Two days, one suit, one carry-on

Garbelle started with a problem I ran into on every trip: pack a suit for two days, and choose between a carry-on that folds it in four and a garment bag that protects it but holds nothing else.

I looked for a bag that solved both. Carry-on size, one bag, the suit flat, shoes kept apart, everything organized. It didn't exist. So I had it made.

What our customers taught us

The first carry-on garment duffel shipped in 2023. Since then our customers have traveled with it in more than fifty countries. They write to us, send photos of their bags at the airport, and tell us what doesn't work.

Two things come up again and again. First, they weren't comparing Garbelle to another bag. They were comparing it to their carry-on suitcase — more than half came to us leaving one behind. Second, they want leather. Given the choice between more expensive leather and a cheaper quality synthetic, nine in ten take the leather.

Those two answers shape everything we've designed since.

Why the leather costs what it costs

We work in full-grain leather, which develops a patina with use instead of wearing out. It's heavier than a synthetic, more expensive, and it asks for more care. It's also why a Garbelle bag, five years in, has a patina no new bag will ever have.

The simplest proof

Fewer than 5% of our orders come back. On a bag that costs several hundred dollars, bought online, without ever holding it, that number says more about the work than anything we could write.

Our products are guaranteed 10 years against manufacturing defects. That isn't a sales line. It follows from how they're made.

Where we're going

The garment bag is still the heart of the brand, but a trip isn't only a suit, and it isn't only business. Backpacks, briefcases, laptop sleeves, watch cases, pouches, packing cubes: we now design what it takes to carry, organize and protect what you take with you, on business travel as much as weekends. The same standard, from the carry-on to the pen case.

Nothing has changed since the first bag. A product that solves one precise problem, in a material that lasts.

Thibault, founder of Garbelle