I can really appreciate the tongue-in-cheek tactful humour that the designers at Want have in the Québec sovereignty issue. You wonder if some get the hinted punchline. The bags are named after two great - yet contraversial, statesmen of their time. Both DeGaulle and Trudeau were francophone contemporaries. The former, was French President and a hardline conservative military man who had international French aspirations. The latter was a new generation liberal, that brought fashion and attitude to slumbering Canadian politics, he was also the father of the Canadian constitution. As fate had it, their collision became Québec. In 1967, DeGaulle on a state visit shouts from Montréal city hall’s balcony to the thousands below, with French fervor at the brim: “Vive le Québec libre!”. The next year, Trudeau ascends to the Prime Minister’s office and has to deal with the developing FLQ crisis, and the growing momentum of populist separatist sentiment within French Canada.

Back to the post: the bags are exquisitely masculin. The Trudeau comes in two sizes fitting 14″ and 17″ laptops. The DeGaulle is an upright, in only one size that fits a 14″ laptop. Both come in a wide range of shades: black, burnt henna, white, dark brown, grey and red leather. Also certified organic cotton. All made in Italy. Prices are in the range of $700-$1400. In the City Bags Collection there is the odd one out: the Kingsford camera bag. You’d figure it would be only in good taste that the additional piece should have been named after either British Trade Consul James Cross, or Québec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. Ideas anyone?

After the jump: pics of the bags and a vid of Trudeau on the FLQ crisis.