5 Reasons My Weekend Bag Is Now Shaped Like A Camper Van
5 Reasons My Weekend Bag Is Now Shaped Like A Camper Van
I am sixty-eight, we have a caravan, and I never expected the bag to be the colourful one.
By Pat Holloway, a customer in Leeds · 4 min read
- A quilted flower-power camper van, daisies, peace sign and all, the happiest bag in any room
- Swallows a proper weekend of packing and still zips shut without a fight
- An adjustable strap, so it carries whichever way suits you that day
- Two sizes, one for a night away and one for two or three days
- And the strange one: Brian and I actually go away more now
The full five, with my photos, below. The bag is the JOYVANA, from Manchester Boutique.
First, how I got here. For forty-odd years my weekend bag was a plain black holdall, the sort that could belong to anybody and usually did, because Brian took mine to the caravan twice thinking it was his. When the zip finally gave up this year I went looking for a plain replacement, found Manchester Boutique’s sale instead, and came away with a quilted duffle bag shaped like a little hippie camper van covered in smiling daisies. I felt daft ordering it. I do not feel daft any more.
Mine, packed and waiting by the front door. The black holdall never once made me smile on the way out.
It is the happiest-looking bag I have ever owned
The whole bag is done as a little flower-power camper van. A pink front with a peace sign on the nose, rainbows in the front windows, a row of sunset-coloured windows down each side, and white daisies with little smiling yellow faces across the panels. All of it in a quilted finish with a texture you can feel, so it reads as something made, not something novelty.
I have carried sensible bags my whole life. Nobody ever said a word about one of them. This one gets stroked like a pet everywhere it goes.
The day it came. The daisies have little smiles on them. I did not stop smiling either.
It swallows a proper weekend
This is the one I did not believe from the photographs. It is a genuinely roomy bag. A couple of outfits, shoes, a towel and a wash bag all went in for our last trip away, and the zip along the roof closed without any of that kneeling-on-the-bag business the old holdall demanded. The inside is one big open space, so everything sits where you put it and you can see the lot at a glance.
Mid-pack for two nights away. All of that went in, and the zip did not complain once.
It carries whichever way suits you
This is the one my shoulder is most grateful for. There are two quilted handles over the top for carrying it in your hand, and an adjustable strap besides, so you can set it to whatever length suits you and let it ride on your shoulder when your hands are full of keys, coats and a spaniel lead. At my age you do not want a bag that only offers you one way of lugging it. This one lets you choose, and I choose differently nearly every trip.
Off down the hall by the handles. The strap is there for the days both hands are spoken for.
There is a size for every sort of trip
This is the one that sold my sister June. It comes in two sizes. The 40 centimetre one is the go-anywhere size, right for a night away, the gym or as a roomy cabin bag. The 46 centimetre one is taller and wider all round and takes two or three days of packing with room to spare. I have the bigger one, because in all my years of going away I have never once wished a weekend bag were smaller. June took one look, asked the sizes, and ordered hers before she had taken her coat off.
The big one, up close. The quilting is the part everybody has to touch.
A cheerful bag gets you out of the door
The strange one. We go away more now. When the bag was a black holdall, packing was a chore I put off and the caravan sat waiting for a free weekend that never quite came. Now the bag sits on the wardrobe shelf looking like a holiday already booked, and somehow the weekends get planned. Brian says a bag cannot make you travel more. Brian has also carried it to the caravan twice this season and let it ride up front, so I rest my case.
On the wardrobe shelf between trips. It never waits long these days.
I am already eyeing the smaller size for the gym, and the black holdall went into the charity bag without a backward glance. If a weekend bag can put you in a holiday mood before you have left the hallway, and it turns out it can, this is the one.
— Pat Holloway, Leeds
Two practical things before you go. The sale is on at the moment and the first autumn stock is already going, so if one catches your eye I would not sit on it. And the camper van is one design of nineteen in the collection, florals, rainbows, meadows and seaside ones, all in the same quilted style, so there will be one that is properly you.
JOYVANA | Quilted Travel Duffle Bag
40 cm £32.95 · 46 cm £35.95 · Free UK delivery
See The Weekend Bag CollectionSale on now. The first autumn stock is already going.
Pat Holloway is 68 and lives in Leeds. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid for this list.
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