FashBlog.com

Fashion tells me I should be carrying a large leather bag this fall. Since I am once again allowing fashion in my life, I dutifully went shopping for a new bag. This was difficult because for years I survived with a change purse attached to my key chain. If I needed more space, my Lands End tote ,with my crochet in it, worked just fine. But I know following fashion can be difficult sometimes, so I braved the beautiful fall weather, in search of the perfect bag. The following is an account of what I discovered.

Coach is selling suede bags with fringe. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a hippie bag. The price tag however, does not inspire thoughts of flower power or free love. I guess the hippies can now afford a three or four hundred dollar fringed bag to remind them of their youth. I cannot help but wonder if you couldn't fly out West, buy an authentic fringed bag, and fly back for close to the same amount of money . I know,the bag wouldn't have the little Coach tag on it. The message this bag sends is the same as the Don Henley song which tells of seeing a Greatful Dead sticker on the back of a Cadillac. The messages are too mixed for me. This was not the right bag .

I'm not against Coach bags. In fact in my youth I carried more than one Coach bag with pride. I am rough on purses so I can tell you they will not last a lifetime nor does sending them to Coach for refurbishing bring them back to their original condition. I was of the school of thought that when my bag got too mottled, it was time to get a new one. Then I began to buy diaper bags. For awhile, I still looked in the store window at my beloved Coach bags but I passed on by. Eventually I stopped looking in the window.

Then I took my youngest daughter to camp at my old alma mater, St. Mary's College, aka Coach bag central. It was at St.Marys that I learned about Coach bags and bought my first one. I know, teens carry Coach bags now, but for me it was a college relationship. I had not been raised with status bags so Coach was a whole new world for me. My girls are already aware of this brand and they are still in high school. If it's not Coach, it's Doony Burke.

I looked around and all the other moms were carrying brightly colored, seasonal, Coach bags. I knew I needed one again. I even stopped at a Coach outlet store on the way home but resisted the urge to part with hard earned cash. I did not see a must have style in the outlet store. In other words they did not have any of the pastel summer bags I had seen on every St. Mary's alumni who was sending her little girl to camp. Plus the camp was ungodly expensive. I guess I was still figuratively carrying a diaper bag. I knew I needed a new Coach bag but I was not yet ready to purchase one. I just coveted them from afar, letting my need grow.

I finally put the Coach monkey to rest when I ordered a small, black, cloth Coach bag from a Corporate Rewards catalog from my husband's workplace. The bag is slightly different from similar ones they sell in the Coach store but I like it better. It is small and a departure from the leather Coach bags I was familar with. I had obtained one of Coach's " new" styles and it could be carried all year round. The bag is still in good shape and I carry it when I need a Coach bag. However, it is not the right bag for fall, at least according to the fashion magazines. It is too small and way too subtle.

The bag for fall is large, leather with rhinestones or other metal ornamentation. A small fabric Coach bag would not do. I ventured into a leather store and saw several very nice bags for a minimum of one hundred dollars. I guess this is the time to tell you I do not like rhinestones and there is no way I am spending any amount of money on a bag that will most likely be passe next year. I said I was letting fashion back into my life, I did not say I was spending any significant amounts of money to do it. One of my big problems with following fashion is the amount of money it takes to be "in". Even if you do spend the money for designer fashions chances are no one but other fashion groupies know what you have worked so hard to get. While Coach may be identifable to your average teen today, I bet there are more people who do not recognize even the name Prada, much less identify any products, than there are people who can identify Prada as a fashion brand. I am just as happy to get the "look" fashion demands I have at a bargin price than spend huge amounts of money for a status label that only I will appreciate .

So I went to Target. The only bag that tempted me was a faux animal print that really looked better on display than when you got close up. Even though the purse was only twenty dollars, I had real concerns about whether it could withstand my admittedly rough usage of bags. I passed on the animal print and went across the street to AJ Wright, a dreaded discount store.

There I found a Nine West bag with brass decoration and visible leather stiching. The shoulder straps are adjustable. The bag's style is affected when you adjust the straps but being able to carry the bag on my shoulder is worth the small loss of style. The bag fits the demands of fashion yet is conservative enough to ensure I will carry it. The bag is leather or a very good substitute and is well made. The only problem is the tag does not say Coach, but Nine West is a reputable brand. I feel fashionable just looking at it sitting on my table.

Best of all, I satisfied the demands of fashion for only twenty dollars. If I want to change this bag in several months I will not feel money has been wasted. I will also not need to treat my bag with the respect I should show a four hundred dollar purchase. I also know from my search for the perfect bag that similar bags were retailing for at least fifty dollars, on sale, at several different stores. I had listened to fashion as to style, and my common sense as to price.

I did dig up my old Coach leather wallet to use with my new bag, I guess I always need to carry a little bit of Coach with me. The wallet looks like it has been through a war, but it's more than fifteen years old and still holding together. In the old days I would have bought a new one but I have other demands on my resources than fashion these days. Even so,I have let fashion back into my life. It feels good. It feels even better that I only spent a fraction of what the magazines said I would need to spend to be "in" this fall. I have the right bag.