How do you improve upon an icon? When it came to update the 931 handbag, German accessories brand TSATSAS didn’t change a thing—the rigorous, compact design is as enduring as any mid-century classic by Dieter Rams. Instead, TSATSAS introduced a new color for the calfskin bag: burgundy. This latest tone joins the black, concrete gray, and khaki green versions released in 2018.
The piece is based on a Rams design from 1963. At the time, Rams was working at Braun, creating some of his most legendary designs, including the Phonosuper SK 4—a stereo system nicknamed “Snow White’s coffin.” Along with these industrial design breakthroughs during his tenure as chief designer from 1961 to 1995, Rams was also crafting leather shaver cases in collaboration with leather workshops in Offenbach am Main. Today, the 931 bag is made by TSATSAS artisans in that same city, with leather produced in Sweden by a tannery that meets the highest standards for traceability, environmental management, and social compliance.
It was also at Braun that Rams met Ingeborg Kracht, the photographer who would become his wife, and the muse for the 931 handbag. “I designed this bag in the same way I designed everything else, so largely based on right angles, but perhaps a little more emotionally, more personally,” Rams said upon the original release of 931, some 55 years after he first sketched it. “Designing a handbag is undoubtedly different to designing a Braun stereo system, but I applied the same principles. It had to be functional, visually durable, and very aesthetic. Less, but better.”
The design is both a love letter to Ingeborg and an apt illustration of his “Ten Principles for Good Design”—especially its praise for products that are innovative, honest, long-lasting. In its latest, burgundy, iteration, the 931 keeps the design fresh and relevant.
To shop the 931 handbag, visit tsatsas.com.
Photography courtesy of TSATSAS.
