I was happily surprised when stumbling upon Atelier de l’armée. This lifestyle brand, with handcrafted bags and accessories are just waiting to be taken on adventure.
Atelier de l’armée’s lookbook suggests this is a Northern American brand. Designed for those going on adventures in rugged landscapes, hiking, camping, canoeing. In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the owners of the Canadiano, Norquai, and Juniper Ridge would run into Joost and Elze from Atelier de l’armée regularly while exploring the outdoors, having late nights of sitting around a campfire together, sharing tales on fighting bears and their latest collection.
But no, none of that. Or at least I doubt it, seeing as Atelier de l’armée is a Dutch brand. Designed and handcrafted in the land where cities, people and asphalt are abundant, and all ‘outdoors’ is heavily regulated and signposted. Maybe that is what makes this brand all the more compelling.
Atelier de l’armée started with selling vintage clothing and upcycling old fabric into bags on their sewing machine. A few years later, they have now established a firm brand identity, expended into other goods (sexy aprons!), and outsourced some of their production. They currently run two collections.
This collection is inspired by the functionality and quality of military wear. The bags in the ‘series’ collections are crafted in a small factory in the Netherlands. Designed to keep your stuff dry at all times, made from water repellant canvas and cordura fabrics. There are socks in this collection too!
For those looking for something a bit more rare and unique, check out the Collectors collection. Here you can browse through those handcrafted, one-of-a-kind, beauties. Re-using old materials, stitched in their studio in Amsterdam, and a total stock of 1 per design, you’ll have a bag that can never be duplicated and will make you stand out to all the other adventurists.