There is an old world, steamer trunk luxurious quality about leather luggage–visions of monograms and uniformed porters or a private jet waiting on the tarmac. Since I don’t live in that world, I like nylon’s light weight qualities for travel. Brighton, MZ Wallace and Athleta are making excellent quilted nylon pieces. The animal print Brighton tote (top pic) saved me a Jet Blue fee of $150 when my luggage was overweight. I threw FOUR pairs of shoes in that thing and it wasn’t even a challenge to its abilities.