Wallet

Cuoiela is Gonna Save My Backside.

The older I get, the less crap I like to carry with me. This means my wallet is supposed to be getting thinner, and more compact. Unfortunately it isn’t, it’s actually gotten a bit thicker which means I can’t keep it in my back pocket when I’m driving or sitting. The thickness makes my butt and lower back hurt. Yes I’m serious. So what’s a guy to do? Look for a new wallet that limits the amount of crap you can carry with you.

Cuoiela is a project I found on Kickstarter from Virginia based Nolla Design. This wallet has roo for 2 to 8 cards plus some cash. The design is thin, compact and flexible. It is a cure for the bulky oversized, overstuffed wallets so many people carry with them today. Cuoiela is a completely smooth wallet with no over stitching, that holds your possessions discretely. The Cuoiela wallet is made from high quality Italian leather and elastic fabric band, and has a nice simple look to it. Once again, form and function joined seamlessly to produce a well designed useful object.

During my design research, I found that many card wallets are simply about function but if you think about it, a wallet is something that we carry around every day and show off to the world. Thus, I was motivated to design the Cuoiela, the wallet that is not only slim and convenient, but also feels stylish and precious to the owner.

cuoiela from nolladesign on Vimeo.

A N V E Envelope

I’ve been using the same wallet for about 10 years now. Actually I should say I have been using a Tumi business card holder as my wallet for about 10 years now. I actually had the matching wallet but never used it. There is something really nice about the compact size of the card holder, and since I hardly ever carry cash, the business card holder made perfect sense. After 10 years though, my poor hip pocket carrying case needs to be replaced.

I thought about getting another Tumi business card holder, but I discovered the A N V E Envelope card holder which is a perfect size, minimal, functional, and hand crafted. Carefully made by hand from lambskin with an incredibly with a kid glove soft touch, Envelope is designed to be the modern wallet. It features enough room for your ID, a couple of plastic cards, a bit of cash, and a few other small thin items. With an approximate size of 4 x 3.25 inches it meets all of my needs. At a cost of $100.00 it isn’t cheap, but if it lasts as long as my Tumi did, it’ll be worth the money.

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Maison Martin Margiela‘s Line 11 Wooden Wallets.

I’m the kind of person that likes to have very little in my wallet, and I like to carry a very small compact wallet in my back pocket. I don’t like the idea of sitting on some thick lumpy chunk of leather, and the idea of having to take it out of my pocket every time I sit down seems rather stupid.

Now, with all that said, I have to say I am rather intrigued by Maison Martin Margiela‘s line 11 wallets. This line showcases an unconventional wooden wallet for the spring/summer 2011 mens collection.

The wallet is lined with supple calf-skin leather, and the exterior is made lacquered wood in a variety of stains. The wallet looks beautiful, and it looks like it would hold all my personal items, plus money and identification. As much as I like the idea of it and the way it looks, I doubt I would ever buy one. From the photos, the closed wallet looks like it is over half an inch thick. Sorry I don’t have enough padding on my rear end to offset the pain this thing would cause me.

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