The beauty of a good bag is that it begins to take on the characteristics of its owner and of its life. The beauty of a great bag is that the bag already has an inherent character that only becomes more apparent over time.

Even brand new, MHL and Tembea's concise capsule of handsome tote bags look lived-in. And that's what makes them great.

Tembea is a 21-year-old Japanese accessories company that reconsiders modern bag shapes with traditional manufacturing — specifically, Tembea's hardwearing carryalls are cut from cloth custom-woven by decades-old shuttle looms.

All of Tembea's signature shapes — the shoulder bag, the weekender, the tote — are salt-of-the-earth stuff, hardy and reliable. Their forms are born of purpose and their essentialist finishings guarantee long-term use. But it's exactly because of the bags' simple shapes and no-frills finishing that they end up quite attractive, legible silhouettes made better through textural appeal.

A similar sort of purpose powers MHL, the affordable workwear-leaning label operated by good clothes genius Margaret Howell. Its function-inspired clothes are defined by approachable shapes and cut from thoughtful fabrics that improve over time, though they tend to start off quite rich.

Thus, MHL's Tembea bags could not be a more perfect union, with three sturdy forms wearing both Tembea's age-old fabrics and MHL's preferred washed canvas. These bags look lived-in but lush, visibly bespeaking each one's usefulness. A lot of thought went into sewing and stitching these things so that their wearer would never have to do the same when using them, their rumpled exteriors only inviting further rumpling.

This is the difference between a good bag and a great bag. A good bag looks better with character. A great bag already has it.

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