Letter-from-margot-wildvana-caravan (ADCOPY V2 - caravan park Busselton)
Forty years of weekends away and I have never once written about a bag. This is the one exception
Six things the Wildvana gets right that weekend bags get wrong, from a woman who does not write reviews.
Let me be clear about who is writing this. I am Margot, I am 66, I live in Perth with my husband Brian, and I have never in my life written a word about a bag. What I have done is pack for forty years of weekends away, out of holdalls that slumped, cases that scuffed, and one wheeled thing that lost a wheel in Mandurah and that we no longer mention. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about a bag, owning up to it.
The bag is called the Wildvana, from Rowan & Rose, a small boutique in Sydney that has been quietly making ordinary things a little lovelier for twenty-five years. I first saw it over the arm of a woman three sites down from us at a caravan park in Busselton, every single day of our stay, and when the boutique later asked whether they could share my letter with other women, I said yes, as long as I could be completely honest in it.
A quilted bag with a camper van driving across the front, peace sign on its nose, under a stitched orange sunset. At a caravan park, where it suited the place better than our caravan did. Read on.
Forty years of packing taught me this. Weekend bags come in two kinds. The sensible kind, black nylon holdalls that slump on the floor and look identical in every car boot, which is how you end up driving home with somebody else's toiletries. And the smart kind, stiff little cases that scuff at the corners, weigh a tonne before you put anything in, and hold half of what they promise.
Slumped and invisible, or stiff and heavy. Those were my choices, and I had done my years with both.
The Wildvana is the first bag I have owned that is neither, and having taken it on two caravan weekends, a run down to Margaret River and a Tuesday overnight at my sister's, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
1It does not look like luggage
It looks like a holiday that has already started. The whole scene is quilted and stitched in: the camper van with its peace-sign nose, an orange sunset, daisies, little red toadstools, purple hills running round the back. Next to a pile of black holdalls it is the one people smile at, and the one nobody walks off with by mistake.
On our next caravan weekend two women stopped me at the camp kitchen to ask where it was from. I finally knew how the woman three sites down felt.
2It swallows a proper weekend
Two outfits, a spare pair of shoes, the wash bag, a paperback and the cardigan I always swear I will not need. It all goes in without a wrestle, and because the opening is wide I can see everything at once instead of digging for it. Packing stopped being the worst part of going away.
Three nights away, walking boots included, and I found everything first time.
3The quilting is the clever part
The outside is soft, so it gives a little when you push it into a packed car boot or the gap behind the seat, then springs straight back into shape looking unbothered. And the padding works both ways: what is inside travels cushioned. My reading glasses have come home in one piece twice now, which they never managed in the old holdall.
Squashed it behind the esky in the boot. It came out looking better than I did.
4The handles are part of the show
The straps run right round the body of the bag, so the weight is carried by the whole bag rather than a few stitches at the top. They are covered in little stitched daisies, so even the practical parts are pretty, and they sit comfortably in the hand or over the forearm with nothing to dig in.
5Two honest sizes, measurements included
The 40 centimetre bag does an overnight, the gym, or a cabin bag. The 46 centimetre bag takes two to three days with room for shoes and a towel. The boutique prints the measurements plainly and even says most women end up happier with the bigger one, which matches my experience of weekends and of life.
I took the bigger one on their advice and it was the right call. Nobody ever wishes a weekend bag were smaller.
6It earns its keep between trips
This is the part I did not expect. It does the gym during the week and the overnight at my sister's, and Brian now calls it the most cheerful thing we own, himself included. The old holdall lived in a cupboard between trips. This one hardly gets put away.
The Wildvana, against the weekend bags I had been buying
You can find a weekend bag for thirty-odd dollars almost anywhere. I know, because I own the evidence. Here is the difference, side by side.
Black nylon that slumps on the floor
Looks like every other bag in the boot
Thin walls, everything inside gets knocked about
Handles that dig in before the car park
One vague size, no measurements
Quilted and structured, springs back into shape
A stitched camper-van scene nobody mistakes
Padded walls that cushion what is inside
Wrap-round daisy handles, easy in the hand
Two honest sizes, measurements printed
About the price
The Wildvana is $59.99 for either size, down from $119.99.
I will pass on what the boutique told me. Rose, who runs it with her husband, is closing the shop after twenty-five years, and the bags are made in small runs. Once a run is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. From my side, half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with something, and three trips in, I have not found it.
I do not buy anything without looking properly first, so I checked the measurements and the returns before I ordered. Free delivery, and thirty days to send it back if it was not right. That was enough for me to stop dithering.
If you have a caravan weekend, a coach trip, a grandchild's netball carnival or a Tuesday overnight anywhere in your future, and your current bag looks like it is going to a funeral, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while your favourite design is still there. Stop dithering and go and look.
Margot
WILDVANA | Quilted Travel Duffle Bag
- Stitched camper-van scene, quilted all over
- Swallows a proper weekend without wrestling
- Soft quilted walls that cushion and spring back
- Wrap-round daisy handles, comfortable in hand
- Two honest sizes: 40cm and 46cm, both $59.99
- Part of a collection of 18 designs
- Free delivery Australia-wide
About the writer. Margot is 66 and lives in Perth with her husband Brian. She is a Rowan & Rose customer and wrote this letter about her own Wildvana.
This page is an advertisement for Rowan & Rose. Free delivery Australia-wide · 30-day money-back guarantee.