LOVE AND TRIP: The red TRAVELER'S notebook

In the early days of TRAVELER'S COMPANY, the leather journal cover, also known as the TRAVELER'S notebook, only came in a brown or black leather finish. Over the years the lineup expanded to include a warm caramel brown, known as Camel, a navy Blue, and a classic Olive green drab. Longtime fans may know that before there was navy Blue there was a limited edition Pan Am blue TRAVELER'S, and before the Olive joined the lineup it too was a limited edition release. This April, a limited edition red TRAVELER'S notebook appears. Will it also eventually join the regular lineup? Time will tell.  

The theme of this red TRAVELER'S notebook is LOVE AND TRIP, which was also the theme of the 2025 dated items this year. And regardless of whether or not the theme resonates with you, there is something about the red of this particular TRAVELER'S notebook that is grabbing the attention of anyone who lays eyes on it.

On the TRAVELER'S COMPANY Japan blog from March 10th, the author Ijima talks more about this red:

I think we started working on the red TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK prototype about four years ago. At the time, we didn't have a specific release schedule in mind, and just thought that if we were to make a new color next, red would be a good choice, so we asked for a prototype.

　For example, the red of satin and corduroy that Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin might have worn in the heyday of psychedelia. The red of the velvet curtains hanging in the dark and mysterious hotel rooms of 1960s Hong Kong that appear in Wong Kar-wai's films. Katsushika Hokusai's "Red Fuji" and Matisse's "Atelier Red." The red of the dimly shining morning sun before the sky brightens.

　That analogy is a little hard to understand. Basically, what I was aiming for was not a bright red, but a deep, dark red like wine red or burgundy. It was a red that barely managed to retain the sexiness and brilliance of a red that makes people stop and stare, like a bouquet of roses, the body of a Ferrari, or the sweater and lipstick worn by Nastassja Kinski in the movie "Paris, Texas" (I first saw this movie when I was in high school, and was struck by its beauty), while also giving off a dark shadow and a natural impression like reddish-brown earth. 

When I first read these words, I nodded my head like I somehow knew just what Ijima-san was talking about. The initial release information in English mostly talked about red being associated with love and friendship, and yet the red leather itself evoked such a strong response from our team, I'm glad to have read more thoroughly into its origin because there is something deep going on here! In fact, the whole OMOI team, even those who aren't really journal people or who don't use a TN, all had similar responses when the images of this TN first dropped: somewhat hypnotized, unable to look away, considering if this was their signal to finally get a TN, et cetera. 

Then the shipment arrived to the store. I dug the boxes containing the LOVE AND TRIP goods out from all the other boxes in our receiving area, and pulled one of each item out so that my team (production) could shoot photos and make content with them ahead of the release date. Working at OMOI I have seen hundreds and hundreds of TRAVELER'S notebook boxes, and yet these have a little 'RED' heart sticker on them(!!) where the color circle usually is. Oh, the details the details... ! We were all swooning just from that. I made sure we didn't open anything early.

The next day our team shot an unboxing video for our YouTube channel, while I was out collecting props for the photoshoot. When I got in and finally saw the red leather in the flesh, I found myself nodding again. It seemed like everything Ijima-san wrote about had indeed been captured, rendered into reality: A red that makes people stop and stare.

So will a red TRAVELER'S notebook follow in the footsteps of the Pan Am and Olive TNs and eventually become part of the permanent lineup? We'll have to wait and see. I believe this LOVE AND TRIP edition is supposed to be the yearly special item for 2025, suggesting that it will be produced and available throughout 2025—but I get the impression that producing this leather was quite an endeavor, and at this time it's uncertain if there will be additional production runs. In fact, us retailers were allocated restricted quantities to ensure there was enough of this initial production to go around. Here at OMOI we're going a step further and allocating a limited quantity to our online store for release day, otherwise it will certainly sell out before our in-store customers get the chance to grab theirs. So if you see it sold out here on release day, check back in a week, when we release whatever stock remains to online inventory.