Help Dating Berlin Wall Inspired Bag

T

taraframeconservation

Registered Guest
Hi There!

I came across a wild little carrying case/bag in my flea market trawlings a little while ago that I am having some trouble dating. The closure at the front is Velcro and it is (insofar as I can determine) some kind of screen printed plastic/vinyl. The text on the front references the date the Berlin Wall began to go up (1961) and the signage "You are leaving the American Sector" (in 4 different languages). I have inspected the bag and can't seem to find a manufacturer's label so I guess I am curious as to whether folks have seen anything like this before and/or if they have any thoughts as to when it might have been manufactured based on style and construction details.
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In style and material it reminds me of Freitag bags. They started making messenger bags out of used truck tarpaulins and car seat belts, and when it caught on, they were being copied all around. Freitag started in 1993 - see
Code: 
https://www.freitag.ch/en/about%20
, so I would say your bag is from a few years after that. I guess it would have been sold in Berlin as a kind of souvenir.
"Ostalgie" (as in Nostalgie/nostalgy and Osten/east) became hip a bit later - ca. early 2000s, when suddenly all the old GDR brands became trendy as people started remembering what they'd had when they were younger or kids, and some were being resurrected and Ostalgie parties and that kind of stuff was suddenly in. Some things in Berlin have taken on a life of their own. The old GDR-style traffic lights had little figures with hats for the pedestrians, and these "Ampelmännchen" now show up on everything - t-shirts, as sweets and what have you...
 
Midge said:
In style and material it reminds me of Freitag bags. They started making messenger bags out of used truck tarpaulins and car seat belts, and when it caught on, they were being copied all around. Freitag started in 1993 - see
Code: 
https://www.freitag.ch/en/about%20
, so I would say your bag is from a few years after that. I guess it would have been sold in Berlin as a kind of souvenir.
"Ostalgie" (as in Nostalgie/nostalgy and Osten/east) became hip a bit later - ca. early 2000s, when suddenly all the old GDR brands became trendy as people started remembering what they'd had when they were younger or kids, and some were being resurrected and Ostalgie parties and that kind of stuff was suddenly in. Some things in Berlin have taken on a life of their own. The old GDR-style traffic lights had little figures with hats for the pedestrians, and these "Ampelmännchen" now show up on everything - t-shirts, as sweets and what have you...
Click to expand...
Very cool - I took a look at Freitag's website and I definitely agree, there is a distinct Freitag flavor to my bag in regards to construction and style details. On a second examination of the bag I found a tag with the text Nifty on it. Will have to do some further research but who knows - maybe it is the company that produced the bag :D
 
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