Classic Bags

We’ve been here at 18/132 for a long time now, tucked away near Bhavani Stores in the middle of Bangalore City. If you know the area, you’ve probably walked past our door without even realizing it. The shop isn't much to look at from the outside, but it’s where we spend most of our waking hours. The sound of the stitching machines is like background music to us by now. My cousin and I usually start the day around nine, after the worst of the morning traffic has died down. We have piles of canvas and synthetic leather stacked up in the corners, and the smell of new material is always thick in the air. Sometimes the power goes out in the afternoon, and we just sit outside on the steps and wait for it to come back on. We don’t have a big team, just a few people who have been with us for years. We make all sorts of bags, from simple school backpacks to the bigger ones people use for traveling. The stitching has to be right, or the whole thing is useless, so we spend a lot of time hunched over our benches. The light in the shop is a bit yellow and flickers sometimes, but it’s home to us. We see a lot of regulars who come back every few years when their old bag finally gives up. We don’t do any fancy marketing; we just rely on the fact that we’ve been here at this address for so long.