Bleu de Chauffe Postman Bag: A 2-Year Review

The right messenger bag can be the perfect complement to a suit or a more casual outfit, but striking the balance of versatility and — I’ll just say it — masculinity is challenging.

An understated leather messenger makes you look effortlessly well put together and can straddle dressy and casual and lets you transport your belongings! That’s a pleasure that we of the purse-less gender often live our whole lives without experiencing. Shoulder bags: they’re great for carrying stuff!

In my search for a heritage-quality shoulder bag, I discovered Bleu de Chauffe, a maker from the south of France. Known for their stylish leather and canvas bags of many shapes and sizes, the company’s casual and historically informed approach to everyday carry has struck a chord among the Thoughtfully Dressed Men of Instagram. Eventually, I’d seen them on by so many friends’ shoulders that I decided to bite the bullet.

Two years of use later, we’re taking a look at the medium version of their Postman Eclair. I’ll walk you through the upsides, downsides, functionality, aesthetic, and history of this bag so you can decide if it’s worth your money.

Pros & Cons

I know you’ve got places to be, so if you’re just here for the pros and cons and none of the flowery language, here’s the takeaway.

What I liked about Bleu de Chauffe’s Postman Bag

• Handmade in the French countryside by a single artisan from start to finish
• Full-grain, vegetable tanned leather will age wonderfully
• Cool history, inspired by actual vintage French mailbags
• Design runs no risk of coming off purse-like

Downsides but not dealbreakers

• Pretty casual; might not fly in corporate environments
• Unlined with raw edges = less finishing than some guys like in their bags
• The medium doesn’t fit a 16-inch laptop; the large is much deeper and more square shaped
• Not for guys who like a ton of pockets and features

What is Bleu de Chauffe? 

Bleu de Chauffe started out in 2009, focusing on creating responsibly-made leather goods. The company takes its name from the popular French expression “mettre son bleu de chauffe,” which roughly translates as “put on your work jacket” and get to work.

Specifically, the work jacket they’re referring to is the famous chore coat that has become a staple of casual menswear worldwide. Stridewise did a whole guide to wearing chore coats right here.

It’s a specific kind of French work jacket (typically blue and possibly originating the term blue collar) that engine drivers and farmers started wearing in the late 19th century. This suggests a rustic, industrial-influenced style with practical, utilitarian elements. 

From their southern France workshop in Saint-Georges-de-Luzençon, they create duffel bags, backpacks, briefcases, camera bags, and also clothing like fisherman sweaters and, of course, chore coats.

Something really cool is that each product is made by a single person from start to finish: artisans don’t have one station where they punch rivets all day; they each take a “soup to nuts” approach.

This focus on craftsmanship using careful and considerate methods to create unique and well-made items is at the core of the company’s identity. 

Initial Impressions

• Three exterior pockets, large interior covered by flap
• Special interior sleeve holds up to a 13 inch laptop
• No sleeve/pocket on the backside
• Bag comes in three sizes

At first glance, the Postman Eclair is very attractive. It might not meet your standards for minimalist but it’s clear that it’s high quality, emphasizing large pieces of leather with a natural, hardwearing, full grain aesthetic.

It features soft vegetable tanned leather, three outside pockets (two at the sides and one across the top), a handle across the top, a removable shoulder strap, and a large interior section covered by a flap closure. In short: the Postman includes many of the hallmarks of a classic messenger or satchel.

Open it up and you’ll find that the bag’s unlined, which in this instance means the interior is a nice fuzzy roughout. There’s also a felted sleeve that in this Medium sized Postman is designed to hold a 13-inch laptop or tablet.

A small, removable, zipper closure pocket snaps into place along the back of the interior and features a tag signed and dated by the artisan who built the bag. (Mine was Catherine. Hi, Catherine!)

About Those Buckles

There are no zippers to open or close the bag and the flap is secured using a leather tab with a notch that fits over and clasps onto a brass stud on the body of the bag. So the “buckles” are more or less fake: you use studs underneath them to secure the bag closed.

If you don’t have much experience with leather bags you might be surprised to hear this, but stud closures are actually very secure — the flap has never come unstuck in the two years I’ve been using it. Another example of a leather messenger with stud closures is Nick’s Cravar bag from Indonesia, and honestly, stud closures might be my favorite way to secure a bag: they’re very easy to open on-the-go, yet they never come undone when you don’t want them to. (Not in my experience, anyway, which is not inconsiderable!)

Sizing Bleu de Chauffe’s Postman

The bag comes in three sizes — small, medium, and large — and while I liked the idea of a larger bag that could carry more, I chose the medium. When empty, it measures roughly 15 inches long (38 cm), 11 inches high (28 cm), and 4 inches wide (10 cm).

One legitimate complaint is that if you have a larger laptop and want the larger bag, the Large Postman is decidedly more square in appearance, elongated heightwise (see picture above).

The medium felt like the best size for me: it fits my laptop, phone, wallet, keys, and other daily items while maintaining a low profile and compact look.

Leather Quality and Construction

• Vegetable tanned leather
• Full-grain
• Environmentally-friendly waterproofing process

The leather is a vegetable tanned, full-grain cowhide. The pebbled texture looks beautiful and is soft and pliable out of the gate. The hides are sourced from Limousin in southwest-central France but the tanneries used are secret: according to Bleu de Chauffe, they “mainly work with two tanneries specialized in vegetable-tanned leather, one located in the east of France and another in Italy.”

As my editor Nick saw when he visited their workshop, the leather is clicked, cut, and sewn in-house. They also apply a plant-based waterproofer to protect the leather without interfering with its patina.

The Postman currently comes in four colors: blue, black, a very dark brown, and the medium brown they call “Cuba Libre.” It’s a rich, medium brown with subtle reddish undertones that has developed a lovely patina over the last year.

It’s critical to note that the bags are vegetable tanned, which is the way humans made leather for thousands of years until the cheaper chrome tanning process was invented in the 19th century. There are benefits to chrome tanned leather (it makes for more comfortable boots) but I prefer veg tanned for bags.

And this veg tan leather stands out for two reasons: it’s unusually soft and it comes in a good range of colors. Veg tan leather is hard to dye (you’ll never find white sneakers made of veg tan) but we’re big fans of Bleu de Chauffe’s blue leather, which Nick owned for a time — before giving it to a friend because the Medium wouldn’t hold his laptop.

The bags are machine stitched, but the quality of the construction is high. After a year of use, I have had no issues with the bag’s integrity, and no repairs have been necessary.

What I Like About the Shoulder Strap

• Anchor points help keep the bag from twisting
• Felted underside improves comfort and function

There are lots of interesting design choices that really set this piece apart from your typical shoulder bag.

One of my favorite elements is the design of the shoulder strap. The attachment points for the strap are placed more toward the back of the bag rather than the sides. I find this helps the bag rest at my side far better since it can hug my hip.

Another nice element is the felt on the underside of the strap, which helps keep it from slipping off the shoulder (something surprisingly common with messenger bags) and it protects my clothing. This was important, as other leather straps have actually discolored or damaged my clothing, including my business suits.

The length is adjustable so that I can wear it across the body or just over the shoulder. 

Potential Drawbacks

While my overall experience with the bag has been positive, the Postman Eclair has a few drawbacks.

Closure System

While the stud closure is faster than buckles, it’s still not easy to open and close it with one hand.

Lack of Lining

The bag’s unlined, which makes it harder to clean. I sometimes feel like this is just a token complaint because when’s the last time you cleaned your bag? Plus, lining would increase the cost and risk tearing. Still, some guys consider this a drawback.

Edge Finishing

It’s worth pointing out the edges are “raw,” or unfinished. What this means is that after. cutting the pieces of the leather, the exposed edges weren’t treated (eg. with wax) or otherwise protected, like by burnishing (see Frank Clegg) or sewing a piece of leather over it (called “piping”).

Like the absence of a liner, not finishing the edges makes the bag more casual and might be a turn-off for consumers who value a more polished look. For many, finished edges are a mark of higher quality, requiring additional time and effort, resulting in a higher price.

But the edges make sense for the brand’s rugged ethos, and the founder explained that it was done intentionally: their bags are modeled after vintage workwear, and the working class wouldn’t want to pay extra for aesthetic elements like edge finishing.

It’s quite possible that you wouldn’t either, and I think of the edges as a bonus in that they reduce the cost of production.

Bleu de Chauffe Postman: The Price

• €400 (~$425 – $450)

The medium Postman Eclair is $425 to $450, depending on the exchange rate.

This may be expensive for something you’re probably not planning to take to the office, but when you look at alternatives (next section), it’s actually pretty solid value for a vegetable tanned leather bag.

Especially when you consider the fact that the bags are fully produced in France and built by a single artisan in small batches. These principles and the higher quality product they create help justify the higher price.

Note that the brand offers some canvas and twill bags as cheaper alternatives to the leather ones.

Comparison to Other Brands

This bag is high quality for a lot of reasons but let’s look at alternatives in this category — and the category is vegetable tanned leather bags. That’s the kind of bag that’s in your mind’s eye when you think of “beautifully aging bag”.

One option that’s unlined with raw edges is Satchel & Page’s Mailbag: it’s $545, so about a hundred bucks more than Bleu de Chauffe, and it’s got way fewer features and pockets.

Another popular choice is Cravar’s F.C. 13, which runs at about $385. It’s cheaper in part because it’s made in Indonesia, and while we at Stridewise adore Cravar, we have to confess that the leather used by Bleu de Chauffe (and Satchel & Page, credit where it’s due) is nicer.

One of my favorites is Shinola. Their briefcases and messenger bags are lined and have finished edges, but the leather’s chrome tanned, and while they’re made in the USA they cost over $700.

The brand that gets brought up a lot when talking about vintage workwear-inspired leather bags is Filson. I have a few Filson bags that I have owned for years and greatly enjoy, but they have no leather briefcase or messenger at the moment — and when they did, it cost a cool thousand bucks.

Conclusion

I feel its aesthetic is versatile enough that I can dress it up or dress it down, pairing it with a suit and tie just as easily as I would a casual jacket and jeans — though I know more corporate types might want a less buckly, vintage look.

While I don’t love the studs-under-buckles closure system and you might take issue with the raw edges, I found these are fairly minor concerns. All things considered, the bag is extremely well-made and styled with great attention to detail and wonderful aesthetics that keep me reaching for it every morning on my way out the door.

In fact I have enjoyed the bag so much I subsequently picked up two more Bleu de Chauffe bags. I highly recommend the Postman Eclair and the other offerings from the brand.