The first men’s collection from Mango came out in March. I wasn’t all that interested at the time. Until yesterday, after having lunch with Lola, when I went to have a look in Mango Opéra on her recommendation.

Of course, Mango, for a lot of us, is a girls’ shop which we’ve only been into with our girlfriends or little sisters - until now. And Mango, as you probably also know, is one of Zara’s main competitors: they are both internationally-successful Spanish stores.

Back to my story. So I go into Mango, I ask an assistant the way and she directs me to the back of the store. As is often the case with this type of large unisex store, the men’s section is a lost little island in the middle of a vast ocean of women’s items. And it doesn’t take long to look around it all! If I hadn’t come with the idea of writing an article about it, as I was quite busy, I would probably have left straightaway.

But I decided to take a second, closer, look at what I had barely glanced at the first time. And what seemed, overall, fairly ordinary. To see what the clothes are about, you need to look at the label. This is the way I always work: I look at the price, the material, and only then do I unfold the garment to look at the shape.

And I very quickly made 2 conclusions: it’s all fairly expensive (still comparing it to Zara) but using better fabric! Let’s take the example of the jumpers. You might have seen the H+M jumper that Tony talked about in September, and you’ve probably been and looked at Zara jumpers in store. If you look closely, you’ll see that the jumpers are mainly made of man-made fibres.

Au contraire, a nice surprise from Mango: their jumpers are mostly made from wool. That’s unusual! Some are even 100% wool or 100% cashmere like the jumper above. Another example: their scarves. They are also more expensive than usual for a high-street store but with a much more classy touch: they’re 100% wool!

This men’s collection, called “He by Mango”, also contains jackets and shirts. They seemed good, but nothing special (though I admit I was in a rush and didn’t look at them for very long).

However, I spent longer looking at their black, slightly waxed jeans. They didn’t look too bad for €65! I’ll go back and try a pair on and let you know…And I have since discovered the entire HE collection is available online from www.mangoshop.com. In fact, that’s where I found the pictures to go with this article.

I imagine some of you have also been curious enough to go to Mango, and maybe even try some of their clothes! What did you think?

• Official website: www.mango.com
• Online store: www.mangoshop.com
• See the topic on Mango HE in the forum (in French)

To top off this week entirely dedicated to men’s bags, here’s an interview with Cyrille, founder of MAR Urbanbags.

- Cyrille, the unique characteristic of MAR Urbanbags is working with recycled materials. Which ones do you use?

For the last few seasons, we created our bag collection mainly from retro leather jackets (brown or black) and army jackets (French or otherwise!). For this winter, we’ll be coming back to a material that we worked with during the brand’s infancy: (black) 501’s!

- Is your working process deliberately eco-friendly?

The thing we’re most interested in with reusing materials is the possibility of creating different bags from different jackets and WITH A HISTORY! But it is true that we’re somewhat halfway between the two: eco-friendly ‘no waste’ on one hand and ethical on the other hand, as our styles are made in France, which is rare for products in our price range.

- Other than the aesthetic aspect of your bags, I was particularly interested in their originality, their uniqueness and their history! I like this idea a lot, that you can give clothes a second life. Can people bring their own clothes so you can make a bag which suits their personality even better?

Typically, a client can either choose their bag from the styles available, or bring us a leather jacket they wore and wore out at uni (or elsewhere!) or that they bought elsewhere. The most important thing is that certain details of the jacket are in good condition, particularly the zipped pockets, studs, epaulettes, shoulders and stitching… But if the rest is damaged, we can always manage!

- You offer separate mens and womens styles. Do you make several collections a year? How does it work?

We have two collections per year for men and two for women, which totals 50 styles per season: Satchel, BeltBag to be worn on the belt, an oversize WeekEnder for two, Shopping bags to be worn as a pouch or on the shoulder… We create styles in pairs in a fairly spontaneous way using the leather jackets to guide our imaginations!

- How do you see the men’s market?

It’s a market that changes, but very slowly! The number of men who’ve abandoned the shoulder strap for the hand-held bag aren’t (yet) in the majority - but these are the clients who have the widest choice of our products! To bolster our range, we also sell Baron Y clothes in our store: they’re stylish and well-finished (v-neck jumpers, t-shirts …)

- Do you have a special offer for our readers that come to visit you?

Of course: We’ll give you a PhoneBag (that many people use to carry a digital camera instead of a phone) when you buy a bag! And congratulations to French Truckers that we read regularly!

Thanks to Cyrille for the warm welcome and I invite you to visit him on MAR Urbanbags.com or in Paris at 19 rue de Poitou (Paris 3)

Here’s a slightly more fun model, Five & Sex from Mi Zeppe. It’s made of leather and is studded with brass stars. The inner lining is made of turquoise and yellow cotton!

For this final day dedicated to men’s bags, I present 3 shopping bags starting with this one : Le Tanneur’s Edgar. A stylish and well-made bag. It’s new, and available from October.

And now: the killer bag! This bag is amazing looking. This bag is complete madness. This bag is from Mastermind Japan. An insane Japanese brand that makes t-shirts that cost more than $500. And bags that cost…

And our final selection for the day, this bag from the Korean brand Jbros. A patchwork leather bag that works just as well when carried by the handles or the strap. Very stylish and not expensive, given the current exchange rate of the Dollar.

Codename: m0851. This Canadian brand offers a collection of stylish, urban bags, which are unfortunately not very widely available. On the net, could only find this style on this Japanese site. However, you lucky Parisians can go and look here:

• Le Bon Marché, 24, rue de Sèvres (Paris 7)
• Bill Tornade, 5 bis rue des rosiers (Paris 4)

Going a little more up-market with this full-grain leather pouch from Le Tanneur. Classic, chic, timeless, it’s the ideal bag to take whilst whistling your way to work (joyful whistling not included).

Bilum makes bags and accessories using recycled advertising banners. Every one is unique, because the material comes from the giant advertising hoardings that you see around and about (buildings undergoing work, department stores, on the outskirts of large cities). The handles and straps are recycled car seatbelts. So this really is an eco-friendly bag! Bilum also has an ethical approach, supporting the integration and reinsertion within its manufacturing plants within the Parisian region (more info on their site).

On sale within Paris:

• Alter Mundi Mode, 9 rue de Rivoli (Paris 4)
• Drugstore Publicis, 133 avenue des Champs Elysées (Paris
• Citadium, 50 rue Caumartin (Paris 9)
• Capture 15 - Apple Center, 49 rue Falguière (Paris 15)