The story behind "phoqueselfies . . ."

By Leah Vu on  •  0 Comments

When I first launched Jätlag I didn't have any social media accounts.  I created my Facebook and Instagram accounts solely for Jätlag.  At first I played by the "rules" and diligently posted regularly on my accounts.  As time wore on I became disillusioned with the narcissism and insincerity rife on social media.  Simply put -- narcissism makes me unhappy.  I think it also makes many of us unhappy, but because social media has become so entrenched in our lives we are becoming more desensitized to narcissism and even actively participating in the selfie culture without a thought.  Ironically, this culture has brought out the ugly in people.  I was complaining to a friend that I only had just over 100 followers on Instagram despite posting regularly and organizing photo shoots to produce high-quality photos to show off my bags and brand.  Here's how the conversation went: Me: This guy has thousands of followers and he only posts selfies with his shirt off in his bathroom mirror. Friend: People like seflies.  Selfies get "likes". Me: Well, fuck selfies.  I don't want to take selfies.  In fact, P - H - O - Q - U - E seflies.  Haha . . . hey wait, that's it!!!! Friend:...

The story behind "C'est chouette!"

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  I always thought the word for owl was “hibou” in French, until the day I found my white owl mug at a department store in Lausanne. I have always had a design affinity for owls. When I went to pay for the mug I saw the label on the mug said “chouette”. I always thought that the word “chouette” had only one meaning in French, and that was “cool” -- as in the expression “C’est chouette!” (That’s cool). I did further research and learned that a “chouette” is an owl without the tufts of feather that look like ears and a “hibou” are the ones which look like they have ears, or rather tufts of feather that look like ears. As far as I know, there is no differentiation between the two in the English language. We wanted the owl to actually look “cool” instead of “cute”, so we put a vest and monocle on him. Oh, and we made sure he didn’t have tufts of feather that resembled ears. Real chouette!    

The story behind "phoque la police" bag . . .

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Contrary to popular belief, the idea for “phoque la police” was actually not inspired by the recent news stories of police brutality. The bag carries (no pun intended) a broader statement about abuse of power, or rather how power can corrupt any person or institution, whether it’s the police, a sociopathic boss or a totalitarian regime. It’s about taking a stand against this dark side of humanity. Integrity is everything. Without it, we are vulnerable to succumbing to the worse version of ourselves. The design itself was inspired by television character Officer Francis (Frank) Llewelyn "Ponch" Poncherello, portrayed by Erik Estrada in CHiPs, an American television series. The series aired from the late 70s through the early 80s, and followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol, one of which was officer “Poncherello”.  We put aviator sunglasses and the iconic American police hat on the seal, and the rest is history.  Officer "Poncherello" aka "Ponch Vintage aviator sunglasses, which my dad bought in the 80s! Halloween police hat. (Click on "Read More" for pictures)    

The story behind "je m'en fish" tote bag . . .

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On a cool summer morning in 2014, I decided to run from Lausanne to Morges (the next town). After over an hour of running, I finally arrived in Morges. As I walked through the town center vendors were just setting up their stalls for the Saturday vegetable and fish market. A fish merchant had written “Le poisson s’en fish” on his chalkboard. He had purposefully misspelled “fiche” as “fish”. The French expression for "I don't care" is “je m'en fiche”, and “fiche” is pronounced “feesh”. I laughed to myself upon seeing the merchant's sign.   Just weeks prior to that I was in San Francisco, where I saw a box of chocolate shaped like a can of sardines, at a confection shop. Each piece of chocolate was individually wrapped in tin foil and looked like real sardines!   As I walked through the town of Morges on that Saturday morning, the neurons firing in synchrony in my brain brought these two seemingly insignificant events together and I thought of the design concept for the “Je m’en fish” tote bag. We placed a drawing of a vintage can of sardines on the bag and put the French-English play on words, “Je...