I have 4 purses, all purchased recently. The pink one was a Goodwill pick-me-up and it's going back because nothing really fits in it and it's a bit worn. Yes, although purple handbags were the trend of the fall, I bucked that trend and went for the green. The big green bag holds a lot and gives kick to a lot of outfits. The two smaller bags are the same but in different colors. Behold!
Not the contrast lining and details? That's what makes it a Kerry bag.
How cute! Lisa S., this picture's for you. try not to fall on the floor as you spy...secret inner pockets for the totally organized!
And here's something that I own, but don't use, and I'm going to try to explain why in a way that doesn't make me look like an ungrateful, rotten bitch:
Yes, that's a Coach messenger bag in very good condition. Yes, you can go Google it and see how much it costs.
I didn't buy this for myself. It was a gift from my parents when I got into graduate school. Because in my family you get nice briefcase type things when you go to grad school. Even if it's library school, and a cheap state school nonetheless. Hey, I was paying for it.
I've half-joked about librarians and how there's a professional culture that prides looking frumpy and drab. When I started grad school I was working at the medical ghostwriters, all of whom were Ph.D scientist types happy they could wear jeans to work. And then I moved onto the awful bank, and then onto my 2 part-time public librarian jobs, one of which was in the poorest suburb of Cleveland, and now in my life as a civil servant. I have never belonged to a professional circle where this bag wouldn't raise an eyebrow, and not in a complimentary way.
This bag makes me feel awkward and conspicuous and misunderstood in ways I can't even find words to describe. It belongs to the person I am supposed to be that I never got the plan and rules to become--the woman who got straight As and elected to the Honor Society and went to law school. Despite my prep school background, that's not me. I was the lonely screw up with no friends who wound up with a freaking library degree. And while I like and respect who I am, this bag oppresses me and makes me feel small and like a failure. I used to tell my father that if he wanted a different daughter, the one with a PhD or a medical degree, that he should have raised that daughter and not me, that I never got the message that that was expected me or the tools to make it happen.
This bag is a Status Symbol for a culture I don't belong to and for a language I don't even speak. And I can't get separate myself from it. So it lurks in parts of the closet that I don't check, waiting to sucker punch me with emotions I hate.
4 comments:
Well, then I think it's time that the bag ends up on eBay so that you can buy something that does say who you are AND make you feel great about yourself.
There should be NO room in your closet for something that oppresses you, ok? Start the New Year without that wardrobe category.
Yes, contrasting lining IS you. Piping, too. Like how people expect French chocolate boxes to be, with one colored paper on the outside and another (polka-dot?) paper on the inside, and all the cups holding the chocolate in colors that pick up the colors in the paper. Sensual and at the same time with a little crispness and order, and a sense of working one's way to a pleasant surprise.
I think you've just put a finger on why Smart Girls often dislike gifts. We see the burden of expectations packed in the bag.
Find a way to get rid of it.
You know me too well -- I smiled in delight at the picture of the bag with the pockets before I saw what you wrote.
Allow me to add to the chorus of voices imploring you to get rid of the Coach bag. That's not a bag, it's baggage. EBay that sucker!
Yes. EBay. Use ALL the money from that expensive bag and get something wonderfully fabulously YOU that you will use all the time and love.
No keeping stuff that comes with more baggage than you can fit in your closet.
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