Nope, she’s down the bunny hole. Link
Huh? This wasn’t me.
ETA: Oh, I see you conflated my post with EJ’s Girl’s.
Oh, yeah, that and more. A couple of years ago I saw an ad for an antique Patek Phillippe minute minder that was going for $950,000.
Yeah, sorry. I screwed up somehow bouncing from tab to tab. (I wondered where my comment to you went.)
Anyway, please see above.
I inherited a red “classic” Coach from my Mom. Now, it appears they are making the classics in Tan, Brown, Black &–if you’re lucky–Navy. They’d probably sell more classics if they just added more colors. The fancy Coach bags are a bit too Preppy Gone Wild for me. Sorta like the garish golf slacks that old guys wear to the club. Or Lily Pulitzer…
I’ll bite.
The word we are looking for here is tacky. A purse with giant logos on it is tacky, even if (or perhaps especially if) it costs real money. Renting a purse is tacky. We can spend our money however we want, but if we spend it on tacky stuff, people are going to call us tacky.
Buying a classic well-made purse is not tacky. Buying a new one every month is.
How many people buying $300 handbags would buy that same one if it had a dfferent name on it and cost twenty bucks? If you would- awesome. If not, well, considering that most Americans are several thousands dollars in debt, maybe it’s time to rethink some priorities.
That’s a lot of leaping going on there.
One handbag is OK, but multiples are tacky - but you don’t know if the woman in question has one or many, unless you know her personally. And if you know her personally and you think she is tacky, I’m hoping she is a relative or a coworker and not someone you are calling a friend.
You are leaping to the assumption that there is correlation between the Americans having debt and the ones owning expensive handbags. Maybe. Then you generalize from that to an individual carrying a handbag - again, that’s a lot to know about someone by looking at their purse.
I have an aunt who collects Coach purses (seriously, collects - she owns bags she never carries and doesn’t even like). Its her hobby. She can afford it. It isn’t the hobby for me, but she gets enjoyment from it, and if she can afford it, its no less confusing to me than collecting beer cans or stamps or Impressionist oil paintings (I’m not a collector, but its obviously something I don’t ‘get’ rather than something I’m willing to condemn cause I don’t get it). Of course she isn’t buying the same bag at Target, anymore than someone collecting Lladro buys Precious Moments. Now, I could say ‘boy, if you donated that money to charity, it would be a better use of it’ but that’s a slipperly slope I don’t want to start down since there are a lot of luxuries in my own life where the money would be better spent on programs for Inner City Disadvantaged Youth or AIDS prevention.
Buying a purse every month is tacky? Why?
Why is it that no matter how many times it’s explained, people can’t seem to grasp that you simply cannot get a $20 purse that is the same quality as the $300 purse. This should not difficult to understand. Last I checked, no matter what you’re buying, you’re not going to get the same quality for less than a tenth of the price.
And if someone could please explain to me why I should reprioritize based on other peoples’ financial troubles, I’d appreciate it. Why should I wear sackcloth because *other * people are in debt?
If YOU are one of those Americans several thousands of dollars in debt, then yes, a designer purse probably shouldn’t be up there on your list of priorities. If you’re not, then who cares? Buy a Hermes purse every day, if you can afford it. And be my friend as well. 
Of course, there are plenty of designer bags that look as ugly as hell. A few years ago Louis Vuitton came out with this design of garish pink cherry blossoms over their standard brown and tan logo design. Every time I saw someone carrying one of those around I wanted to tear it out of their hands and set it on fire.
ETA: Okay, DianaG, this MUST STOP. People are going to think I’m your sock. :dubious:
Suppose a shadey character came to you on the street-and offered to sell you a $800 Louis Vitton knockoff for $50-would you do it? And pass off your fake as the 'real thing"?
You examine the “almost L-V”-and everything is perfect-the stitching is straight, the little "LV"s are perfect-nobody BUT you will know!
Wouldja do it?
l’ve seen some damned good knockoffs, and I’d have no problem carrying a knockoff of sufficient quality. I wouldn’t carry a fake, which is different from a knockoff.
HazelNutCoffee, it *is * getting a little freaky. But next time I go internet shopping, I’m PMing everything I look at before I buy.
Buying knockoffs has already been mentioned in the thread. Good copies of the astronomically priced Hermes bags? Sure!
Personally, I don’t care for the bags covered with logos. Many high-end bags are labeled quite discreetly. And many knockoff-buyers are proud of their frugality; they boast about how little they paid.
I do occasionally spend a bit more for a well-made, distinctive bag. Just because I like it.
I own several dozen bags. Everything from Target to questionably acquired bags I bought from shady guys on Broadway to this adorable little green silk evening bag that looks like a Chinese takeout box that I got in Salem to Coach and Chanel. I like bags - what’s the problem? (I also have a thing for shoes).
That’s the same bag I have, only mine is tan. I bought it in 1990. Still looks very very good - you’d never guess it was 18 years old. It was the first “nice thing” I ever bought for myself with my first “real job”. Those buggers are classic, go with everything, and are practically indestructible. It needs a bit of an overhaul - there’s a dark section across the top from where I lay my hand and some superficial scratches - but that can all be taken care of.
Your timing is incredible (and your taste 
) I just tonight changed from my Coach to my Burberry. This is almost my Burberry (mine is slightly different as it’s about 5 years old). I own Burberry everything. Watch, wallet, a zip top clutch that I use as a makeup case, and a (totally fake) poncho type top (no. I do not wear them all at the same time ;)). I don’t know why but that adorable plaid just makes me SQUEEE. (And, before anyone starts - it did that to me even when I was a teenager and hadn’t yet put together that “the adorable plaid that I love” = a rooty tooty snooty designer).
I like my bags because I like them. I don’t give a rat’s behind if anyone notices my bag or not. But, I will admit, when someone does come up to me and says “Is that a Burberry? Nice.” It does make me happy. And, if you walked up to me and told me how butt ugly you thought it was it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest, because I love it, and I’m the one that has to carry it.
There is only one bag I bought not because I loved it more than any other bag in the whole wide world but was a conscious “fashion” choice. The Chanel evening bag. It’s the one everybody knows. The little black job with the chain strap. I bought that because it was a classic and would always be appropriate and for the rest of my life I would always have one evening bag that I could always turn to. And, for years when my other evening bags don’t quite work that Chanel has got my back. Don’t get me wrong, I do love it - but that’s not why I bought it.
The reason I own so many? Well, you don’t wear the same exact clothes and shoes every single day, do you? I change my bag often. Not every day or every week - but if I wear something that will clash with the bag I am carrying I will change the bag. I mean you wouldn’t wear black shoes with a navy skirt, would you?
And, yes, I would absolutely rent a bag for a special occasion. Just the right bag is just as important as just the right jewelry. However, would I rent one for a month or months to carry around? - not on your life. I just can’t see the point in that. If I wanted a super special designer bag for every day use, I would save up and buy it.
And, if anyone feels that all this makes me a sheeple, all I can say to them in response is BBAAAA.
Sorry for the double post, but I missed the edit window.
But, I wanted to say something to the people rushing to judgment of someone’s entire personality over what bag they choose to carry…
Yup, today I carried a Coach bag. And, I wore a green shirt with a dragon on it, a pair of jeans, and sneakers. Tomorrow I will be carrying the Burberry bag, with a long sleeved black t shirt that says agoodbook.calm on it, a pair of jeans exactly like the ones I wore today only in a darker denim, and the same sneakers. Not exactly a slave to fashion am I? (Although, I do make sure that the clothes fit me correctly - I hate when clothes are too tight or too baggy - it just looks sloppy).
I am not some high maintenance, celeb imitating, label whore. I’m just a chick that likes nice bags. But some people are so ready to judge my entire being on that bag and I just don’t get it.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve had my Coach for 18 years. At around $300 that Coach has now cost me $16 and change a year to own. Just about what you would pay every couple of months for the Target special, eh? And, my Coach still has a lot of life in it - not a stitch out of place. And, my Coach won’t go out of style I can carry it until it’s dead (except it will never die because if something breaks you send it to Coach and they fix it). How many more good reasons could you need for buying a “good” bag?
My financial house is in pretty good order, which is why I choose to spend some of my disposable income on fun purchases. Spend 2k every couple of years to upgrade your computer and nobody says boo, but spend that same amount on a bag and suddenly everyone starts playing gotcha games to try and prove that you don’t really need to spend that much money.
They weren’t really to my taste either but I had some friends who went wild over them - suspiciously the same friends who liked the (IMO) godawful multicoloured bags. My favourite is the Epi line and this in the mandarin colour was my engagement present. I’m also kind of drooling over the damier azur range. My bag addiction is on hold since we’re saving for a kickarse honeymoon, but oh how it beckons.
Goodness. You come on and say you think renting designer purses is tacky, and everyone gets all riled up that you are insulting the core of their being.
I think they are tacky- like buying solid gold bathroom fixtures, finger nails with little pictures of flowers on them, or including a registry card with your wedding invitation. FWIW I think TVs bigger that barely fit in your room or computers tricked out with those expensive cables are tacky, too. God knows I have/do enough tacky stuff myself, but I’m still gonna call something tacky when it’s tacky.
I do have problems with the direction this thread is taking though- Everyone has the right to spend their money as they like, and I’m not in the business of judging the spending habits of total strangers based on their purse or anything else. But just like I don’t think it’s a great thing for a rich guy to sit on the couch doing nothing his whole life just because he can, I think it’s not so great to spend huge amounts of money on frivolous things. Doesn’t mean we can’t have a day off or buy an expensive purse now and then- just that we should be mindful about how we are using the resources that god/hard work/good luck has provided for us.
The average American household is $8000 in debt. We save less than one percent of our income. Our economy is going down the tubes, in part because of people’s insanely stupid spending decisions, and this affects us all. I can believe you personally are responsible with your finances, but as a whole we cannot afford to live the way we are living. Maybe as a culture we should rethink some of our values.
Its only insanely stupid if you can’t afford it. If you can afford a $600 purse, from a macroeconomic standpoint, we as a society are better off if you buy the $600 purse than if you stuff $580 under your mattress and buy a $20 purse. (Investing it is different, that has a multiplier - as I recall, spending it is generally a higher multiplier than investing it though).
My saving MORE money than I do (we save about 40% of our after tax income) is not helping someone who is stupid - in fact, it hurts them because my money isn’t going out and making more money, providing jobs, becoming profit. And if I want a Radley purse and save 38% this month, how is that your problem? (I do want a Radley purse, but they aren’t available over here for me to be tempted).
Are there people who are stupid with money - sure, but that is a whole different pit thread and that has nothing to do with spending it on expensive (or cheap) purses or concert tickets or new chainmail or a World of Warcraft subscription or blow and hookers.
I guess I’m not sure what you mean by tacky, then. I mean, I agree that some designer bags are tacky, but I don’t see how they could be tacky by definition because they are designer bags. For instance, do you think this bag is tacky? If so, is it tacky simply because it’s a Coach bag, or do you think the looks of it are tacky? Because quite frankly, I would consider that to be about the least tacky purse I’ve ever seen.
Hypocrite.
Tacking (no pun intended) onto **Sarafeena’s ** comments, why is buying a bag on a monthly basis tacky? How is this any different than zipping down to Best Buy every Tuesday to get the newest CD/DVD release?