It’s a familiar story. A brand emerges, often associated with a single person or slice of geography, and gains a cult following based on the uniqueness of its designs. But times change, along with ownership, manufacturing, and eventually the quality of the product itself.
Before long, brand loyalists are decrying the shifts and a once-storied brand fades into obscurity, remembered only by vintage collectors and diehards for its former glory. What’s remarkable about Ghurka is that it’s lived that cycle—only to return to its roots. The luggage and leather accessories brand was founded in 1975 in Connecticut by Marley Hodgson, an American Anglophile who’d purchased a leather bag at an antiques auction.
The well-worn bag, nearly 75 years old, had previously belonged to a British officer assigned to the Ghurkas, an elite military unit recruited into the British Indian Army from Nepal. So enraptured was Hodgson with the bag that he tracked down the English tannery that had produced the saddle leather used to make it, and then worked on replicating it in the United States. Christened “ Ghurka ” to pay homage to the historical ties, the company’s first product was the No.
1, also known as “Bucky’s Bag”—a leather knapsack that was made for Hodsgon’s son. While never in official commercial production, the No. 1 caused a stir at Bucky’s prep school so there was a built-in demand when Ghurka released its Express No.
2 weekender, a now-iconic design marked by d.
