Think you’re a big William Gibson fan? Sure, you’ve read all his books; maybe you even saw Johnny Mnemonic in a movie theater in 1995. (We did!) But are you willing to spend $530 dollars for a nylon bag to carry your laptop computer in? Would it help if we told you it was the same nylon used in military-grade bulletproof vests, and that the bag also had genuine horse leather accenting?
The bag (along with a $340 shoulder bag) are the result of a collaboration between two Japanese designers, bagmakers Head Porter and the Buzz Rickson line of historical reproduction clothing. Gibson has lent his name to a line of Buzz Rickson jackets for a while now, ever since he gave a character a jacket they never made, a black version of a U.S. Navy flying jacket. Buzz Rickson got so many requests for the black jacket that they went ahead and created one; since then, they’ve created Gibson-endorsed versions of at least three other jackets with “all the styling and detailing of a superior-grade military jacket design in a non-military color, and lacking the military insignia markings.”
And, this just in: Buzz Rickson has also made $160 William Gibson athletic shoes. All these items are available in the United States through a single boutique, the punningly-named denim specialist Self Edge.