Literally starting out of his basement, Anton Sandqvist started his self-named label after working as a mechanical engineer for several years.

Starting out officially in 2004, Sandqvist’s has a background in making things for himself. “I grew up in a small village and was spending lots of time building things in our large garage, full of old junk” says the designer. “I used to play with my mothers sewing machine, making my own jeans as a teenager”.

Still a relatively new venture, Anton says that he’s just started working full time in the bag label after doing this and his engineering job for five years. He describes the label as ‘Function and style without a twist’, which, given that nearly everyone’s obsessed with putting a twist on things, is an interesting way to put it.

The bags are made in India, ‘”[we use] two small family businesses. One of them, a factory in Chennai, is using old, very nice machinery which they imported from a closed down leather factory in Sweden,” says Anton. “The other one is a leather and canvas bag factory in Kolkata. The factory owner’s son went to Sweden for studies and somehow we met him. Since then they’ve made all of our canvas bags.”

The fabrics are usually vegetable tanned leather and the canvas is “heavy cotton canvas dyed in the colours we want. From 2011 all our canvas will be organic and certified. It’s been difficult to switch to organic canvas, the quantity is around 4000 meters, which is a lot of material for a small company like us.”

When it comes to the topic of prestige Sandqvist says, “Our bags are reasonably affordable for being a small brand. and we spend next to no money on marketing campaigns. It’s about making good products that people want and need. We don’t build dreams in our brand we just try to make great bags.

Hailing from Columbia, Andres Niño and Nicholas Hurtado formed new bag brand, Hasso last year. The Bogota based team, often confused for brothers, just launched their debut bag collection earlier this year.

Nino and Hurtado started the label in March 2009. “I remember we were having a random conversation, when all the sudden Nicholas pulled out a little Moleskine from his pocket and started showing me some drawings he had done,” said Andres.  “It was a little sketchbook filled with bags, shoes and clothes. A couple minutes later, we were day-dreaming about how nice it would be to see those drawings come to life.” They ‘put a pin in their graduate studies’ and focused solely on the line, aiming to bring Columbian craftsmanship to the forefront.

The name itself doesn’t have quite the backstory we expected; “we just wanted it to be an approachable name, easy to say and easy to pronounce no matter the language” says Andres.

The duo’s factory is an old factory in Bogota, using skilled artisans to create their bags. “We only use local materials, many people don’t know but Colombia has a strong textile and leather heritage. The majority of the leather production in the country is exported due to its great quality. We were able to get our hands on some of Colombians finest leather.”

When it comes to the oft-discussed topic of prestige, Andres states, “I think companies can’t rely on prestige alone; they have to face the whole offer the market has and the fact that people are more critical over the products they consider to buy. Personally I believe that the people who get interested in Hasso really go for long lasting products with a strong focus on craft and detail, people who care not only for price but the overall story they can get from the design, materials and manufacturing.”

I love my Hermes scarves. But in order for silk scarves to work as (slightly more) masculine accessories I think they need to be both dark and low on contrast.

Classic polka dots or stripes are different – they can get away with higher contrast, as can simple geometric patterns. For more elaborate designs the colour palette needs to be subtler. It’s a similar logic to tie patterns: bigger, illustrative figures like paisleys need restrained colours to avoid being brash. It’s one reason madders work so well – the matte quality of the treated silk can bear more flowery designs.

Such designs are not that easy to find at Hermes, despite the ample ranges they bring out every season. The sample book may be as deep as it is wide, but there are few subtle combinations in there. When there are muted options, the designs tend to very simple and, well, a little dull. The carriage logo, perhaps, or a geometric pattern of Hs. Not exactly inspiring compared to the Russian country scenes or intricate globes elsewhere. The Rhythm of China range this season is a case in point – there are subtle grey and beige options, but the pattern is geometric and dull.

The two scarves I own, shown here, are a couple of exceptions. Au Fil de l’Inde, the first design, is a classic blue with a subtle, winding design showing escalating sand dunes – all drawn with a single line. When tied at the neck, there is little obvious difference to a regular, linear pattern. Just a touch more interest.

The second, Brides de Gala, is a fairly classic Hermes design of equestrian equipment. But the dip dye technique makes the colours muted and the contrast low. Aubergine, navy and a dull gold. There’s no lack of interest but nothing jumps out at the eye. The current range of dip dye scarves offers nothing so understated.

I normally wear the scarves tied in a square knot under a round-necked sweater, or in a bigger, triangular wrap to fill the gap in a jacket. They can perform the role of a neckerchief or a proper scarf, but are more individual than both.

If anyone has any recommendations of designs that are still in circulation, please let me know.

Moore & Giles, who’ve been going since 1933, are a company who know how to change with the times. The US based label is a leather company at heart, although they’re now primarily known amongst the blogs for their bag range.

The bag collection, introduced in 2007, was originally launched purely to showcase their leathers. Previously they were known for upholstery, with their leather on the furniture of hotels like The Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, MGM and the Savoy Club. The Virginia based company started out as a supplier to the footwear industry after Don Moore was let go from his job at Craddock-Terry shoe company in 1932. He ended up selling leather and laces to several shoe manufacturers, including Craddock Terry.

Moore hired Vernon Giles in 1935, who became Moore’s son-in-law, making the company what it is today. The family owned company now has Moore’s great-grandson, Don Giles as the chairman of the company. In an interview with Yahoo Investment, Giles said that in the beginning it was ‘basically a sales company. We weren’t designing anything, and we weren’t making anything’. They were forced to adapt when the shoe industry began outsourcing in the 1980’s, and they chose to move into upholstery.

And, while it’s still upholstery where the majority of their money is made, they’ve made several brand extensions that have opened the company up to new customers as markets changed. Their accessories was an instant success with the heritage and craft influenced menswear market, with the line now stocked at the likes of menswear boutique Blackbird.

They claim that the secret to their leathers (and why it commands the price tags it does) is that it’s a natural leather, meaning that it will wear down in a different and more natural manner than chemically dyed leather. Something to think about when you use a Moore & Giles product - whether it be a chair at the four seasons or a suit carrier.

The idea of relatively new companies who aspire to have heritage is nothing new but some companies can pull off this tricky task better than others. One such company is Altadena Works, who have the appearance of a staid classic company whilst actually being contemporary.

The Los Angeles based company is a collaboration between the artists Ricky Swallow and Ryan Conder, owner of South Willard. A fan of 1970’s outdoor accessories, the collection aimed to reference these but updating them for the modern user. The two founders both have storied histories, with South Willard being renowned for their well edited stockist and their own line of clothing collaborations which range from t-shirts to footwear. Swallow is an Australian born sculptor who currently lives and works in Los Angeles, where the two met.

Their main reason for starting up Altadena Works was that the kind of product they wanted wasn’t available outside of Japan. As Swallow told the Los Angeles Times, “Ryan and I started to also wonder why so few of these types of products were made in California anymore”.

Whilst they’re directly influenced by companies like Eastpak, the main difference is in the quality of materials they use. Aside from high grade canvas, they also source all their leather from Horween and the bags themselves are made by people with over 30 years craftsmanship experience.

The collection itself is a small one, with three products in total. There’s the teardrop ‘801′ backpack and the ‘802′ rucksack; the former is now being sold at several retailers, including the likes of Albam. Their later addition is the hold-all, which is a unisex tote. “Being in L.A. and driving so much, the hold-all is something of a second trunk for me,’ said Swallow. “We were both feeling like Sherpas at the Hollywood Farmers Market, struggling with all sorts of canvas and semi-disposable options”.

But one thing we’ve always wondered, why the name? “We both fantasized about living in one of the Gregory Ain tract houses there, I like what Altadena represents geographically as a place situated with such close proximity to the city and to nature — right up against the foothills.”

Fans of sartoria will be well aware of the benefits of oak bark-tanned leather. Its denseness of fibre and yet ability to be moulded make it perfect for the soles of men’s shoes. But because it is hidden beneath the shoe, and because it is often painted, few appreciate how the leather changes colour over time.

This quality of tanned leather was highlighted by a collection of bags from Bill Amberg, and it’s one I discovered recently. Serendipitously, as a new collection is slowly arriving in store, that oak bark line currently has 30% off.

In its natural state, the oak-tanned leather is pale and creamy. Over time, it turns a rich, deep brown. This is not as a result of contact with your hands or other contaminants, just photosensitivity. It’s a lovely process to witness in a natural product – the neck leather, selected for its texture and stretch lines, slowly acquiring character and depth over three months or so.

It can, however, be a hard thing to explain to customers. You’re not buying a bag in that colour, but in a very different one. Bill admits it’s not easy to communicate, “which is why we’re polishing up and preparing a bag that can sit in the shop, to show people the final colour,” he says.

Bill also has a strip of the leather around his wrist, in case you happen to bump into him. (Among its many characteristics, the leather is one of the most benign against the skin and is hypoallergenic, which means it is often employed in prosthetics.)

Each tanning process produces a different colour – chestnut is more yellow in its natural state and turns orange, mimosa is almost white and goes very yellow. Oak, for Bill, produces the most natural, wood-like tone.

But little of any tanned leather is used for bags. This is because its hardiness makes it difficult to work with. Fortunately, Bill has a lot of experience here. Most of his products are made with bridle leather: skins that are treated with oil to give them strength and water resistance. They are also harder to work with, but Bill prefers them because they retain the structure of a bag.

“It means you can make a bag with no internal structure, no metal frame or cardboard – just leather on the outside and a coloured suede on the inside. It’s beautiful and simple and strong,” he says. That also makes the bags surprisingly light – particularly briefcases or similar designs, which conventionally have a wooden or metal frame.

These sizes of leather, and neck parts, are not usually produced by tanneries. So it takes a fair amount of planning to produce a collection like this – up to a year to commission the skins and plan production, then nine months for the tanning before anyone can start making bags.

So probably worth checking out the remaining ones in this collection.