reader review: belstaff colonial canvas bag(s)

I get a lot of mail (and traffic) on the topic of the Belstaff Colonial Canvas line of shoulder bags. Today's email from ack/nak reader Taniel was one of the best reader reviews I've gotten in a while, so I'm sharing it with you. It doesn't hurt that Taniel also provides the phone number for the San Francisco store where the bags were purchased.

I loved your write up about the belstaff bag collection. It helped tremendously with my purchase of the shoulder bag and large man bag. I ordered both with the intention of keeping one, and returning the other. I ended up falling in love with the shoulder bag, I can say without hesitation that it is the perfect bag for almost anything, and it looks charmingly masculine so it doesnt get that man purse reaction.

I felt compelled to write you since your write up helped me so much to gather info about these bags, as you probably know info is very scarce on the web. So i wanted to give you a little write up about my experience with these two bags.

Like i said earlier i ordered both the shoulder bag and large man bag from Bloomingdales San Francisco (415.856.5300). The shoulder bag in mountain brown and large man bag in kaki.

When i compared both bags visually the first thing i noticed was how small the large man bag seems next to the shoulder bag. But in reality they are both about the same size, the only difference being one is landscaped format and the other isnt. In terms of capacity the shoulder bag can carry more stuff since it measures about 2" deeper than the large man bag, the man bag is about 2.5" and the shoulder bag is about 4". The front pockets on both are identically sized.

One limiting factor about the large bag is that it does not have those side pockets like the shoulder bag. That can be quite limiting since those pockets are perfect for little nik knacks. When slung around the shoulder they both feel very comfortable and sit very naturally at the waist.

In terms of looks, I prefered the shoulder bag because it just looked more rugged, and it had that look like every time i put it on i feel like im about to set off on an adventure. With the large bag i didnt feel as much character out of it. Not to knock it but it looks more like a large camera bag slung at your waist, the vertical format of the bag just makes it look small when worn. Also the absence of the side pockets gives it more of a refined look compared to the sheer ruggedness of the shoulder bag.

Both bags are fantastic shoulder bags with great features and you really cant go wrong with either one. But what it comes down to, for me at least, is the looks. The large man bag is a great looking bag, but the shoulder bag just looks that much better.