Troubadour Goods Weekender, $1,985,

FLY BOYS | Troubadour Goods founders Abel Samet (left) and Samuel Bail Robert August (2)

FINDING A GOOD bag man might have been easier if they had been planning a heist. Last August, Samuel Bail and Abel Samet, the 26-year-old former bankers behind leather accessories brand Troubadour Goods, sat in a roadside cafe in the Tuscan countryside, cold-calling manufacturers. No one would see them. "We didn't have a website or any credibility. These guys were making bags for Chanel," said Mr. Bail. Finally, a Milanese manufacturer opened its doors, and Troubadour Goods, which launched in April, began to take shape.

Three years ago, Mr. Bail and Mr. Samet were working at Lazard Frères in London when they decided to fill a hole they saw in the menswear market: high-end travel bags with limited hardware and logos. "We wanted a bag we could bring to an office meeting that wasn't too heavily branded, but something we could [also] bring on a trip with friends," said Mr. Bail. They consulted with a bag designer who had worked for Mulberry and, within months of their manufacturer manhunt, waved goodbye to finance.

Troubadour's small range of products—weekenders to wallets—is masculine but refined. The simple designs don't distract from the luxurious vegetable-tanned leathers, which took a year of tannery-investigating to find. The skins are left unfinished, allowing for graceful aging.

Quality sourcing has its downside, however. While choosing a leather supplier, the owners created a bag prototype using material from every company. Joked Mr. Samet: "We made almost two dozen bags. We're totally broke."

—John Ortved