Saturday, May 15, 2010

Big In Italy: Borbonese

 Everywhere I go I always see women carrying this purse with a strange brown print on it. At the markets when a seller has one of these bags, the women go crazy over them. I didn't get it. So I asked around. Here is an example so you can see for yourself.
I learned that the brand is of these bags is called Borbonese, an Italian company that produces many styles of bags with this print. But what was so special about this print? So I investigated and found a shop in Torino.
Turns out this brown print is not a print at all. It's a leather hide but not from a any cow. It's from an Italian mountain goat called the camoscio (or chamois). It looks like this:

Apparently Borbonese is the only company licences to produce products from this animal, which explains why this bag was 820 Euros!
Another mystery solved!
This one was my favorite:
Comment and let me know what you think!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

My aunt lives in the tuscan region and while I was there visiting, I fell in love with her Borbonese bags and saw that many women there had them as well. She took me to a Borbonese store in a town called Pontedera and I bought two shoulder bags. They are not the leather ones but rather made of fabric w/ the same print. I absolutely adore both bags. They're light, very sturdy and well made and practical for everyday use. I get alot of compliments. I can't wait to go back and buy more and splurge to buy a leather made one as well.