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British Correspondent’s Bag and Photojournalist’s Bag

I recently set out to understand the differences among popular leather and linen English bags Banana Republic produced: The Low Profile Bag, The Correspondent’s Bag, Photojournalist Bag and Mr. Brady’s Traveler’s Bag. As is described in the Fall 1984 “Outfitters Who Outlasted the Empire” catalog the Zieglers contracted with many old English factories to produce their goods for BR. With some help from folks at the Abandoned Republic Facebook Page and a little internet searching I learned that the bags were made by two different traditional British bag makers, Brady and Billingham. Mr. Billingham founded his company in 1973, having been trained as a bag maker by Brady, which is a family owned bag company dating back to 1887. The two camera bags were made by Billingham and is still doing great business today selling similar bags as they made for BR called the Hadley.

The British Correspondent’s Bag had room for four camera lenses and three camera bodies. This bag and the Photojournalist’s vest were popular with working photographers and correspondents as well as savvy travelers.
The Correspondent’s Bag shown here with a Photojournalist’s Vest.
Removable padded panels hold expensive camera equipment securely in place.
Wonderful logo embossing was shown on only one of the two straps.
These bags were very likely made in England by the Billingham factory, a bag maker that is still producing bags of this type to this day.
A similar bag, more square in its profile was sold in Fall 1984-Summer 1985 as The Photojournalist’s Bag.
The Photojournalist Bag was even sold on the same page as the Correspondent’s bag in its last appearance in the Summer 1985 catalogue. .

About The Author

Robyn Adams
Robyn's fascination with Banana Republic began in 1984 when her Alaskan adventurer father began buying the clothing and giving her the catalogs. She loved the clothes and as an artist she was drawn to the illustrations. She went on to study illustration at art college in BR's hometown of San Francisco and worked for years as a background artist for animation. She is now based in Oakland, CA as a graphic designer and illustrator with Secret Fan Base . She's been collecting and archiving at Abandoned Republic since 2011.

4 Comments

  • Tom on July 15, 2021

    Robyn,
    Thank you for making this site! I love it. I bought a few items from BR over their lifetime. One shirt was my absolute favourite. I wore it to SE Asia on one of my many adventures. I found a shop that could duplicate it. I had ten shirts made with nearly the identical wonderful material. Proud to have found the SECRET FAN BASE.

    Cheers.
    tom

    • Robyn Adams on July 16, 2021

      Glad you found it! What a great idea, making your own. Cool story.

  • Marco Sobrevinas on September 27, 2023

    Hi Robyn

    I realize this post is over 3 years old, but here goes;

    I super appreciate your secretfanbase site and the many informative posts on the original incarnation of Banana Republic and their products. I became aware of their photo vests and camera or travel bags in the very early 90’s while working as a photojournalist in Asia. Many of the other photojournalists wore the BR vest, with a few using the Mr. Brady’s Traveler’s Bag and I even saw one Correspondent’s Bag. All of those items were better constructed than my cheaper Domke photo bags and vest at the time. Nothing wrong with Domke, but the BR goods seem to be in a class above.

    By the time I got back to North America several years later, these BR products were no longer available. As you mentioned, luckily both Billingham and Brady were still making these bags.

    The BR Correspondent’s Bag is still made by Billingham today in an evolved form. Available in 3 or 4 sizes, probably the closest in size to the BR version is the Billingham 225. I have one of these in Sage, and it fits 2 rangefinder or digital mirrorless cameras with up to four lenses. This is one of my favourite camera bags.

    The closest equivalent I could find to the BR Photojournalist’s Bag is Billingham’s big 550 model if you were to leave out its modular and removable end pockets. I never bought a 550, as it’s quite large and my cameras and lenses were more compact than SLR/DSLR’s or Medium Format cameras.

    The BR LowProfile Bag – Billingham still makes the Eventer, which looks really similar with the addition of a carry handle on the top flap. They recently discontinued the original Eventer in favour of a Mk II version, which now has a pass through in the back to slip it over a trolley suitcase for air travel. In addition, they also released a Mini Eventer which is considerably smaller.
    I had an original Eventer and it’s a very pretty and luxurious bag. Due to its thick, all leather base, it does make the bag heavier than it looks. On the other hand, that base adds a lot of durability.

    The BR Mr. Brady’s Traveler’s Bag is, astonishingly, still being today by Brady Bags in virtually the same form! Brady calls it the Ariel Trout Bag and I have one from 20 years ago in khaki. I believe it’s available in two sizes, made with waterproof canvas in many colours, tweed, leather. It can be bought with an optional rubber liner for fishing, or you can buy a flat organizer for office use, with either attaching inside with buttons. There’s also a closely related Brady bag called the Kennet, which is especially made for photographers.

    Billingham makes a “close cousin” to this Brady, which is their Hadley line, as you wrote about. It’s also available in different sizes, colours, and either canvas or their proprietary FibreNyte. Instead of being a fishing bag, it’s aimed mostly at photographers and secondly, for commuting or travel.

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