What's in a Bag?

An awful lot if you're me! Try as I might I can't seem to cut down on the baggage I carry around with me on a daily basis (I'm talking literally not emotionally here by the way). I think it's the fact that I'm an acumulator. The lipstick I wore yesterday for example, won't be removed from my bag in favour of the gloss of today, I'll keep them both in. That piece of paperwork/shopping list/receipt won't be cleared out once used, it will langour at the bottom of the bag until constantly having my keys thrown on top of it will render it to dust. There's whole strata of unused items in the bottom of my bag that have lain undisturbed for weeks if not months until that "I'm sure I have a safety pin in here somewhere" moment stirrs everything up into a slurry of chaos.

The upshot of this is that handbags only seem to last me a year or so, and need to be rather large. I'm also of the opinion that handbags and jackets are two of the most important pieces of your wardrobe in terms of personal expression and therefore buying them is a minefield of self-analysis. What me do I want to project through my choice of bag? All this makes handbag shopping a bit of a stressful and introspective experience.

So it is with great sadness that I prepare to retire my gorgeous and perfect Disaster Designs Dandy Handbag. Last year's birthday present from lovely fiance, this bag has served me well with exactly the right balance of pretty and practical: whimsical yet capacious, ever so very me and goes with almost every outfit. I even have the wallet from the same range and make up bag from the Paper Plane range.

Sigh, I'll be sad to see it go but as with all not quite leather items the seams are going and it's become tired looking. And though Disaster Designs have a number of other utterly gorgeous ranges, none of the handbags are quite right. These ones are GORGEOUS but for me...:

 Too Big

Too Small

Too... Brown

This is the closest bet but something tells me I just wouldn't feel like polkadots every day.

So I turned to that British bastion of cheap yet surprisingly tasteful accessories New Look, and there really is quite a range. Should I stick to vintage florals or have I been there done that? Multi-tonal neutrals are bang on trend but I'm a colourful person so I want a colourful handbag. Colour block structurals are fun and surprisingly forgiving, though I do despair that so many shops have taken on the padlock theme *cough-designer-rip-off-cough*.

Then I found this:

In the sale of all places! It's a great colour, has shoulder friendly handles and a removable cross body strap (because you can't carry something the weight of one on my handbags on the crook of your arm!) and a plethora of pockets, enough for even me to keep vaguely organised. Think of it, a whole pocket specifically for lipsticks and balms. Luxury! I was sold!

But then I popped into a New Look to have a closer inspection, and was completely put off by the proportions. What should be a generous, slochy, statement of a bag is actually mean and boxy-looking. Such a shame! So it's back to browsing and hope my current carry-all doesn't completely unravel before I've found a suitable replacement.

What's in a bag? Everything!