Korchmar Twain Leather Weekender – $530 ($605)
About the author: Dave I. has been a Dappered reader for several years. His interest in fashion started with shoes and expanded to encompass watches, suits, and general men’s style. When not thinking about his next purchase he can be found enjoying a pint of locally brewed craft beer.
The search for the perfect weekender bag is a bit like looking for the perfect pair of shoes. Everyone has their own opinion on what constitutes said item, everyone has their own requirements for said item, and finding said item can be at times extremely challenging. This is the situation I found myself in when looking for a weekender bag. With my requirements set, it was a matter of trolling the interwebs until I found exactly what I was looking for.
The Bag
Enter the Korchmar Twain Leather Weekender. With Dimensions of 22″ x 10″ x 14″ this Made in the USA bag is perfect for an airplane carry-on or for throwing in the trunk of a car for a quick weekend getaway. The interior of bag is lined with signature 6.4 oz yarn dyed twill and contains three interior pockets, handy for stuffing charging cables, sunglasses, travel guides, or anything that might get lost at the bottom of a travel bag. The exterior is made of full grain American leather finished with natural oils and waxes, and complimented with brass clamp down ends to allow for expansion and increased interior capacity. Overall the bag looks and feels good. However, with a retail price of $605.00 USD this is definitely on the spendy side.
While Traveling
I recently had the opportunity to take the bag on a five day business trip. Granted five days is a little longer than a weekend, but the Twain proved to be the perfect bag for the job as I needed a bag to fit in the airline overhead bin since I did not want to check any bags. For the trip I took with me two pairs of shoes, two pairs of pants, a set of clothes for the gym, three business shirts, toiletries, underwear and socks. The Twain managed to pack all of it efficiently and with style.
The Twain fit perfectly in the overhead compartment of both flights. On the flight out, overhead compartment space was at a premium as the overhead bins were not very deep. The Twain fit snugly in the overhead bin length wise, with not much room to spare. The return flight had a more traditional overhead bin, with the Twain fitting in width wise and having room to spare.
Only Issues
There are only two issues with the bag – beside the price – and the gripes are minor.
- Snug Strap: The first issue deals with the leather strap that buttons the carrying straps together. The fit is snug. To button up the carrying straps, both straps need to be placed at a certain angle for the buttons to close. This might be because the bag is new and the leather hasn’t been worked in yet, but it did take a little bit of pulling and manipulating to get straps buttoned up together.
- Stiff Leather: The second issue likely ties into the first. Because the bag is new, the leather is extremely stiff. There is no flexibility and the leather shows every little scuff. Over time, this will likely change as the bag gets worked in. It’s concerning to see scrapes and nicks on an expensive bag, but with leather that is the nature of the beast.
Final Thoughts
Having successfully completed one trip with the Twain, I can easily see more trips where the bag will prove its worth. At $605.00 USD this bag is not for everyone. However both when checking in to the hotel, and when getting dropped off at the airport, the porters handling the bag commented on how nice it was. Now this may be because they were looking for a tip. Or it could be because they genuinely felt it was a nice bag. Personally, I prefer to think it was the latter.
Editors Note: At post time, an alternate version, the “Lux Twain”, made from full grain American aniline leather, is costlier at retail ($645) yet is marked down to $495. That’s less that the regular Twain version reviewed in this post. As far as we can tell, the only difference is that the Lux version is aniline leather, whereas the non-Lux version is not. Looks like the sale is set to expire tomorrow, 12/20/18.