Let it be known that I am a proud owner of not one but three Beyond The Vines bags: a mini Reversible, a large Reversible, and a medium Dumpling. Suffice to say, I’m a fan of their signature color-blocking and distinct triangular silhouettes. With a playful yet functional design language, the homegrown label has always been about making utility the new pink. Makes perfect sense that their latest collaboration is with Toyo Steel, a renowned Japanese manufacturer that has been creating durable, seamless steel toolboxes since 1969.
It goes without saying that the star of the collection is the Beyond The Vines x Toyo Steel T-320 Toolbox, which pairs one of the latter’s bestsellers with removable canvas and recycled leather organisers. While “toolbox” might conjure images of screwdrivers and Allen keys, I’ve already seen people online finding more creative uses for theirs. Makeup artists, for instance, have been turning theirs into portable makeup organisers—proof that the things we carry every day can be tools in their own right.
Perhaps the modern toolbox isn’t really about tools. It’s about the things we reach for daily, the objects that help us create, work, move, and make life happen. And Beyond The Vines has made a very good-looking home for all of them. Psst, online purchases come with a complimentary leather tag that you can personalize by having your initials hot-stamped in silver foil!
The brand’s design ethos extends to the Leather Canvas Carryall, which is available in two sizes and made from washed canvas with recycled leather details. With its structured shape and considered compartments, it definitely feels like a very stylish answer to the eternal question: Now, where did I put that?
The shopping experience gets even more hands-on with the collection’s accompanying Objects of Utility activation. With a purchase of the toolbox or Leather Canvas Carryall, you can curate five objects from a selection of utility-inspired curiosities. The selection ranges from magnifying glasses and harmonicas to rings and miniature table lamps.
Of course, I couldn’t leave empty-handed at the product launch. My haul: an hourglass to remind myself that time is, in fact, passing (and so I should stop doomscrolling!), two toothbrushes because I’m always woefully underprepared when traveling, a trusty binder clip for loose paper, and a keychain coin pouch because apparently I can never have enough tiny homes to store my knick-knacks.
In other words, I gathered a delightfully random assortment of items that will almost certainly come in handy.
And that’s the fun of it. Beyond The Vines takes the everyday—the things we carry, collect, or use without a second thought—and gives us a reason to look at them a little differently. Utility, it turns out, was never boring. We just needed Beyond The Vines to make it look good.
The toolbox is available exclusively online at beyondthevines.com and at the Beyond The Vines Design Store, Takashimaya S.C. The rest of the collection is available online and across all Beyond The Vines stores globally.
Images by Beyond The Vines; cover collage by Sherryl Cheong
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