Rainbow Warrior

Robin sent me this eBay listing this morning (click on the image to visit the auction page) and ... well, I don't even have to tell you, do I? You could go out loaded for BEAR in this dress. Cell phone, iPod, paper and pencil, wallet, business cards, breath mints, five lipsticks ... and that's just the red pocket in the front!

And, yes, I realize it's a bit extreme, but sometimes you need to be extreme to make a point. Or to carry all your stuff. And is it any more extreme than this?




I could fit my SON in that bag. And he's EIGHT. (And he doesn't go anywhere without his Nintendo DS, so the bag would also play tinny Japanese videogame music.) In fact, I almost expect a bunch of clowns to start extricating themselves from that handbag. (The last one out toots a little horn, and looks suspiciously like Tom Cruise.) Also, that bag costs more than many people's houses, while the dress is at only $26 right now!

Now, I know I carry too much stuff around with me (the four issues of New Scientist is not negotiable, though maybe I could clean out some receipts and lollipops) but the alternative is being bored out of my mind when the inevitable delays occur. Maybe I should take up meditation?

Yet Another Post About Green Handbags

So I ran into the amazing India last week (actually, she was nice enough to come out to an event at the NYPL to see me!) and she was carrying The Perfect Bag. We were chatting away and then BOOM! There was the bag. Seriously, I think I interrupted her mid-thought to ask her where she got her bag.

"It was from Daffy's," said India, and instantly my heart beat faster -- a gorgeous bag, and one that was guaranteed not to cost $350! India quickly showed me all the pockets -- so many lovely pockets -- and the pink lining, and let me fondle the leather. I had to have one.

But, sadly, I didn't have much more time in the city! Certainly not enough time to go to every Daffy's ... What to do? What we always, do (Pinky ...) go to the Internet! In this case, the Sierra Trading Company, who had it in stock (Sierra is slightly more pricey than Daffy's, but it was still, barely, <$100, which is my LIMIT for handbags, even perfect ones).

Why is this bag perfect, you might ask? Well: it's green, which goes with green (duh), brown, black, orange, and gray, which are the colors of all my fall & winter coats. It has a cross-body strap. It is big enough (11-½x16-½x4-½”) to hold my MacBook in its neoprene sleeve, without being so big that the laptop wobbles around. And did I mention the pockets? Four on the front (two zip, two open), one inside, and one zippered long pocket on the back. Plus pen loops! It is not dripping with fobs or other dangly useless metallic bits. It is completely free of giant logos. In short: genius.

Why it's showing up in the clearance racks of the world is a puzzle -- who *wouldn't* want this bag, even at its original (gulp) price of $186?

Anyway, if you want one, click on the image to visit Sierra Trading. It also comes in black, wine, and brown. (But green is the best color for handbags.)

Ranting about Handbags, Again

First of all, a great big welcome to all of you who are here because this blog was a Yahoo! Pick!

In the Yahoo! interview it was mentioned that occasionally I rant about the Handbag Industrial Complex (you know, the folks who bring us horrible things like this):



That is ridiculous, isn't it? Just horrible. I can't imagine paying $10 for that, much less the TWO GRAND it actually costs.

And even if you aren't looking at the two-grand end of the scale, lower-end handbags aren't any better. Tiny little handles, so that you can't carry them; covered with nonfunctional locks and useless metal bits and dangling braids and whatnot; branded with logos so large that you look like a mobile billboard. I hate them all.

Which is why I bought an old-skool Coach bag on eBay:



(Don't worry: I removed that stupid hangtag first thing.)

I needed a bag that *wouldn't* hold my laptop -- to prevent me from carrying it everywhere. Something that would hold a hardcover book and a wallet and my treo, but not much else. I wanted good leather, but no huge logos. And I wanted a cross-body strap to keep my hands free, which is IMPOSSIBLE to find in a handbag these days, unless you head to the Magellan catalog and get the ones that scream "TOURIST IN EUROPE -- COMING THROUGH!"

I really wanted green bag, but a weird green -- so this olive is perfect! A green bag works with black or brown, so no switching back and forth -- who has time to do that?

I pretty much hate the modern Coach bags, with their splashy ad campaigns, tacky logos everywhere and (I've heard) quality problems, but the old Coach bags are something else. They have clean lines, neat colors, and even the most beat-up ones have a certain careless chic. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that old Coach bags are going to be the next big thing. What with the continuing 80s revival, can't you see a bunch of skinny Brooklyn hipsters deciding that these bags have huge ironic potential? You heard it here first.

Pockets = Freedom

(Above illustration from The Workwoman's Guide [and it's a downloadable PDF, thank you Google Book Search!])

Are you unsurprised, as I was, to learn that the V&A website has a whole section on pockets? It's a good one, too (also unsurprising) and traces the initial demise of the pocket and rise of the handbag to the radical change in women's fashion of the 1790s, when dresses became too narrow to admit of the wearing of separate pockets tied around the waist under the dress. Because of this, women began to carry little bags, called reticules, which accommodated much less than the capacious separate pockets.

Last night I walked about fifty blocks (intentionally, and with a glad heart). The weather was beautiful -- it was a warm soft wet night (okay, I admit it, I like walking in a light rain), and I wasn't carrying a bag.

I had ditched my purse-cum-laptop-bag as it was just too big to dangle off me all night while I stood around clutching my club soda at a party (and I didn't bring a smaller bag with me on this trip). Besides, between the pocket in my skirt and the pockets of my coat, I could carry the essentials (ID, money, lipstick, treo, ipod).

Without a bag, I barely noticed those fifty blocks. It was amazing how freeing it was, to not have a bag to deal with, to shift, to move around to the front of your body and then to the back, to switch from arm to arm. Your arms swing unencumbered; you walk differently, faster. You can shove both hands in your pockets; you can put your hands on your hips while waiting impatiently for a light to change. I also noticed that some people gave me funny looks; whether it was "There's a woman without a bag!" or "Why the hell is she wearing a circle skirt in a grass-green camouflage print?" I couldn't tell.

On my way uptown, as an experiment, I counted women without bags. I saw one. I think she was eight years old, but she could have been nine. (Since this was about 11:45 p.m., I don't think this was a representative sample, and it's not like I stood around the busier intersections making sure I checked everyone, but hey.)

Now, I love bags, I obsess about bags (mostly about whether they have the right size and number of pockets ...) and I carry a bag most of the time. But when you have enough pockets, or the right kind of pockets, you can escape the bag and just enjoy the freedom to stride along unencumbered. You should try it ...