I know Katie Cruise grew up in middle-class America. How did she get to the point of buying $10,000.00 purses? I can't even bring myself to spend $250 each for e-Bay BNL tickets.
Did Katie first buy a $300 purse, and then say "This is the only purse I will use for the next ten years, so it evens out." And then it was a $500 purse, then $1,000. Now, I can see her saying, "I'm a celebrity! I deserve a $1,000 purse!" But there is no way short of hypnotism you could get a middle-class girl to spend 10K on an accessory.
What's the most you would spend on a purse? (I did use my $300 Coach bag for 10 years. Even though it got a pen stain the first week.) I am talking about a daily use purse, not a purse to match your shoes. (The only woman I know who does the shoe / purse accessorizing is Catherine the Corrupter.)
I think I may have it backward.
I refuse to pay more than $25 for an everyday leather purse which I will use every day for about a year. I usually have two everyday purses - one black, one brown.
On the other hand, I'll pay up to $100 for an embroidered satin or beaded evening clutch I might use once a year forever. I have about 15 gorgeous evening bags.
I don't think there a lot of logic in there.
Posted by: ~~Silk | July 28, 2008 at 01:08 AM
I have guilt issues with spending lots of money on fripperies. Also, I'm lazy and can't be bothered swapping junk from one bag to another so I only have one black leather one with lots of pockets that lasts for about five years and then I buy another just the same. I like the idea of variety but really, life's too short.
And yes!! It was the Cook Islands, how snotty of Google not to consider them worthy of a dot. Lovely place - turquoise lagoons, palm trees, all that, and such friendly people. And fecund! I took a photo of two dear little girls who turned out to be one woman's five year-old daughter and two year-old granddaughter.
Did my home dot not shrink at all? Who are these lurking Kiwis bulking out my dot?
Posted by: Big Dot | July 28, 2008 at 04:22 AM
Yeah, I did the Coach bag thing but found the quality disappointing. Since then, I buy a black leather handbag that meets my specifications and doesn't cost more than $35. I'm hard on them and they usually don't last more than a couple of years. $10K on a handbag is beyond ridiculous.
Posted by: Becs | July 28, 2008 at 05:24 AM
Wow. I didn't even pay $10K for my car. I doubt I've ever paid more than $25 for a purse. Perhaps it could happen, but it's just not likely.
Posted by: wyo | July 28, 2008 at 06:10 AM
I think the most I ever spent was $125, and I hyperventilated the whole time. Typically, I spend around $25. I have some in beautiful colors, but it might be a couple of years before I buy another.
Posted by: Heidi | July 28, 2008 at 07:29 AM
The most I ever spent on a purse was $900 for a Louis Vuitton, which I have carried for about a year and a half. I plan on getting many years of use out of it--it's a classic style. I have bought various Coach bags for upwards of $300, but they really weren't all that, so I quit with the Coach.
I love nicer handbags, but I try to spread out my purchases, buy carefully and use them for a long time.
I'm also from Arizona, and went to college in TX. No midwestern thriftiness here.
I tend to think that everyone has their "thing"...mine is purses, yours might be concert tickets, someone else's might be travel or whatever.
Posted by: Lauren | July 28, 2008 at 07:39 AM
I got a gucci bag for graduation a hundred years ago. I lost it on my senior trip. I've carried Coach ever since, most expensive being around $500. I always intend to carry them forever, then I'll give in to the temptation of the season's new colors.
Posted by: Shania | July 28, 2008 at 08:20 AM
I carried a purse as a teen but I didn't have any purses for years. One day Santa asked me if I had a suchinsuch, and I looked at him and said, "just where would I carry that?" He said sometimes he wished I had a purse like other women. So I bought one, at a flea market, for $10. I carry it once in a while, if we want to sneak cokes into the movies or something.
Not having a purse is very liberating. I see women hauling around 15lbs of crap. For what?
There you have it, 2 pairs of shoes, one purse that I rarely carry, and my makeup consists of an eyeliner pencil and one tube of concealer . Doubtless I am the most low maintenance female on the planet.
Posted by: Zayrina | July 28, 2008 at 09:24 AM
I just bought a new Coach for a little over $300. It's my most expensive one to date. I only buy the leather ones because they last forever! I had a cute pink fabric one and it was impossible to keep clean and the fabric showed wear after one season. I've had one black leather Coach for 15 years and it's still like new.
FYI, the new one I bought was plum. I hear it's the new color for fall and I plan on wearing a lot of it!
Posted by: Amy in StL | July 28, 2008 at 10:42 AM
New fall color? My new fall color is black. My new spring color is black. To wear anything else is just begging for a big gloppy drip of mustard or ketchup or some other evil condiment to fall on me.
Posted by: Becs | July 28, 2008 at 11:12 AM
I think the most I've ever paid for a purse was $90. It was a Stone Mountain purse and it was made of the softest leather..sigh..I loved that purse. I paid $90 for it back in the early 80s so that probably translates to $300 now, I dunno. I know I couldn't afford it but that didn't stop me.
Years later, we were at a party and one of the guests was the owner of Stone Mountain purses. It was all I could do not to gush all over him, in my efforts to get a free bag. It didn't work. I regret not trying harder.
Posted by: Candy | July 28, 2008 at 11:19 AM
I don't own a purse. I have a series of black bags, all ever so slightly different, but none could be called a "purse"
Posted by: magpie | July 28, 2008 at 11:31 AM
I carry everything to and from work - and to after work activities - in a Trader Joe's brown paper bag. Lunch, computer, legal research, binders, running shoes, bathing suit, hair brush...sometimes I need two paper bags. It makes my boyfriend very tense.
Posted by: TasterSpoon | July 28, 2008 at 11:54 AM
...eh. I usually spend about $50 - $70 on a new bag twice a year (once in the Fall and once in the Spring). I don't "do" labels. It feels like every other woman in NYC is carrying LV or Coach -- yawn. I really like purses (a lot!) and I like mine to look unique. I like little embellishments and lots of color....but I won't pay an arm and a leg.
Posted by: Erin G. | July 28, 2008 at 06:35 PM
Rice v purses: it's a close call.
Posted by: Big Dot | July 28, 2008 at 08:10 PM
I've been carrying my $70 black leather purse for 5 years or so. I don't see replacing it any time soon.
Posted by: Caroline | July 28, 2008 at 08:46 PM
~~Silk - See, if I went the black / brown route I couild never stop at that. It would be black, brown, navy, grey, etc. And evening clutches are delectable.
Big Dot - I imagine the stray dots were Googlers.
Becs - How did she get up to 10K? That's what gets me. Was there a time she said, "Oh, I'd never pay more than 5K for a purse. Get real."
wyo - I tried to go the $25 purse route last year but it didn't work for me. Threads got bare too fast. But maybe it was just that one purse.
Heidi - Ah - so you're a multi-purse user. I would lose something if I changed purses.
Lauren - Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! What would it take for you to spend ten times that? And I agree everyone has their thing. My Mom would be right with you on the purses, she'd pay anything for a purse that fit her expectations.
Shania - But then wouldn't your clothes have to match the purse? I'd never have the nerve to do anything but black or brown.
Zayrina - Would that I could be that low-maintenance.
Amy in StL - I found my Coach just got too heavy, literally, I think it weighed 7 pounds.
Becs - I remember getting my "colors" done and thinking "my color is whatever fits over my hips."
Candy - Stone Mountain bags have a 30th anniversary line now - maybe your purse is there!
Magpie - Black bags like Hefty bags? Trader Joes bags?
TasterSpoon - That would make me very very tense. Perhaps he could find a nice sturdy leather bag designed to look like a Trader Joes bag?
Erin G - I'm afraid I can't do a summer purse - they always get dirty.
Big Dot - Next: purses full of rice!
Caroline - Very practical. Very low on the Katie scale.
Posted by: TheQueen | July 29, 2008 at 12:35 AM
About $30.
To be honest, purses just don't thrill me. I don't get the big deal. And I think Coach bags are the biggest scam on earth and tacky and ugly to boot, with those freaking logos screaming all over them. I pity people who carry them.
Posted by: Suebob | July 29, 2008 at 12:49 AM
Well, to buy a purse that cost 10x my LV--which was a major splurge, I would have to be making some serious money. At the time I bought it, I was making more $ than I ever had in my adult life and I had a job where I was spending a lot of time going to lunch in country clubs (university fundraiser) so I felt like I needed to upgrade. A nice bag and shoes make your Target clothes look a lot better, I found.
Katie Holmes kind of has to look the part. I mean, she gets press over what she wears, and staying in the public eye is kind of essential to getting movie rolls. At least it seems that way to me.
Posted by: Lauren | July 29, 2008 at 07:20 AM
Or even movie roles. (pre-coffee typing is always disasterous...)
Posted by: Lauren | July 29, 2008 at 07:50 AM
@Suebob Wow, harsh.
Posted by: Amy in StL | July 29, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Suebob - I didn't even know Coach purses had logos! I went to the web site to investigate. I assume you mean the cloth ones. I thought we knew Coach purses by the industrial lobster claw handle-holders. (By their straps ye shall know them.)I never had a cloth one.
Lauren - Well, I can see the need for designer clothes - at 5,000 and outfit, I guess your purse could be twice that proportionately. I'm sure someone's out there horrified we are talking about purses over $100.
AmyinStL - To each her own purse! This will not degenerate into a purse smackdown.;-)
Don't MAKE me close these comments, people. Because I won't be able to.
Of course Mom would sneer at them all because they don't have little brass knobby feet like her Etienne Aigner bag.
Posted by: TheQueen | July 29, 2008 at 03:10 PM
The most I've ever spent on a purse is $110, marked down from $300, for a Betsey Johnson.
I'm not much of a purse carrier, though. For everyday, I carry a $60 backpack ($60 because it has wheels) because I commute and need a big bag for reading material.
Posted by: KLyn | July 29, 2008 at 11:51 PM
Klyn - (Hi Klyn!) That sounds very practical. But heavy - I could see myself putting in two or three books and then toppling over backwards.
Posted by: TheQueen | July 30, 2008 at 07:42 AM
Ah, yes, am I mentioned again. I almost missed this purse discussion, I've been out of town....shopping for purses ;). I love purses, they make outfits look much more cute. And shoes, love me some shoes. I am the great corrputor. Family, friends, shoes, purses, Pampered Chef, good red wine. What more do you need? (PS, I don't usually spend more than $30. for a purse)
Posted by: Catherine the Corrputor | July 30, 2008 at 01:06 PM