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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Fantasy Shop-a-long: A Good Bag is Hard To Find

I guess I'm kind of weird, as ladies go... I hate purses. I just think most of them are ugly. If I had endless money to spend I could see myself hoarding designer shoes or jackets, but probably not purses. (Obviously I'm the weird one here, and if you like the purses I just linked to, you're in very good company, please don't take offense ;-) )

Anyway. The only kinds of bag I can tolerate are satchels and messenger bags, which I'm pretty sure are the same thing. They're usually (but not always) marketed at men, and they're way too big, which means I overfill them and carry around way too much junk. But too bad. I like them.

I've been using this one for at least a year now and it's starting to look pretty shabby- sadly, pleather (excuse me, vegan leather) does not gain character when it gets beat up like its cow-based cousin, it just... looks beat up. So now I'm on a mission to find the perfect replacement, preferably made out of real dead cow this time, so that it will last forever and ever and I will never have to purse shop again. Click through to see the listings for these bad boys.


Dooney Bourke messenger bag

This one is lovely, but I'm going to need you to knock off about...oh... $450. I knit for a living, remember? Plus I'm trying to cut my spending waaaay back (more on that in a later post, probably.)




Okay, getting closer... this one's only about $270 too much. I think I'm partial to a lighter brown, though.






 This one's on the short list. I like the idea of supporting an etsy seller, though I'm always paranoid about resellers on there now... and part of me would like to be able to check the bag out in person first. I'm very particular about leather texture and pocket quantity/quality, plus I want to make sure it's not too heavy. Still.. an option. I need to bust out the tape measure and get a feel for how big that is, hmm. I do like the color.



What's up, perfect dreambag. I'm pretty sure the entire Frye brand was invented to taunt me, personally. I don't know what I ever did to them, but it must've been pretty mean.


Sigh. Well. Does anyone have any leads on majorly good deals on leather bags? For now I'm using a cheapo H&M bag that is basically the fake-leather version of exactly what I want. Sadly it's not even good fake leather... it feels like it's made out of crepe paper. One sharp knitting needle and it'll be kaput.


(Unrelated: The title of this post reminds me of a song title I always thought was pretty good- "A Good Man is Easy To Kill" by Beulah.Unfortunately the song is way more sad and less badass than the title warrants.)

15 comments:

  1. The problem with some leather messenger bags is they're heavy when all of your crap is in them. My advice is to find one that is as light as possible when it's empty--hard to remember when you're falling in love with a new bag. Maybe Fossil has something decent and not too $$$

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    1. Yeah, I had that trouble with the Namaste one too, actually. Definitely something I need to shop for in person, I think.

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  2. Fossil has nice looking ones that aren't too expensive but yeah, heavy bags make my neck hurt.

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  3. What about a haiku bag? Like this one? http://www.haikubags.com/shop/sale/me-da2-blu There's usually a little more variety in her shop. Not leather, but quality made.
    What about Tom Bihn? http://www.tombihn.com/messenger_bags/TB0810.html They're totally worth the money because they last forever.

    I hate purses too. I refuse to call the bag I carry about a purse. It's a bag!

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    1. I do like those crazy cork bags. I'm pretty attached to the concept leather, though. We'll see what turns up ;-P

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  4. Have you seen Troop bags? http://www.trooplondon.com/epages/es114527.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es114527_es122149120482/Categories/%22Natural%20Leather%22
    I only have the canvas ones but they are great quality and there are millions of designs!

    Charlotte

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  5. You must check out MimsMaine on Etsy. I have one handbag/backpacky kinda purse from her and it's lasted forever. It still looks brand new, the hardware is solid brass, yada yada. I cannot wait to get my hands on another one. You can add extra pockets and order leather swatches to make sure you are happy before you buy. Can't beat it for the price. I think I love her.

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/MimsMaine

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    1. Ooh, those are gorgeous. Probably out of my price range at the moment but if I can make my crappy bag hold out long enough...

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  6. Have you seen the new Jordana Paige Cezanne? She finally got away from that unfortunate reptile texturing and went back to regular pleather (I refuse to call it "vegan leather" unless it's made from actual vegan hides), though none in brown. But, it has nifty patchy pockets on the front and also document-holding type pockets on the back and front and a flap and everything. Santa is bringing me one in Stone.

    http://jordanapaige.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=14#.UMpIU287YUw

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    1. Cute!! Yeah I'm not a fan of that weird reptile look either :-/ I like my leather/pleather plain as can be.

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  7. I go to TJ Maxx for all of my purses. They are much cheaper than at department stores, and if you know what brands are good you can get a nice bag. I like crazy colors, so I got a teal leather purse there for about $50 last year. I think the thing that makes purses look the worst quickly is the plastic edging that they sometimes put on straps, so I got one that has folded and stitched edges, and it still looks pretty good.

    You might have a harder time finding messanger bags there, but I'm sure that if you looked long enough you'd find something you like.

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    1. That's my current best hope I think- I scored some majorly awesome deals on designer pants there recently so I keep prowling around their men's bags section waiting for something to turn up. They had a nice fossil bag recently but it was shiny and black and that's just not quite my style.

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  8. I sympathize, I am also on the look out for a nice, large, black leather "satchel-ish" bag that's affordable. Turns out I'm cheap so I'm getting on for x-mas instead. The starting price for what I want is about $200...
    Anyhow, don't forget Ebay. There are some "vintage" or "used" fossil bags on there that are really nice and affordable. This looks similar to the bag you posted and it's under $100 atm: http://r.ebay.com/sDWu3s
    Good luck!

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    Replies
    1. Oh that's a good idea! Thanks!

      You should've seen the Fossil bag I saw at tjmaxx the other day, it would've been perfect except it was black and I'm after brown .... only like $60 though.

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