The Cross-Body

I designed and made the first one for my son, Nash. As a designer, he upgraded to a new larger laptop, so I evolved this design to accommodate such. After evolving this design over many prototypes, it is ready for you! Crafted in the finest veg tanned leathers from Italy, lined in Italian linen, featuring YKK Excelsior zippers and solid brass hardware including four feet on the bottom to protect the leather when you put it down. This leather is tanned to show off the natural surface character on the leather, not to appear perfect and manufactured. In our opinion, if you use beautiful leather that is organically tanned, this is value added. Too many modern leather goods use cheap processed leather that gets the grain stamped on the surface, what a shame! Over time, this honest leather will only become more beautiful and show more character.

On the exterior, you will find an easy access gusseted compartment on the front face which is perfectly sized for your phone, wallet, earbuds and more. On the backside, there is a full width storage sleeve. On the inside of this bag, you will find a tethered key fob, and a full width pocket. This pocket features a double end zipper providing access to an inside compartment and a hand made machined brass pen with its own sleeve. The shoulder strap is adjustable and removable. The top of the bag is reinforced to prevent sagging over time, and the top handle is artfully crafted and dimensioned.

Take a moment to appreciate the traditional burnished edges on this bag. Traditionally, this time-consuming process required skill and expertise. Nowadays most luxury brands have switched to a “painted edge” and worked hard to get consumers to believe it is a luxury finish. Truth be told, it is a synthetic material that saves them time and money but fails if you use the bag over time. A beautiful, burnished edge shows off the natural layers of the organic material and appears almost like wood. Easy to maintain, traditional and worth the effort.

Our zipper pulls and enchapes (the small pieces of leather that attach the handles to the body of the bag) are dimensioned. Most modern brands skip this step. To create this effect, you fit another layer of leather that is smaller than the visible leather between the layers. Again, many companies use synthetics here to save some money (if they bother to add dimension at all). J.Ward uses real leather here, even though you will never see it. Brass rivets are used in key areas for strength and longevity. The bag has been designed to be well balanced, remaining upright when you set it down.