Giles and Haraki's UK road trip
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I'm the designated driver, so not many photos today. We arrived in Carlisle about 15 mins ago. We took a detour through the English Lake District, judging by the stereophonic ooh's, ah's, wow's, coos' and shutter clicking, it was a well worth addition to the otherwise pretty boring journey….
First pit stop Warwick Services on the M40
Haraki was obviously entranced by much of the Midlands
Keswick for coffee before the final assault on Carlisle
Tomorrow it is meeting in Carlisle in the morning, then North East to Alnwick to take a trip around House of Hardy factory and museum. Hardy is the quintessential English fishing tackle maker and Haraki (not me) really wants to go and have a look. After that we'll take in a bit of the Riever country on the way to Galashiels in prep for a meeting with Will@Aero on Weds.
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been to alnwick castle last spring, pretty cool place to visit
Alnwick is great. Why on earth did I agree to stay behind?
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Is that Ayumi holding H's jacket? xD
Yes, I think she's holding Haraki-san's zip sweat which she had to borrow because the weather keeps changing - warm and sunny one minute, windy and cold the next!
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This morning we met with Giles from Chapman Bags. http://www.chapmanbags.com/ChapmanBagsSite/pages/home/default.asp
We have decided to do a few collab bags with these guys. Haraki argues that we chose them because of their provenance, their attention to detail, their construction philosophy and their supreme quality, I argue that we chose them because the factory manager is called Giles and is an all round cool dude.
This is Haraki playing with the Clicker, so called because when it cuts out the leather shapes (with 2 tonnes of pressure) it clicks
Bags in various stages of construction
Haraki getting close and personal with bag design
A few patterns hanging around
And what was amazing is that we took some sample denim for Giles and the crew to look at. And before we knew what had happened they'd made a feckin bag for us to look at
We then drove across country to Alnwick, basically following Hadrians Wall
After being given a factory tour at the House od Hardy, we needed fodder. We decided against the chip butty
And had the Haddock and Chips instead
Landy in Alnwick
Haraki and Ayumi, can't resist a bit of Lion Heart in front of Alnwick Castle
And Ayumi cant resist running down the beach at Alnmouth to touch the North Sea
Finally, Haraki and Ayumi do Hogwarts
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Wednesday. Today is Aero day.
Although it was raining when we left, we took this as a good sign
We got there, and if it was made of leather and did not move, Haraki tried it on…
Eskimo Haraki
A tad large I feel
Mid weight horse western
Deer skin western
Ayumi fell in love with this, but only told me on the way home that she wanted to ask Will how much it was and felt that she couldn't. Oh well, that's another phone call for me today…(Notice Haraki in the background trying yet another jacket on)...
"This is Maverick, come in Boss Man" - Yes, Haraki had to have a Top Gun jacket. Will and he negotiated a trade - Will's getting some T shirts…...
Superb vintage B2
We gather round Wills desk to discuss tweaks
The Haraki has to try one on
Westen shirt in oil pull
Haraki pimps my ride
Cool road trip and I'm happy to hear a little more about the collabo!
