Sleek travel cases with hidden tech credentials

Stow combines eye-catching leathers with clever compartments, USB ports and battery packs

Since the days of popping on a plane with a paperback and passport in the back pocket are long gone, toting today’s various bits of tech – topped up with digital documents – provides new challenges for the style-conscious voyager. Cables alone offer transportation conundrums galore. Which is where British brand Stow comes in with what founder Carol Lovell calls “colourful and practical luxury travel goods”.  

Bespoke personalisation is available, from £20 for a monogram to £45 for handpainted initials

Chief among its offering is the Mini First Class Tech Case (£305): a smart Spanish-crafted leather zip-up nest with clever compartments for phone and passport as well as a sleek incorporated battery pack that gives 1.5-2 full charges, depending on the device. For Apple iPhone users, everyday cables can be consigned to play cats-cradle by themselves in a suitcase in favour of the supplied mini multi-cable – used in conjunction with the case’s discreet micro USB ports. There’s also a coin purse, a place for credit cards and a pen loop – making the scrabble for a Biro when filling in immigration and customs forms obsolete.

Handpainted Floral Wander-Luxe Collection from left: Hester leather jewellery box, £315, Elizabeth jewellery case, £1,115 and Jeanne ring box, £200

The World Class Tech Case, £435, with handpainted initials, £45

The slightly larger (18cm x 22cm instead of the Mini’s 14cm x 17.5cm) First Class Tech Case (£365) has been sported in the orange/aqua colourway by the Duchess of Sussex, and also comes in a handpainted floral Wander-Luxe version (£725) by Cambridge-based artist Patsy Rathbon. Embossing with a monogram (from £20) or personalising with handpainted initials (£45) are further options. The Stow range also includes neat see-through, leather-edged travel pouches (from £95), small circular Compass accessories cases (£80) and larger jewellery storage compendiums (£595). Smart indeed. 

Stow’s Tech Cases come in a wide range of colours