Nicholas Daley Messenger Bag- Red/Black/Yellow

Almost every bag made is built around resisting its contents. Structure, panels, base boards, and hardware exist to make a bag hold a shape whether it is full or empty. A hand-knitted bag does the opposite. It has no internal structure at all, so it takes the form of whatever is inside it, hangs flat when it is empty, and rounds out when it is loaded. That is either a failure or the entire point, and here it is the point.

The colours are not incidental. Red, black, and yellow, or red, gold, and green depending on which tradition is being cited, are the flag colours that travelled from Ethiopia to Jamaica and from Jamaica to Britain, and they recur across Daley’s accessories. Set against them is a single piece of solid brass at the buckle, which is the one hard element on an otherwise entirely soft object and the thing that will outlast the rest of it.

Why we selected it

We took this because there is very little hand-knitted luggage in the world and none of it looks like this. It is also the easiest way into the hand-worked accessories, which are the pieces from this house we find most interesting.

Nicholas Daley’s accessories are where the hand-worked side of the house is concentrated, and where his Jamaican colour vocabulary appears most directly.

Materials and construction

Hand knitted, with a brass buckle fastener. We do not hold a fibre content or a country of make for this bag. Colours: red, black, and yellow.

Sizing and how it is worn

Worn across the body on a long strap, as a messenger bag is. Because it is unstructured it will carry more than it appears to and will look emptier than it is. It is not the bag for anything that needs protecting; a knitted body offers no cushioning and no rigidity.

Styling

With the Knitted Vest or the Hand Knitted Roots Shawl, which are the same family. Against plain black or indigo, where the three colours do the most work. It is the loudest of his accessories.

Care

Spot clean only, with cool water and a soft cloth, and dry it flat away from heat. Do not put a knitted bag with brass hardware in a machine under any circumstances. Brass will darken with handling, which is what brass does and not a fault. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Neck Bag is the small hand-knitted pouch and the Sling Printed Tote Bag the cotton tote. The Hand Knitted Roots Shawl and the Knitted Vest in light blue are the hand-knitted garments. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.