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Tote that iPad in recycled sartorial splendor

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Back when Apple’s iPad was first announced, I told you about Scottevest and how its travel vests were roomy enough to accommodate the new tablet. Today comes word of a suit that can stow it in style -- although in a slightly different way.

My sister-in-law forwarded me an Unplggd post about the one-of-a-kind $250 ‘upcycled’ suit totes sold through a designer, curator and purveyor of limited-edition art products called Poketo, and made from 100% re-purposed men’s suits and dress shirts, with handles cut from old leather couches.

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‘We started carrying the totes for Earth Day -- it didn’t actually have anything to do with the iPad,’ said Angie Myung, co-owner and co-founder of Los Angeles-based Poketo. ‘But after Apartment Therapy’s Unplggd wrote about it and said it would make a perfect carrying case for the iPad, we realized it was, so we took some new photos that kind of show it being used that way.’ Myung estimates they’ve sold close to 100 of the bags -- some to other stores, some directly through their website -- since they started carrying them in April.

Unfortunately you can’t order a bespoke bag crafted from that old Brooks Brothers suit in your closet. Myung explained that all the bags are made by a South Korean design shop called Eco Party Mearry that helps take such items out of the waste stream. (Poketo is the sole U.S. distributor of the company’s products which include a range of cool, colorful one-of-a-kind $19 bags made from street banners that, in a previous life, fluttered above the streets of Seoul.)

And, although the Poketo team didn’t make the suit bags, they’ve managed to add a little personality to each one-off satchel by giving each one a name inspired by a friend, family or well-dressed Hollywood celebrity. Joe, Donald, Herman, Michael and Nathan are among those that have found new homes -- with Donovan, Dexter and Humphrey (named in honor of actor Humphrey Bogart) still up for grabs as of this writing.

Sure, $250 may sound a bit steep for playing dress-up with your iPad, but keeping those suits out of a landfill and owning Bogart the bag?

That’s priceless.

-- Adam Tschorn Follow All the Rage on Facebook and Twitter.

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