As a woman, I try to understand… but I just don’t.
Why on earth would you want a bag to last forever? I love when a zipper breaks or the lining pulls on my purse because it signals an opportunity to go bag shopping!
I also hate the idea of walking around carrying a $500 advertisement for someone. I mean, it’s bad enough that I’m advertising for you, but did I really need to pay you $480 over manufacturing costs just to be your billboard? Yech.
For what it’s worth, if I intended to spend $500 on handbags (and I wouldn’t), I’d much rather have 30 new purses from Target than one hideous bag with someone else’s initials scribbled all over it.
Hey! Coach bags are great- especially if you get them from their outlets.
Oh yes, you heard me. Coach has outlet stores out the hooha.
That bag you show in the OP is at the outlet stores for $80 and they are usually having some sort of promotional sale on top of the already discounted prices (I know because I have that one in hot pink heh).
Just a few weeks ago I got this one ( ahem: one more). It was regularly $350 (something I’d never pay) and it was discounted to about $100. It’s incredibly freakin’ sturdy, so that thing is going to last me along time.
Oh and for what it’s worth: I have tons of purses- lots are designer ones but from Ross so they were deep discounted, but there are also some Coaches, Pradas, and even a Louis Vuitton clutch mixed in there. Something like 35 or 40 purses the last time I counted. I will say this though: I change my purse every day to make sure I’m rotating in all the good stuff. Twice a year, I go through my closet and if I haven’t used it in 6 months, it goes to my friends and if they don’t want it they go to the battered women’s shelter.
In other words, I’m not one of those girls that uses the same purse every day for a year, so maybe that’s why mine last so nicely.
Something like that - mine has a flap - it’s sort of a modified messenger bag. It’s the really soft Coach leather - not the pebbled stuff (which is also fabulous). BTW - I think your DB bag is super cute - not at all garish. It’s a great choice for a summer bag. I bought myself a BRIGHT orange bag to use for summer.
There’s one in every crowd. If you can’t tell the difference between a $500 Coach bag and a $15 bag from Target then no amount of justification from any of us is going to make it any clearer for you.
FWIW, despite deep, deep neglect my Coach bag has never had a zipper break or the lining pull.
That’s the thing. I don’t buy a lot of expensive bags, and I’ve bought plenty of them from Target. Target is great for really trendy bags that you know you only want to carry for a season or two…but don’t expect to be carrying them in a year, because they will be falling apart by then. If you want a classic bag that will last a long time, go for the quality brands.
It’s completely a POV thing, and I’m not at all suggesting we take turns looking down our noses at each other, but just as you may get a little judgey about logo-wear, which is completely your perogative, I confess I can spot a cheap handbag for a block away and I in turn get a little judgey (in the deepest least-admirable corner of my brain) about cheap bags and shoes. Personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a badly-stitched “plether” handbag. And I don’t think any of us, at any budget range, think we are buying “hideous” bags for ourselves, right? So maybe we’d do better to just remember that different people have different tastes and different priorities, and will choose to spend their money on different things.
My neurotic co-worker got her first non-black purse last year, and it is a Vera Bradley one in the *au courante * brown and teal combination. I’m proud of her for the breakthrough but it wouldn’t have been my choice.
However, my head is turned by Gucci bags like this, for obvious reasons.
There’s a classic style of bag I adore but it’s by a label that, short of winning the lottery, I will never be able to afford. So I had a couple of very good copies (not couterfits, the label is nowhere on my bag, just a copy of the style) made for me in Hong Kong. They were still somewhat expensive but one twentieth of what I would have paid for the real thing.
But my copies are beautiful bags in their own right with exquisite craftsmanship and excellent material (one is genuine freshwater crocodile, this exact bag). No one I know knows anything about designer bags or could recognize mine so I’m not carrying them to impress anyone with a label, I just love them for their design and the heirloom quality.
Oh my - usually I’m quite turned off by things with very prominent logos, but that bag is very eye catching! I suppose if the SO gave it to me I would keep it…
Thanks most of you for understanding. It’s hard walking that line between sheep and someone who wants a nice bag that will last and makes a good impression with the interviewers. I know it’s an expensive bag, but I really do use my bags everyday and I wanted one that looks professional and quite honestly, I wanted something that’s recognized as classy, but cute. When you’re in marketing, you have to project success, right?
DiosaBellissima, I wanted to go to an outlet, but it was end of the day and that bag caught my eye. I couldn’t resist, not to mention to closest Coach outlet (that I know of) was 2 hours away. It’s really expensive bag, so me paying full price for it is ok on the first offense, right?
You guys think that the VB bags are bad? ALL of my friends have these bags. I know that they’re in style now, but there’s so much going on in the bag that I feel like I’m going to go into an epileptic seizure from looking at it. Different folks, different strokes I guess.
You know, I’ve never understood the LeSportsac stuff. Whenever I go into the stores, they are all made of that weird fabric (that I can’t remember the name of)- they all feel plasticy and such. I don’t feel so bad paying $100+ for a leather bag, suede bag, or really detailed, hand crafted bag-- but $130 for something made of that weird fabric and such? I don’t get it- and that’s coming from a total purse whore.
I was rummaging around in a closet and I found a Coach purse that my sister bought for me years ago. I carried it a couple of times, but I’m not a purse person.
I didn’t realize that they were considered so nice. Now I feel all guilty.
This bag is for my wallet, keys, cell phone, chapstick, pen and post its just because. You can’t really put all those things in your portfolio binder and still look professional.
I came to the interview in a long-sleeved white button up shirt, a black skirt that went down to my knees, pantyhose and very conservative black leather heels. I think he wanted me in a suit. He also told me to not wear heels because “he didn’t want to hate them after the interview”. He sure sounded like someone I could work with!
I guess what I’m missing is why there’s no mid-range between a cheaply stitched $15 bag and a $300 bag with C’s all over it?
How much should a woman have to pay for a sturdily constructed handbag?
I think that a well constructed, reliable brand (lets say Coach) would be worth $40-50. Ellen Cherry mentions finding one at a yard sale for 10 bucks. I think that’s AWESOME, but I question why she would throw in that “no one has to know”. Why would anyone care how much I paid for my handbag? Is it about the construction or the price tag?
As an aside, I mentioned that I liked a co-worker’s “Coach” bag (It was pink and black and loooovely) and she looked at me like I ran over her grandfather with a Pinto. “Um, it’s a Chanel! It’s WAY more expensive than a Coach. Gah.”
:rolleyes:
I definitely see where you’re coming from, Jodi. Thank you for being the voice of reason, I understand that my blind hatred of all things Dog Collar Bling/Giant Logo Purses/Small dogs in bling collars hanging out in logo purses/etc definitely colors my perception when it comes to good fashion sense.
I’m cheap but I like nice things so I shop at consignment stores. I have a gorgeous, black Kate Spade bag, it looked brand new when I got it (except a ball point ink line inside the fabric lining) and I paid 25 bucks. I am not a purse switcher, I like a nice classic purse that goes with almost anything that I can use for years until it wears out.
Me too. I luuuuuurve Birkins but I just happen to be short $20,000. And I can’t really ever see being able to spend that much (unless I win *at least * $5 mil). But my crocodile bag is beautiful (strangers stop me in the street) (BTW, when I saw this exact bag, those is actually pictures of the bag I own; the bag tailor still uses for promotion) and I had a custom one made that’s black with pink trim that’s awesome for summer.
Sorry about the rambling. I so wanted to join a handbag conversation but I dont’ have much to add about Vera Bradley or D&B bags. Although, I do think Coach bags are good quality and a good investment for a working bag.
Hey, speaking of more casual bags, what do y’all think of the seatbelt bags? I’ve got one I use on the weekends. It’s three years old and still looks brand new, I figure the seatbelts will last forever.
Fossil, has in the past (I’m not sure what styles they have out currently) had absolutely wonderful* leather handbags (even the non leather ones). They are really well made too. I have a number of those, but that is mainly because my mom was an assistant manager at a Fossil outlet and she got a 50% discount there and 30% at the full retail stores. At one time I had nearly 30 Fossil bags.
At full retail some are upwards of $100 for the leathers and as low as $20 or so for non-leather. At the outlets you can get a leather that was retailed for $90 for around $35.
I have a non leather Fossil bag that I have used the shit out of, and otherwise it being a tad dirty (I use it for stuffing in my work bag when I am out doing field work) It still looks pretty good and I usually get comments on it from people on how much they like it.
*Every now and then there would be an influx of hideous bags that were just plain ugly.
