A cautionary tale: French 1946 Speedy-style bag.

I confessed in another post that I'm the laziest blogger ever, and I'm confirming it now by recycling what I posted about the French 1946 Speedy-style bag in a purse forum.

I ordered the Black Shadow design -- all black, including a black metal lock, keys and hardware. I was excited when the bag arrived, but when I opened the package and saw the nylon zipper I was immediately disappointed.

It would be a great bag for a ninja or a spy; I think gold or silver hardware would have looked nicer.
12 in. Sacoche - Black Shadow

Definitely of the good: The bag was 102.00 on sale. It'll make a good knock-around bag, and probably a good bag for rain, since the fabric is water-resistant, according to the website. For 102.00 it's not bad. The construction is solid and the bag seems sturdy. I carried it to work once and added another check in the plus column: there's a leather strip lengthwise down the bottom of the bag, which means that even though the bag was pretty loaded there was no "Speedy sag." Yay!

Of the bad: The aforementioned nylon zipper. One of the handles is pretty shoddily sewn -- the stitches are tight but crooked. It's a good thing the thread is black to match the leather, because contrasting stitching would have looked awful.

Again, for the price range, not bad. After carrying it for a day I might buy the herringbone version when/if it goes on sale:

12 in. Sacoche - Herringbone

One thing would keep me from ordering: crappy customer service.

I wasn't happy about the 20.00 shipping charge, especially since - at the time - the banner at the top of the site said "Free shipping in the U.S." When I called to ask about the discrepancy I was told that they'd "look into it." What this meant was that they updated the website, changed the banner to remove the "free shipping" statement, and didn't offer to make good after misleading me. Great P.R. there, fellas.

Today's bag: blue Pierotucci Birkin-inspired bag loaded up for tomorrow.