The Winged Heart

The Explorer Series from Steamline Luggage

I wasn’t sure what I was going to blog about today, but then I checked Design*Blog and saw this post about these beautiful luggage pieces from Steamline Luggage.  All the pieces are in the style of old-fashioned luggage, using materials like leather and linen, and are “inspired by exploration.”  My favorite thing about this luggage is that it’s totally steampunk, in both appearance and spirit.  The style is old fashioned, but sometimes with a splash of modern and trendy, while the materials and quality promote life-long use, rejecting our throw-away, plastic culture and embracing the heirloom culture of past generations.  And nothing is more steampunky than the  thought of going on an exciting adventure with all of your gadgets, gizmos, maps and notes packed away in a sturdy leather suitcase.

There are six different styles of luggage at Steamline, each with its own, imaginative name:  Aviator, Editor, Producer, Explorer, Ambassador, and Executive.  With names like that, this luggage is just begging for a steampunk cosplay group to form around it, each assuming one of those roles and owning a piece of corresponding luggage to take to conventions.  My best friend Sada owns a now-and-then steampunk shop, The Midnight Workshoppe, and I can absolutely see her unpacking her wares out of an Aviator suitcase, or using an Explorer vanity case as part of the shop display.

It’s really hard to pick a favorite out of the different styles.  They’re all so different, and they all come with a variety of color combinations.  I of course love the Editor series because it comes with pink leather accents, but something more traditional like the Aviator (which happens to be on sale right now), is also very appealing.  They each have their own charm, and I think you could pick one at complete random and be more than thrilled with whichever one you got!

The Editor Series from Steamline Luggage

The price really doesn’t seem unreasonable for such classic, quality pieces.  Then again, I don’t know much about luggage.  The only piece of luggage I’ve ever purchased was a full-size rolling piece that I bought from a department store in Japan on sale for $80, and it’s a darned fine piece of luggage.  It’s made of a sturdy synthetic material, it has the 360 degree rolling wheels, and the two halves of the luggage have their own zipping panels to keep everything in place.  It also came with a built-in combination lock for the zippers.  A lot of the Steamline pieces are about double what I paid for that piece, but it was on sale, and these are designer luggage pieces meant to last a lifetime, so the price doesn’t seem unreasonable at all, at least to me.

The Producer Series from Steamline Luggage

I can only really see two “flaws” in this luggage.  One is that the wheels on the rolling luggage seem to just be the straight kind, as opposed to the 360 degree kind, and there are only two wheels.  This isn’t a huge deal, I’ve just gotten really used to being able to roll my luggage in whatevermanner works best with all the other items I’m carrying.  The other issue is that this luggage is so beautiful, I would hate to hand it off to baggage claim and see it thrown around (and I tend to be pretty tough on my luggage as well).  The flip-side is that since these pieces are already old-fashioned looking, they would probably only become more charming with a little wear and tear!  Unfortunately, our scrapes and scratches are more likely to come from knocking our luggage down a flight of concrete subway stairs than from arrows being shot at us as we escape from an ancient Incan temple into our getaway helicopter.

The other downside to this luggage is that I don’t need any new luggage, so I won’t be likely to acquire any of these pieces any time soon.  But it’s nice to know these exist in case one of mine gets lost forever or catches on fire or something.  Be sure to go check out the Steamline website to see all of this beautiful luggage!

The Ambassador Series from Steamline Luggage

(P.S.  Can you just imagine my little mystery campers all arriving at camp with kids-sized versions of these?  It would be totally Hogwart’s.)