The client wanted it big, heavy and rigid, a case that holds its shape when you pick it up and keeps it for years. So the bridle leather is thicker than usual, and the red vegetable-tanned lining is thicker too. Usually I line in thin leather or suede because thin is easy to sew and light to carry. Here I wanted the opposite.

I filmed the build in stages, and the first update was also posted on my Facebook page for the client’s case. In the second build update I described it as stiff and boxy with no cardboard anywhere in it, structure from the leather alone. Hand stitching it was the hardest part. It was tough going through leather that thick, and I said so in the video.

Built around the person who carries it

A dark green briefcase with its flap open on white, showing a thick red lining and three compartments, with two brass latches on the front

The details came from phone calls, FaceTime, texts and emails. The handle is 6 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. My usual handle is 4 by 1. The rings are 1.5 inches where I normally use 1. A bar under the handle holds it steady. The shoulder strap is 1.5 inches wide, about as thick as a car’s seat belt, with a shoulder pad stitched on permanently because he didn’t like it sliding. I normally don’t stitch pads on, so that I can adjust them.

He also built a use around the case. The client planned to ride it on a luggage cart, so I made a strap for that, one that passes around the cart’s lip and connects at the back of the case. A big case in the hand gets heavy fast. On a cart it just travels.

I said in the video it was made for an office, not the jungle. That suits it.

Inside

A dark green briefcase opened flat, showing a red lining, three compartments, a central divider and yellow stitching

Three compartments: two sections of 2 inches either side of a 1-inch divider for a laptop or other device. There’s no newspaper pocket on the outside. He wanted it inside, big enough for a tablet. The edges are wrapped in leather, the rings sit at the sides for key holders, and I made two key holders in matching red leather. Some stitching in the green blends in and I like that it does.

He asked me to scratch a note and a date into the leather, since he knew it was bespoke and wanted that recorded. I don’t normally mark the leather, and I did it out of the way.

The shoulder strap shown in four views, green on the outside and red on the inside, with brass buckles and clips

Closing it

The front has two of my latches and the Hampton combination clock lock in the middle. The latches lift off, because on a case this stiff you hardly need them. I included them in case the leather softens in ten or twenty years and starts to rattle. Leather loops stop that.

I also hand-write a card for each bespoke case that describes the leather and the date, so a future owner can authenticate it. And I posted the finished case on my Facebook profile, which is another record.

A color that ends

Green is finished for me. I’m out of it. You can ask for this style in other colors and I’ll build it, and it will be a different case. I like that this one can’t be repeated. The best work I’ve made has been built with the client close, on a phone line, working out what a bag has to be. Customer-led builds are slow and they take effort. I don’t know how long I can keep working that way. For now, I do my best work like this.

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