What a Difference a Bag Makes

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Just a few years ago I was the girl who had a purse for every outfit.  My purse collection was like a Dr. Seuss rhyme…one purse, two purse, red purse, blue purse.  I would change my purse every day to carry just the right one to go with my outfit.  I was also a clothes shopping addict at the time so I had a lot of outfits to match.  All of my purses were low end bags ranging in cost from numerous Nine West clearance finds for $30 to my “splurge” of $250 on a red Kate Spade. At the time I thought it was insane to spend $250 on a purse.  We just didn’t do that in South Dakota where I grew up.  I quickly got tired of the routine of swapping purses every day only to find I had left half the things I need in yesterday’s purse and settled into a couple of stand by bags that I carried most days and donated the rest to Goodwill.

Unfortunately, I never had a good black bag that I loved.  I feel like many black purses, regardless of the designer or price tag, look cheap.  Maybe it’s because of my many days at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, being surrounded by black biker leather or maybe it’s just because I never found a bag that “spoke” to me.  That changed the first time I walked into a Coach store.  The first black bag I saw was nearly surrounded by a glow it was so perfect.  I gladly forked over the $400 for that bag knowing that I could carry it with almost any outfit.  That was the extent of what I considered “higher end” purse purchases for me except a brown Via Spiga and a yellow B. Makowsky that I got on the cheap at DSW.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was still happily carrying my Coach bag 5 days out of the week.  The I met Vlad at SEO Spring Break 2009.  Vlad owns purseblog.com, which offers designer handbag reviews and news, with his wonderful wife Meaghan who is The Purse Blog’s “resident bag enthusiast” and editor. After some sweet talking and schmoozing…okay after some boozing…Vlad decided to properly introduce me to the world of designer bags.  I exchanged numerous emails with Meaghan and looked at hundreds of bags without finding one I liked.  After what felt like an eternity, I finally found two that I liked, a black Prada bag and a tan Chloe.

I ended up choosing the Chloe bag because it was such a rich, gorgeous color and unlike anything I had in my collection.  After deciding on a bag, waiting for it to arrive was agony! Every time I heard the UPS truck outside my house I would run to the door hoping to hear a box land on my doorstep.  When the bag finally arrived it was well worth the wait.  The bag is the exact color it looks in the picture and is even larger than I expected.  The leather is luxurious and the craftsmanship is superb.  The bag is a little big for taking into a crowded bar but it is perfect for day-to-day activities since you can fit everything and anything in it.  However, despite being large it doesn’t overpower you or look like you are carrying an overnight bag for a purse.

I couldn’t be happier with my introduction to designer purses and vow to never, ever buy a cheap purse again.  Thank you to my friends at The Purse Blog.  I am now converted to your religion.