One of the magazines I miss most living in Brazil is Monocle, a hefty tome of a magazine that has thought-provoking articles about all manners of world issues and cultures. It has a paid-subscription access area on its website, but I prefer to read the mag’s long articles via hard copy. The videos, though, are free (you can sign up for their podcasts by doing a search for “Monocle” in iTunes) and immaculately produced. In short, Monocle is a sophisticated magazine whose taste I implicitly trust.

I’d been so occupied with other parts of their site that I only discovered the shopping area of their site yesterday. There’s a fabulous bike way out of my price range but Monocle has a collection of travel bags for sale that won’t break the bank once the prices are converted from pounds into dollars. They’re made by a Japanese company named Porter, especially for them. These soft luggage pieces come in handsome, utilitarian shapes, with the only embellishments in the form of leather. The overnight bag is especially well crafted, with a laundry bag and a smaller bag for toiletries thrown in to help keep your toothbrush separate from your dirty underwear. Coincidentally, Hypebeast did a post a few days ago on some new bags from Porter, separate from Monocole, which are equally just as yummy.