baguette top

Do you like French bread? We certainly do! Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, they’re great for making sandwiches or tasty canapé-type appetizers like bruschettas. But have you ever felt that the long distinctive shape of French bread sometimes makes it hard to carry around? Well, if you have, we’ve found the perfect item to solve that problem. It’s a bag made specifically for French bread, and it’s called the Baguette Bag!

When we saw a picture of this unique bag, we knew we just had to have one, but after we did a bit of searching, we found out that the bag was a product of Ukraine. Hmm… was it really wise trying to purchase an item from a country that was so far away and the language was completely foreign? We’ll just have to try and find out, won’t we?

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But what exactly is this Baguette Bag? It was actually made into a product in a slightly interesting way. The bag was originally introduced on Wowcracy, a website where designers can showcase their creations online and if the item receives enough pre-orders from users of the site to reach its funding goal, it is made into an actual product. The Baguette Bag, created by Ukranian designer Victoria Panyukova who heads her own fashion brand CYAN, was one such item introduced on the site, and having received the necessary number of pre-orders, it was made into a commercial product in October last year.

When we first discovered this bag, it seemed that orders were no longer being taken on the Wowcracy site, as the funding goal had already been reached. Did this mean that we weren’t going to be able to order the bag after all? Fortunately, the bag was available through the Ukranian online shopping site Hakoline.com.

We have to admit, we were a bit nervous at first about purchasing an item online form Ukraine, as this was something we had never done before and also because we didn’t know  the Ukranian language at all. But when we sent an e-mail inquiring whether they had the Baguette Bag in stock  and whether they shipped to Japan, we quickly received a reply in English confirming that the bag was in stock and that they would be able to ship it to Japan. Yay!

It was straightforward placing the order and paying by credit card, and the people at the site were quite helpful, keeping us informed of when they would be able to ship the item and giving us a tracking number for the package. The only problem was, until the package reached Japan, the tracking number could only be used on the Ukranian postal site, which of course was written entirely in Ukranian. We ended up using Google Translate to confirm that the package containing our bag had been collected and was being processed for shipment.

Once the package reached Japan, we were able to track it on the Japanese postal site, and in the end, we received the item only about a week after it was shipped from Ukraine. We were surprised it arrived in Japan so quickly!

▼The bag arrived in this relatively small box.
Baguette 1 box

▼Naturally, it came stamped with an Ukaranian postmark …Baguette 2 postmark

▼… and a declaration sticker label in Ukranian.Baguette 3 seal

▼Yes, it contains the Baguette Bag that we had been waiting for with anticipation!Baguette 4 content label

▼This is what the actual bag looked like. Baguette 5 bag

▼The bag opens wide on one side.Baguette 6

▼It comes with cute small polka-dot designs inside.Baguette 7

▼Okay, now to put in a piece of real French bread in the bag!Baguette 8

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▼The bag can be closed shut with small magnet buttons.Baguette 13

The bag itself is about 50cm (approx. 1ft 8in) long, so it’s big enough to fit in a short to medium length piece of French bread. Well, even if we can’t fit a really long piece of French bread into it, we still absolutely fell in love with the unique design of the bag, and we have to say we were very satisfied with our purchase and overall shopping experience. (And with a bag that looks this cute, we don’t care if it can’t be used for anything other than carrying around French bread!)

As a matter of fact, we were so happy with the bag that we took it out onto the streets of Tokyo and put it to use. Here are some pictures from our outing!

▼A member of the team at our sister site Pouch strikes a pose with the Baguette BagDSCN4529

▼Here he is relaxed against a post box.DSCN4551

▼Seems like he’s getting a bit hungry … DSCN4548

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▼Look who’s pretending to “smoke a baguette” at a public smoking area!DSCN4555

Yes, we’re pleased to say that with the Baguette Bag, we can now enjoy French bread anytime, anywhere! You just might want to check the bag out if you want to carry your French bread in style!

Top image: Hakoline.com
All other photos: RocketNews 24