In response to this thread, which is cracking me up!
I love the responses:
So I’m giggling gleefully and imagining the corollary thread, and how there are those of us who will know the make, model, year and purchase price as well as where we got it, whether it was on sale, and who we were with at the time and then launch into details about matching accessories…amd I started thinking, here is the true divide between the sexes.
Anyway, mine’s a sizeable (10"x10"x6") Vivienne Westwood red plaid with a giant gold fleur-de-lis printed on it and black short straps. I got it at the DeYoung Museum when they had a Vivienne Westwood exhibit there, and I love it. It has a matching umbrella. Unfortunately, I use it constantly and it is starting to show some wear and tear.
I have more of course! I have at least 8 more purses, many of them tiny cocktail numbers bought to match with outfits, but this is the main one that I use so I’ll just leave it at that. So let’s try to keep our answers to a maximum of three purses, just for brevity’s (and sanity’s) sake, OK?
I think I got mine at Target? A couple years ago? It’s black. It has a cellphone pocket. It hasn’t started to rip anywhere yet, so it still works very well for me. I think it cost about twenty bucks.
Uh oh. I’ve a feeling I’m not really your demographic for this poll. I won’t put down those who are into designer purses, but clearly, it’s not me.
My current purse is smallish, and pale green in color (it almost looks lime in the wrong light, causing my husband to refer to it as a “monstrosity”). I paid $11 for it on sale at Shopko. My purses tend to be cheap, because I like to change them with the seasons and never use them again.
Needlecraft addict here…I knit/crochet all my purses. I’ve got my eye on a needlepoint shoulder bag in a catalog right now. (Maybe a use for that govt. rebate check?)
Per the earlier thread, my dh wouldn’t know my purse if he sat on it.
I never pay more than $20 for a purse. My current one was $5 on clearance at Wal-Mart. It’s tan with a wide shoulder strap and gold studs scattered arround. I like it because it has a big main compartment with a cell phone pocket and a tylenol/gum/lipgloss/rolaids pocket.
I used to like purses with multiple compartment. They make me feel more organized than I really am. But after I almost sent an old one to Goodwill, with my husband’s spare truck key tucked inside a hidden compartment, I stick to the " dump everything besides cell phone, tylenol, gum, lipgloss & rolaids in one place" variety.
Love bags (messenger type), hate purses. Have a lot of the former but can never manage to train myself to carry any of them. I’m always afraid I’m going to forget about the the damned thing and leave it somewhere.
Mostly I put my stuff in my pockets. If it doesn’t fit there, I don’t bring it along. Which pretty much means I carry wallet and keys and that’s it.
My main one is very large and very heavy due to my tendency to carry around everything I might possible ever need - it’s actually called the “Everything But The Kitchen Sink” bag by the designer - an Australian called Alannah Hill. It’s cherry red leather, and I got it on sale reduced to something like $200 (Aus.) in her Sydney boutique about a year and a bit ago. I love it, and only regret not also getting it in purple.
I seem to have finished my fascination with embroidered silk handbags for the moment.
Currently I’ve got a round bag - 30cm diameter. Woven ‘matchstick’ cane green panel sides with black fabric strapping and interior, it looks kinda japanese.
$25 at the local market they had all sorts of colour/shape combinations and I made them drag out boxes for half an hour till I found the one I wanted.
Mine is a 9x2x5 black and grey XOXO that I got at Ross for $6.99. I love it, but it’s time for a new one – the strap is getting a bit frayed. I detest big purses and refuse to spend more than $10 on one, so I am still looking.
I put the wallet and keys in the pockets. That’s the way it’s been ever since the stint delivering pizzas in the mid-eighties.
Sales people have, from time to time, looked at me strangely when I said I couldn’t buy those pants because they had no/too small pockets. I do own a small black purse that I got for use with outfits with no pockets. I tried to get used to using it. I’m not sure where it is right now. It’s just barely big enough to hold the wallet and a hair brush.
Oh, the wallet is a Ducti. Mine’s bigger than the ones showing on their site currently.
I have a Luca Vergani pink purse with white polka dots.
I think it was about 45 dollars and my mother in law bought it for me at the Burbank airport. I love it to bits and always get compliments on it. I do believe it’s the most expensive purse I’ve ever owned, generally opting for 12.95 Target/Walmart specials.
Very reasonable, no “brand name” bag for every day purposes, red, cute, from DSW (AWESOME place for bags, and of course, shoes). It’s small, but big enough for a paperback book to fit in along with my other junk. My bag for going out when I don’t want to carry a lot is the typical tiny black Kate Spade number–just barely big enough for my MP3 player, wallet, phone, keys and tiny tube of lip gloss.
For me, a purse is a utilitarian object whose purpose is to spare me any number of inconveniences; fashion considerations are a distant, distant second to this. Accordingly, I insist on a purse with a long, wide leather strap with soft, stitched edges (the width distributes weight and is hardier, and hard, coarse edges are good to avoid because they bite into skin and can even tear clothing), a slim profile (so it doesn’t stick way out and bang on and catch things), and secured compartments (no gaping wide openings for pickpockets). I wear the strap across my chest, so I don’t have to worry about it slipping off my shoulder (or being grabbed by a purse-snatcher). The particular one I have now has a zipper enclosure over the bulk of it, and a separate pocket on the inside side that’s covered by a flap cover (that also snaps shut, although I never bother with that), and two smaller pockets on the inside.
It’s also all-leather, hand-stitched, and Italian, but that didn’t matter as much to me as its long, comfy strap and its security features. It’s also a neutral color that goes pretty much with everything. I don’t have the patience or inclination to deal with changing purses for different outfits. (F*ck that sh%t!)
What I can’t understand is why so many women saddle themselves with fashionable clutch purses and handbags which must be actively carried by hand at all times, or set down (and easily forgotten or neglected). I see these bags sitting, agape and neglected, in grocery store carts while their owners’ backs are turned (or are even more distant). And incidently, how can these women even shop efficiently without the easy use of both hands? When I’m wearing my purse with the strap across my chest, it’s truly out of sight/out of mind, leaving me free to concentrate on the task at hand.
Hey, that sounds like my purse. Except I think it was more like $15 and I got it at Wal-mart. Next to the pocket for the cell phone is a zippered pouch I keep cash in, not that I ever carry much. I’ve got to flip the front open to reach my license or debit card, though. The inside of the purse is just big enough to put my PDA in. It has too many zipped compartments.
I change bags often, but the one I carry most is this one. I love the front and back outside pockets, perfect for things I want to be able to reach easily (cigs, T pass, mints, tissues, a book). It’s the perfect everyday bag… goes with nearly everything, ginormous, so I can carry everything I could conceivably need on any given day (I’m a contingency packer, what can I say) and I’ve had it for a couple of years and it’s held up fabulously.
I bought a leather Coach purse from a consignment store about 5 years ago, for probably about $15. It is small, brown leather, with a shoulder strap and a brass toggle fastener. Women who are more fashion-conscious than I have come up to me and said, “I love that little preppy Coach bag!”
My red leather purse cost about 140 dollars. But it’s the only one I have. The only other purse I have is my old raggedy purse, the same one, but five years the worse for wear. When I go somewhere where the purse might get damaged (hikes, helping somebody move) I use my old purse.
I love my purse, that’s why I bought it twice.
It contains everything I need, so I don’t need to think about what I need when I leave my home: I just throw my purse around my neck and I’m all set.
Some other advantages: the purse hangs just right not to make an ugly boob-divide on me; if I leave it accidentally open, nothing falls out; it is in front of me all the time, so I’m less vulnerable to pickpockets and purse grabbers; it is in front of me, so taking out my wallet is super easy; it just hangs around me, leaving my hands free and my shouder relaxed instead of permanently cramped in a purse-hook.
I love my purse so much and I have had it for so long that I actually buy my coats to fit my purse, instead of the other way around.
Before this purse, all I had were those little leather neck pouches. tourists hang around their necks. That didn’t work.
