#Material From the ‘Indiana Jones’ Movie Set Is Part of a New Luxury Bag Collection

Indiana Jones’ satchel has become as iconic as the fictional character actor Harrison Ford first portrayed onscreen in George Lucas’ 1981 Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now with the fifth and final film in the franchise, Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, set for release June 30, fans will have an opportunity to acquire their own commemorative bag thanks to a collaboration between Lucasfilm and London-based luxury leather goods maker Métier.

The collection was born out of the minds of Melissa Morris, co-founder and creative director of Métier, and Academy Award-nominated English costume designer Joanna Johnston, who worked as an assistant designer on the 1984 Indiana Jones sequel Temple of Doom and was hired by director Steven Spielberg to design the wardrobe for 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

“I found Melissa on social media and just by chance, she made a reference to Indiana Jones, and I was just starting [my work on the movie],” Johnston says of their coming together. “I was looking at her product, and I thought it looked great. It was as simple and as straightforward as that. But I’m a great believer in everything happens for a reason.”

Initially, Johnston sought out Morris to create a bag in the film for Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s character Helena Shaw. Using Métier’s Vagabond Duffle as inspiration, they began sewing swatches of fabric Johnston sourced from various countries to the inside of the bag to create hidden pockets for concealing various items. The bag then went through a detailed aging process to show “It’s had a life,” Johnston explains. The overall design, Morris adds, reflects the fact that Helena is “a mover and a shaker and a bit of a gypsy.”

Johnston then brought a messenger bag that she’d procured for Shaw to Morris with a new idea. “She said, ‘How about instead of taking one of your pieces and creating it into Indy like we’ve done with the Vagabond, why don’t we take this piece and recreate it back?’” Morris recalls. “So, then we had a new challenge where we sort of took this very vintage, very rough hunting bag and had to reinterpret that for a Métier bag and something that’s very usable for the modern-day man and woman.”

To do that, Morris and her team of artisans in Italy swapped out the spaces in the interior that were made to hold gun cartridges, for example, and replaced them with pockets that could secure a laptop and a passport. After seeing the final transformation, Johnston sent Morris two large boxes of materials that she’d used to make all of the clothes on set.

“Inside were all of these fabrics with manila tags and words written on them with a Sharpie like Indy suit jacket, trousers, leather jacket, all of it. it was so cool,” says Morris.

Using a similar patchworking process as was used to make the first two bags, the artisans then began crafting new pieces using actual materials from the movie set. “We created 10 unique combinations. They’re all one-of-a-kind patchworks,” explains Morris.

The resulting creations now make up two Indiana Jones | Métier collections ($195-$5,650). The Collector’s Edition set, which includes the Vagabond Duffle, Vagabond Messenger and Runaway bags, is designed with Marrakech suede and features rust trimming. Each piece made from its own distinct combination of materials also comes with a unique serial number and packaging, which details the exact fabrics from the movie that were used in its making.

The main Indiana Jones | Métier collection, meanwhile, features a Hunter Messenger inspired by the bag Waller-Bridge wears in the movie, as well as a Vagabond Duffle, Vagabond Messenger and Runaway bags made with chocolate suede. There’s also a basket bag made of salt netting that comes with either rust or cacao leather trim and an assortment of leather goods such as a luggage tag, notebook cover and travel wallet, which have a distinct feature of their own.

“Joanna had the idea of taking the silhouette of Indiana Jones from the Raiders of the Lost Ark and printing them on some of the small leather goods so it’s like an imprint,” explains Morris, who adds that the collection is a true collaboration in every sense of the word.

“It’s not about just taking something obvious and smacking it on a bag. It was really about a meeting of two minds. Joanna’s expertise is depth of character and backstory and detail and the heart and soul of the person. Mine is creating pieces that are usable and solve problems for the way we move through our lives today. Being able to fuse that together and create something that has all of these little hidden bits on the inside to signal all these special touches of the depth of character that Joanna has championed and created in her looks, that’s where the real magic was,” says Morris.

While fashion collections, such as this, have become commonplace in the film industry, it’s rare for costume designers to have a hand in their formation or promotion, Johnston says.

“I wish that, to be honest, the post-production situation and the stories having to do with the influences of clothing on the film was more harmonious,” Johnston admits. “Somehow, it all just sort of chops, and once you finish filming, you’re kind of parked apart from publicity.”

Having the opportunity to co-create this collection is much more the exception than the rule, Johnston adds. “Métier and Lucasfilm were very kind actually. I was involved with some discussions about marketing, and I asked about the possibility that we could do a sort of leather goods thing with Métier and that they could have the license, and they very kindly agreed.”

Morris, on the other hand, says she can’t imagine creating the collection without Johnston. “I’m so proud of what we’ve put together. It was a real challenge, and it was really scary when she first approached me because you want to pay huge respect to the history and the legacy of this franchise. And then also be able to figure out how to merge the two worlds — creating something that’s right for what I do and also what’s right for the film in a way that doesn’t feel like merch but feels like an authentic design,” she says. “It would have been impossible without Joanna’s thorough involvement. We were hands-on together in every single session. I can’t imagine how you could ever do such a collaboration without working so closely with her or any other designer.”