‘931’ handbag by Dieter Rams for Tsatsas wins Wallpaper* Design Award

We’ve found the Grail of handbags with this vintage treasure brought up to date by Dieter Rams for Tsatsas, which has just won Wallpaper* Design Award for Best Belated Bag.

Since co-founding accessories brand Tsatsas in 2012, Esther and Dimitrios Tsatsas have used German industrial designer Dieter Rams’ ‘Ten Principles for Good Design’ as guiding tenets. Putting these tenets to good use, the Frankfurt-based label has opted to put into production a handbag prototype that Rams created for his wife in 1963 while researching leather shaving case designs for Braun, but which was never released.

More than 50 years on, Rams has collaborated with Tsatsas on a new version of the sleek leather bag. Evoking his principle ‘Good design is thorough down to the last detail’, its inner is highly practical, with a newly added zip-fastened pocket and magnetic closure. ‘We aimed to achieve a perfect balance between function, aesthetics and execution,’ says Esther Tsatsas. Mission accomplished, we say. §

As originally featured in the February 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*239)