Purchased ages ago, like, January 2006...

I'm feeling incredibly lazy; I want to post, but I don't really feel like writing anything. Because of this, I'm going to recycle a post I made in a forum; I bought my Luella Suzi tote before I started this blog, so here's a blast from the past...


The leather is gorgeous and I love the styling. The bag is a bit heavy for its size but not crippling.

My main issue with the Suzi is that because of the way it's constructed, it's much smaller on the inside than you'd think. The sides are gathered and there's a pocket sewn in the middle to create two compartments...two small compartments. Plus, there's a foldover flap from the back that attaches magnetically inside the front of the bag, which makes getting in and out a little trickier than it needs to be. There's a ton of wasted potential space.

With all that said, it really is a pretty bag; I carry it every now and then as a change of pace. I bought it online from Saks after seeing the white version in Vogue; if I'd seen this bag in person first, I'm pretty sure that's $1100.00 I'd have spent on something else.

Today's bag: blue Pierotucci Birkin-inspired bag.

New bag lurve!

It feels as though I haven't posted in months, but it's only been a week. Odd!

I'm here today with two tales, one of shame and one of triumph. Let's go ahead and get the shame out of the way.

1) The Beast(s)

A few weeks ago I purchased three Steve Madden bags online, and blogged about them here. I purchased these bags on the naive/hopeful assumption that they'd look at least as good as the pictures. HAH! I'm here to say that that's a load of hooey.

I was disappointed as soon as I opened the box - I should have followed my first impulse and purchased all three in black, as that's definitely the best of the three colors. I'm pleased though, because the one bag I hoped/thought I'd use the most, the shoulderbag, is black and indeed, is the one that looks the best. I've carried it a couple of times and I didn't feel too ashamed to have it on my arm.

The so-called tote bag is a bit smaller than the shoulder bag and the boxy rectangle bag is smaller still! It's a long bag but small inside. No, I can't figure it out either. The brown tote isn't too bad, and I think I carried it two days. The boxy bag is pretty awful, but I felt obligated to carry it at least once. The color is weird and the leather is truly strange, kind of waxy and...waxy.

The day I carried the boxy bag, I almost made it through the day with my dignity intact. As luck would have it, I stopped by the restroom on my way out of the door for the night. As I approached the restroom door, a tall, slim, fashionable diva stepped out. She gave me a quick once over, definitely gave my bag a long look, and swept on by. Oh, the shame of it.

There's a reason I don't buy trendy bags - they're not me. My style is definitely classic, and that's fine by me! The experiment wasn't a total loss, because I do have a fun black bag now and a brown tote-y thing, maybe for days when it's raining so hard that I don't want to carry one of my good bags. Ah, well. I'm giving the boxy bag to the first one of my young neighbors who'll have it, and good riddance.

2) The beauty

I ordered the Tod's Miky Nomade Grande from Neiman's a week ago, and it arrived this past Friday. It was on sale, half price to be exact (woohoo!), and I love green.


I didn't have a Tod's but I'd been eyeing their bags forever. The only thing I wasn't sure of was the size. I knew it was big, but would it be too big? I kept going back and forth about it, but I couldn't get it out of my head. I saw this picture, and thought, yeah, big but workable, I think.


I kept checking and finally figured that if they sold out I'd regret it forever. So I bought it and crossed my fingers.

This thing is HUGE. HUGE. Almost weekender size. But it's beautifully made, of beautiful leather. I love the way it looks, simple and clean but with enough details to make it interesting, and the silver hardware adds a bit of flash. The strap is adjustable to three lengths. I'm currently wearing it at the shortest length, doubled, and the bag hits me at the hip (I'm 5'1").

I wore it shopping yesterday, and I felt like a rock star with this huge, beautiful bag on my shoulder. It's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure! I absolutely love it. Even better, I checked the Neiman's Final Call to see if it had been further reduced, and it's gone back up! It's still less than the original 1300.00 price, but it's 260.00 higher than when I bought mine. And to that I say woohoo.

Today's bag: Tod's Miky Nomade Grande (no pics yet, the battery's low).

Good bags gone horribly wrong.

The following two bags by Juicy Couture and Dior have one thing in common - a design team that just didn't know when to stop. It's especially sad because, beneath the blunders, both are basically great bags.

I've never been a fan of unnecessary add-ons; the Lady Sarah bag by Juicy Couture is a perfect example of what I hate. It would make a great overnight or carry-on because it's so big. The leather looks soft, even if the pictures on eLuxury aren't as flattering as you'd expect.

Between the quilted leather, corner patches, chunky hardware and overly-detailed straps, there's already a lot going on.

Why in the world was a non-functional patch of leather slapped on the front of the bag? To add insult to injury, it's attached to a leash, probably to keep it from leaping off the bag in embarassment. I realize it's probably embossed with the Juicy crest, but honestly, it's just too much. Even worse, the not-quite-asymmetrical placement just looks messy. Overall, thumbs down.

I was so excited when I first saw this bag, but I was quickly disappointed. It's the Vintage Voyage Large Boston, and it's on eLuxury as well.

I absolutely love this bag. I love it. I love the antique-looking leather, the restrained detail, the vintage look of the logo fabric. I'm not sure what the deal is with Dior, but the big metal plaque on the front of the bag reminds me of something you'd find on a cheap piece of luggage.

Sadly, there's no way I could bring myself to carry this bag, even though I want to so badly. Oh Dior, you make me cry.

Today's bag: Pierotucci Birkin-style bag.