2015-11-29



It is no secret that Midori (now called Traveler’s Company*) does not like the fact that there are inspirations or interpretations of their covers (often called fauxdoris, though I prefer not to use this term as I don’t feel they are faux anything. I tend to just say TN cover if it is not a Midori). They have been very clear about it and do not sell refills anywhere that does not sell their covers.

I own several genuine Midori covers (brown, blue, camel) but actually prefer the other versions and do not feel I am buying fakes by buying them (though purists would not agree). Why?

I am not a fan of the Midori leather – it is too soft and too easily marked for me. I like really thick leather (9oz belt leather is my favourite)

The covers are too small for me – I like 4 – 6 notebooks in my cover and the Midori is designed for, at the most, 2.

I prefer other sizes of cover – primarily A5 and personal. But you can also find pocket, Field Notes and even A4

I like the different options offered by other cover makers – clasps, carved, painted, integral pen loops, internal pockets, embossing, tooling, themed, stitched, trifold, quadfold, personalisation, combination Hobonichi/TN/Filofax covers.

Van Der Spek offers custom covers (called Nomads) with 60 different leathers and all kinds of personalisation options such as secretarial pockets and rows of credit card slots. So you can have one to match your organiser.

Gillio offers the Giramondo in the same shades and leathers as their organisers. How could you not drool over a notebook cover in their beloved and so very special epoca leather! My favourite would be gold or purple.

The same goes for inserts. I love the genuine Midori plastic pockets and pouches, their calendars, Kraft folders and their lightweight inserts. I also have rulers, stencils and a pencil case by Midori as well as several of their notebooks and some paperclips. But when it comes to specialised inserts, you can find plenty of them on Etsy – weight trackers, time management systems, reading lists, project management inserts, bullet management notebooks, and many more. Midori themselves could NEVER do things like DIYfish does with her time management inserts!

I don’t feel any of these other cover artisans are encroaching on Midoris territory. Many people have always and will always prefer the original. Many have moved over from the inspirations to the original. And many others who use ‘fauxdoris’ would never have bought Midori anyway because it would not suit their needs.

One thing I really like is that the makers of covers are often artisans who work on a small scale. Van Der Spek and Gillio are both small family-owned companies. Chic Sparrow has moved from Etsy to her own site but is still very much a cottage industry, providing personal support to her customers and interacting in the Chic Sparrow Facebook group. And the other artisans often combine their work with a regular job. There is no mass production on an industrial scale and I think that is fantastic.

My favourite size is the personal. Probably because I am a user of Filofax personal-sized organisers and the size is optimal. Not too big and not too small.



by Monique Vanmeulebrouk



by Glenda Slann

by Glenda Slann

by Glenda Slann

Strawberry Notebook

by Yochanan Israel

by Van Der Spek

by Chic Sparrow

by Chic Sparrow

*TRAVELER’S COMPANY consists of TRAVELER’S notebook, BRASS PRODUCTS, SPIRAL RING NOTEBOOK and other related products. We also own and run the shop TRAVELER’S FACTORY. All these products share the theme of traveling that takes place in one’s daily life. In order to pursue and enrich this theme, we changed the brand name from “MIDORI” to “TRAVELER’S COMPANY” in 2015. Through this change and the notebook we make, we would like to propose a journey where one can express themselves freely.

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