Bag Ladies

I am a nerd when it comes to handbags. I believe there is one ultimate handbag for every occasion. The challenge is to find THE handbag that is optimal for as many situations as possible. There is not such a thing, of course. The closest you can come is to find one bag for every situation – which of course is not realistic. So there has to be compromises. (Nevertheless the illusion to find the optimal handbag is a guiding principle whenever passing a Hand Bag Shop :)

In Tokyo handbags are important business and most importantly when it comes to famous and expensive brands. The outstandingly most frequent model you see is Louis Vuitton’s. The daughter and I actually counted how many L V handbags we saw during a stroll to Roppongi the other week. After a 20 minutes walk we had spotted 16 LV bags. One thing that makes it remarkable is the cost of the purses. The most simply model costs at least 150 000 yen (10 000 SEK or 1000 EUR!). But most of them are around two three times more! It is amazing much money to put on handbag. Secondly, and additionally amazing is that these extraordinary popular models have the LV-logo printed all over! So the carriers are actually living billboard for the brand. Thirdly, they are obviously also at the same time signalling “Hey, I can afford this kind of bag” :-).

But as it happened I run into another famous brand’s shop close to my house. And (veeery) surprisingly I also became an owner of a brand handbag….. This was under the New Year sale – so the price was off 30% and the ordinary price for the bag is far below LV's! (Info provided in case anyone close to me worries). However, it has to be said; wearing a high quality handbag is a very nice experience! Let me quote the founder of the brand where I made my fantastic bargain, Giorgio A. When he talks about fashion his guiding principle is that good style fashion should: “….give confidence but not define the personality”. I buy that!