Bennett Winch’s new tobacco suede bags are smoking

Bennett Winch’s new tobacco suede bag fabric is an intriguing amalgam of rockstar, cowboy and well-heeled English gent, all wrapped into a ruggedly refined six-piece collection

Style 27 Jan 2025

Brown suede suit carrier from Bennett Winch

Bennett Winch's tobacco brown suede collection includes the Suit Carrier Holdall, £1,650

British luxury bag maker Bennett Winch produces immaculate handmade holdalls, briefcases and backpacks. We like our luxury slow, timeless and with artisanal expertise – and all the better if it’s made in England – which is exactly why Bennett Winch has been on our radar since they were founded in 2014.

But in those 10 years, the bag “space” has got increasingly crowded. Models on catwalks clutching leather holdalls and briefcases is commonplace now as luxury brands cash in on a genre of fashion that was, up until recently, the preserve of womenswear marques. Accessories are flourishing. You only need to watch top-flight footballers getting off their team coaches – each gripping the same luxury bag – to understand why the big labels are investing time and resources into expanding their collections.

The range is crafted from completely weatherproof suede

Bennett Winch, however, is about small-batch production, high environmental standards, artisanal craftsmanship and an unerring attention to detail, and these have been the brand’s unwavering hallmarks over the last decade. So when it releases a new collection, we take notice.

When we first got wind of a tobacco-hued technical suede that the brand was developing we got in touch with co-founder Robin Winch to see if we could get the inside track. He confirmed the rumours, adding that the new fabric was ‘something of a paradox’, looking like it should belong in a ’70s five-star hotel on the one hand, while also quite at home being hurled through said hotel’s window by Keith Moon. That was possibly the greatest one-line marketing campaign for a bag collection.

Having got hands on some of these bags, you can see where Winch was coming from. The artisans at Bennett Winch have managed to create a tobacco brown suede six-piece collection of the brand’s best-loved shapes, all as rugged as they are refined. The ’70s reference is predominant thanks to that rich brown nap, giving the bags more of a retro feel.

The tobacco suede has been moss-backed (basically, treated with a concoction of resins) to make it impermeable to the elements, giving it a hard-wearing waterproof finish that will develop a unique patina over time. The fabric suggests an amalgam of characters – equal parts rockstar, cowboy, city slicker and country connoisseur. If you don’t want to be pigeonholed, this is your fabric.

Suede Backpack, Tobacco Brown, £1,275

Besides the suede, all the bags – which include a backpack, weekender, holdall, tote, commuter and briefcase – come trimmed with brown Tuscan leather and British-cast brass, underlining the heritage aesthetic that Bennett Winch is renowned for. The depth of tone in the tobacco colour is something else, and when you run your hand across the suede, dark cocoa-powder hues come out of the nap creating a wonderfully textural look.

Perhaps the best thing about the collection though is its refusal to be pigeonholed to any one style of menswear; it will perfectly complement Japanese denim as much as fine tailoring or modern preppy streetwear. Finding a product that is so aesthetically strong and yet lets you put your spin on it is a rare and covetable thing indeed.

From £850; available online and in-store at 34 Saville Row; bennettwinch.com