For the most part, I’m a gal that is perfectly happy with a handbag that I’ve spent $40.00 to $60.00 bucks on, at the most.
I use the same purse for years and years.
However, last Christmas, my husband bought me a Dooney and Bourke leather handbag. I do love it. We were Christmas shopping and he didn’t know what to buy me and I didn’t know what I wanted. Finally, I told him I could use a new purse. So, we started looking at purses. I saw the bag I ended up getting locked up in it’s little glass case and mentioned that I thought it was nice. The sales clerk open up the case to let me inspect the purse. I really did like it, but about choked when I saw how much it cost.
I gave it back and started looking at cheaper (much, much cheaper handbags). My husband came running over to me and asked why I didn’t choose it. I told him there was no way in hell I was going to spend that much on a purse and that I’d be perfectly happy with a much cheaper purse.
Long story short; my husband told me I was getting it. It was Christmas, I deserved it, and that I never spend on myself anyway.
I receive lots of compliments on it, but it’ll probably be only designer bag I ever own.
Humm - actually I agree with you about that particular post. It kind of had a “Who do these low-class women think they are trying to look posh with an expensive bag!?!?” vibe to it, although I’m SURE that’s not how it was intended.
Well, while I appreciate your sarcasm, that really wasn’t how it was intended. The point was just that some people are implying that Coach is some high end, fancy pants purse that only people focused on status have. When in reality, they are VERY common bags, not just found among the well off or anything like that, just like Dooneys.
Ya know, for the most part, a purse, is a purse, is a purse. It’s basically used to haul crap around.
If someone is looking down her nose at someone because she’s not carrying around some designer bag be it one that the uber rich use, or a “common” Coach :rolleyes:, then she’s not someone I want to know.
The older I get, the less patience I have for that kind of bullshit. Call me cranky, but I just don’t give a crap. If the clothes, shoes, bags, look good, fit well, and fit the situation, all is well. It doesn’t matter how much someone spent on them, and frankly, it’s not anyone’s business.
Oh really? My bad, I’m genuinely sorry for that, alice_in_wonderland. Stupid internet, lacking the ability to differentiate between italics for emphasis and italics for sarcasm. I still love you, but not in the creepy internet stalker sort of way. Unless you want me to be.
Oh for goodness’ sake! I said up thread I have a bunch of Coach bags myself (that were acquired at the outlet mall for less than half off) , I’m not looking my nose down at anyone. I’m simply trying to dispel the idea that they are some kind of uber scarce commodity that only the status-seeking carry. I carry my Coach bags more than any of them because they are sturdy and well designed. I take that back, the one I carry the most was $5 at the Old Navy Outlet.
And, I was reading common as one of these definitions:
of mediocre or inferior quality; mean; low: a rough-textured suit of the most common fabric.
coarse; vulgar: common manners.
lacking rank, station, distinction, etc.; unexceptional; ordinary: a common soldier; common people; the common man; a common thief.
Since I know ONE person with a Coach bag and no one at all with a Dooney (didn’t know what one was until this thread) so it couldn’t possibly mean widespread, since I don’t see these in my world (except in the store). But you do mean widespread. And if a Coach bag is ‘course’ ‘low’ and ‘lacking distiction’ what in the hell does that mean for my $10 no name Marshall’s bag.
Indeedy I do, I meant definitions #4 and #5 (from dictionary.com):
widespread; general; ordinary: common knowledge.
of frequent occurrence; usual; familiar: a common event; a common mistake.
I was going to say that maybe the frequency of them is a Southern California thing, but I saw just as many while I was in the suburbs of Chicago and Washington DC last summer, though most weren’t in as bright of colors as the ones that are more common in California.
Ummm, I wasn’t taking a jab at you. I dunno, perhaps you were a little tender because it seems some people jumped you. We haven’t really interacted much, but if you knew my posting style, you’d know that I don’t typically jump anyone on the board.
In the end, none of it matters. Look, if someone has the cash to spend on expensive stuff and it makes them happy; good for them. I’m not one to begrudge anyone what makes them happy.
If someone else is perfectly happy not dropping more than a few bucks for clothes or a bag, good for them. Again, it what makes them happy.
Neither is case is “better” or “superior”. I don’t get that whole attitude.
I was assuming you were speaking rather indirectly to me because you put common in quotes and a post I made saying such had just been brought up as an example.
Diosa, I think you made a very good point that people are misconstruing. There seemed to be a few posters who implicitly accuse we Coachistas – especially those buying, gasp!, logo-wear – of doing it out of some motivation to scream look at my expensive bag!
But the truth is, if you know bags, you know Coach (and Dooney and Brahmin and most of the others listed here) are not considered expensive bags. They’re actually low-end for quality bags and certainly wouldn’t be considered “luxury” bags. So it’s really unlikely that those of us who like them and use them are doing so as some sort of mute “here’s one in your eye” to women who can’t afford them or choose not to carry them.
Irishgirl, I love those Radley bags! Can you give us an idea on pricing, because I didn’t see them on the website.
I have a few Vera Bradley bags that MIL gave me that I use for knitting. Fortunately they are the less obnoxious colors.
Soft, lots of pockets, and they don’t snag yarn. Plus they’re machine-washable. Though I wouldn’t spend that much for a knitting bag myself.
For actual purses, I’m more into simple bags. I don’t like the logo look on bags, but I do like a nice leather purse. Funky colors (one color per bag please!), I do like.
I think either coast and then some urban and/or well heeled areas throughout the country. I’m a Midwestern suburban working mom who works in a manufacturing plant surrounded by electrical engineers - designer handbags are not part of my world - these people think its something special if I wear girl clothes and have my nails painted - and my friends are not the designer handbag type. If I lived out in a different part of town or worked in a different industry, I’m sure I’d own one.
Actually, I think it’s pretty endemic, not just limited to fashion threads (see recent iphone thread). And it certainly isn’t Dope-focused. When discussing any sort of product, especially one that is moderately to highly expensive and/or a status symbol, you’ll always have one person pipe in about how they think it’s a waste of money, or it isn’t them, or they can’t imagine doing that/spending that type of money etc. etc…
I think it’s a natural human reaction. At this point I don’t even think it’s worth responding to or getting even mildly irritated over, because I think it’s almost instinctual. Since noticing how much people do it (online and real life), I’ve really watched myself for it but I’m sure I’ve done it in the past too.
I also think of Coach bags as common (=widespread), but I’ve only lived in urban areas all my life. They’re not cheap bags, but they are far from the expensive end of the scale, as bags go. I had a friend back home who thought nothing of spending $900 on a Bvlgari purse - granted, it was pretty, but I’ve never spent that much on anything. But if she has the money and she likes the bag, then I won’t begrudge her owning it. Or, to summarize, what Taters said.
See, I don’t understand the whole handbag thing because I have never in my life been able to distinguish an expensive bag from a cheap one, and as I said, I’m very hard on bags myself and thus unwilling to spend that kind of money for something that I wouldn’t take proper care of.
But just saying I don’t understand why some people spend so much on bags doesn’t mean I think they shouldn’t, it’s simply a reflection of my own lack of comprehension. I’m also a minimal-makeup person – my mom never wore anything but lipstick, and so I never really learned about wearing makeup, and so to this day I only do it for dressier occasions; it’s certainly not part of my everyday life. Do I think there’s something wrong with people who wear makeup every day? No, except for the stupid woman I saw wearing full makeup while camping and then wondering why every bug within 50 miles was zeroing in on her.
Lack of comprehension does not have to imply snootily looking down one’s nose; it can just reflect a different upbringing. In my case, being the child of a woman who grew up dirt poor during the Depression. Trust me, that makes a deep impact.
Or threads on Buffy or Harry Potter or even (gasp) cats (which, I should mention - I’m not terribly fond of - more of a dog person). There are simply things people need to comment on that they “don’t get” and wouldn’t spend money/time/energy on. But this thread starts with the title “Good God…I bought a Coach Bag” and how the Penchan never saw HERSELF with a Coach bag and now owns one - which sort of begs the whole “hey, I don’t get it” response.
I’m not sure that saying you would never spend $300 for a purse and all yours were under $30 at Target is any worse a response in this thread than mentioning that Coach purses aren’t even all that high end (when obviously to Penchan, this is a big deal) and what someone really lusts after is a $7000 purse. ).
(What I lust after is the money to buy the $7000 purse - you can keep the purse).