Gates Andrews

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Aesthetic Inspiration

The initial decision was made to be a multi-functional, commuter tote bag, which evolved over time.

Combining historical motifs (steamer trunks) with modern sensibilities (tote bags) would drive the development of the concept.

Paper Prototype I Main Bag

Paper Prototype I Small Bag

Paper Prototype II Front

Paper Prototype II Back

Prototype I (Top): A tote bag (left) with exterior pockets and a removable interior bag (right), with a rigid compartment underneath the bag to store bulky items or the interior bag when not in use.

Prototype II (Bottom): A large backpack with generous front box pockets, water bottle pockets on both sides, and straps that allow it to be used as a backpack or a tote bag. Inside the bag, there is a laptop sleeve. The bottom of the bag is reinforced with hard cardboard corners, like a steamer trunk.

Prototype III: A recreation of Prototype II, made completely with muslin. The backpack strap becomes one of the tote straps when pulled through a guide strap, which is positioned below the seam that connects the top and the back sides of the bag. The backpack straps are attached to a triangular fabric section that attaches them to the bag. One front box pocket is constructed with five pieces of fabric, and is sewn so that it is turned inside out to appear as a box attached to the front of the bag. One water bottle pocket is attached to the side of the bag. This bag would open via a 12” zipper, placed on the top face. The side panels extend from the top to bottom, making this bag essentially a box.

Muslin Protoype I Front

Muslin Protoype I Side

Muslin Protoype I Back

Fit Test (Tote Bag)

Fit Test (Backpack)

Muslin Prototype II Front

Muslin Prototype II Back

Test Fit

Prototype IV: Expanding on Prototype III, this prototype is made of muslin and the straps are made with all-cotton webbing. Both front box pockets are present, but are topstitched to the bag instead of being strangely attached as described in Prototype III. A prototype for a leather corner was made to figure out how it would be constructed and attached to the bag. The water bottle pockets are folded over on one side, expanding once opened.

Felt Prototype I Front

Felt Prototype I Side

Felt Prototype I Back

Fit Test

Prototype V: An updated prototype made of polyester felt. The pattern for the bag was changed in several places. The overall design shrinks in height, from 18 inches to 15.5 inches. A single box pocket and a single flat pocket are found on the front of the bag. The zipper to access the main body of the bag extends past the top of the bag, and down the sides a few inches.

Felt Prototype II Front

Felt Prototype II Back

This prototype is essentially the exact same as Prototype V with fewer complete features, with one zipper (box pocket) and no other hardware, as these elements were shown to work on the previous prototype.

The lower box pocket now shares its bottom edge with the backpack, allowing for more stability.

Feature Development:

Zipper Style & Direction:

My final decision was to have all of my zippers be welt zippers, but the direction of the zippers varies. The front two zippers open from left to right- this motion feels natural, and works well if you grip the bag / brace the zipper with your left hand and open the pocket with your right. Since most people are right handed, I thought this was the best choice. The inside welt pocket, however, has the zipper head on the right side, and the pocket opens to the left. If the bag is worn as a tote and this pocket needs to be accessed, it can be opened from above in the same fashion as the front pockets.

For the main zipper, I was lucky enough to get a 22” long purse zipper, which is much more realistic for a backpack than a one-directional zipper. Being able to position the zippers on the top of the bag while the bag is closed was satisfying aesthetically and functionally.

Leather Corners:

In order to develop the corner, I explored how a circle could be cut and folded so that it would wrap around the corner of a box. I created the cardboard version for quickness, and then experimented with some leather. I eventually settled on a model that was about ¾ of a circle, with a 45 degree angle cut placed where the piece would fold onto itself (the one pictured below is constructed wrong). The easiest way to attach these corners after they were assembled was also the hardest, which was to stitch them on by hand after the entire bag had been assembled.

Expandable Pockets:

After seeing a pocket on a backpack at REI, where the expandable pocket was contained by a single piece of fabric folded over, I decided to go for this idea instead. It would have less moving parts and was simpler to construct, as it already had been done.

I executed the snap-expandable pocket with Prototype V, and it was easy enough to figure out how the snaps would be placed.