Favourite pass on from Grandma

Exploring LineaBold, the '90s "IT bag"

Dear Grandma.

When I was a child, I already knew my Grandma is different from other ladies of her age. She shops with me. She does her nails every month. She puts on make-up wherever she goes. She wears bold prints and colours. As a petite lady and tailor herself, she makes her own clothes and even ours. It would be an understatement to say I am proud to have a grandma like her, a cool grandma that strangers would thought she was my mum.

Speaking of Grandma’s bag collection, she could go on forever. I remember when she takes all her bags out for annual spring cleaning, she would share nostalgic stories one after the other without signs of stopping. That’s when I knew she had good old memories with her collection. While listening to her stories, I like to try on her bags and heels in front of the mirror. Although looking years apart from my actual age, I felt like a fashionable grown up.

It was around high school that I noticed her taste on bags: Mostly constructed in boxy shape, highly practical with at least one interior bag pocket, fan of exotic leather (ostrid, crocodile, snake etc) and always buys niche brands of her time (those that she claimed were one-of-a-kind do not have much trail today…). I kept a great range of her bags when I moved from Hong Kong to Manchester, and to say my personal favourite? It has to be this Piero Guidi’s LineaBold bag in full grain leather —

With its pristine vintage condition and silver metal buckles, this LineaBold bag looks modern and is very easy to style with. I wore it to a quick lunch some weeks ago and got asked about the brand, but sad to say I didn’t know enough to share except the written hints on its metal plate. The brand, the engraved name on its metal tag and the bag’s significance to my Grandma — now I want to know more.

There is a Facebook page of Piero Guidi apart from its official webpage. To my great surprise, almost all photos featuring the LineaBold bag are filled with over 1k likes and are exclusively commented in Cantonese like the one below:

Comments were like “Is the (Linea)Bold waist belt bag still available for sale?” “What is the price now?” “Childhood memory” “My dream bag when I was a teenager” etc.

Then I saw this comment in particular:

(Translation) Those were the days to wear a (Linea)Bold waist belt bag, Timberland Noreen boat shoe, (Levi’s) 501 with a pack of Red Marlboro! So it seems these are the must-haves for a Hong Kong fashionista 30 years ago.

My head is spinning hard at this point. Was LineaBold an “IT bag” in Hong Kong back in the ‘90s? Does Piero Guidi used to have retail outlets there? I don’t recall seeing this brand at the street or in any department stores when I was a teenager, yet when I casually ask those who were students in Hong Kong during that era, all answers lead to a huge “yes”.

I further googled for more information, trying to look for old photos with real people wearing the bag instead of models. Not much pictorial clues could be traced on this trend except netizens who shared their own LineaBold bags online, but I had some luck extracting bits from newspaper, magazines, discussion forums and Piero Guidi official page to fill the missing gaps in.

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FOR “CITIZENS OF THE WORLD”

It was 40 years ago when Piero Guidi, an Italian sculptor who turned to fashion studies in Rome, realised cities have become metropolises where people travel, meet in trendy places, search for success and forge friendships. These positive aspects of a cosmopolitan society has inspired him to create the LineaBold line in 1982, a collection designed for “citizens of the world” who wanted refined and functional designer travel companions.

Suitcases were the instant bestsellers when the LineaBold collection first came out given their functionality, originality and daring designs compared to conventional travel products.

Periodo Nero: (translation) Dark period. You can probably tell from here black is the collection’s distinctive colour. It was not until the ‘90s that more colourways are introduced after great demands in the Asian market.

THE METAL TAG

What makes the LineaBold bag different from all other designer travel bag back then is their famous metal tag for owners to engrave their name and address, transforming every single model of the bag into a personalised piece.

Imagine: A glimpse at the luggage belt at the airport and you’d be able to tell something about the person without having to actual interact. Gospel for a nosy introvert!

Grandma’s bag also had her name engraved —

Grandma’s metal tag with her English name “May” engraved. Fun fact: Grandma’s first name is “Mei”, which has the same pronunciation as “May” so this is probably the reason why it is “May” when she was gifted this bag in Canada before 1992. But why is this version of the tag so much simpler than that above without asking for more traveller’s details?

Oh look at the leather. So thick and stunning. This style is also made with a Piero Guidi registered nylon to ensure durability from stress, scratch, tear and water. The nylon LineaBold reminds me of Prada nylon collection but Piero Guidi does it better with the metal buckles.

POPULARITY IN ASIAN MARKET

Reading from multiple newspaper, magazine and discussion forum (all in Cantonese), LineaBold bag had its glorious moments not in Europe but in Asia especially Hong Kong and Japan. It was mostly secondary students who craved owning a LineaBold bag not only because of its functionality or status symbol (asking for HK$3000 / US$380 / £280 / €325 — 30 years ago), but the metal tag had to be sent to Italy for personalised engraving. How cool was that!

Backpack was a popular option for secondary students.

Following the successes of the collection, variations have been introduced to include new colours and combinations while still keeping the original spirit of being “Bold Like You” (their motto). The collection was also expanded from designing for travellers to the general public, i.e. introduce everyday bags.

Multicolour LineaBold were sought-after in Hong Kong and Japan, but Japanese prefer the classic black version more as you can tell from their local resell websites.

I also looked up GEM App and typed in “Piero Guidi bag” — Among all their existing collections I still prefer the classic LineaBold collection most. Look at that round cloth travel case!

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While researching Grandma’s LineaBold bag I realised that all my bags don’t bear names. I only carry a Jellycat or Labubu as bag charms to differentiate mine versus others, not even a name tag with my initials on. It feels peculiar yet intimate to carry a bag that bears not your own name but your beloved Grandma’s as if she is sharing a part of your journey wherever you bring the bag to. Whoever gifted my Grandma this LineaBold bag shall know the intention of adopting it as a travel companion is now well-received: It will be going on journeys with a citizen of the world, aka me.

Last but not least,

Have a great week!

Chris

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