Handbags and what planet ...

My favourite is a Hi-design leather back pack which I've had for about 20 years. It cost about £90 but the cost per wear must now be a few pence and tailing off to nothing.
It's as good as new and has been in every single holiday and trip with me.
I don't worry about pickpockets as there are two zipped pockets that are inaccessible to passers by.
The only downside is the requests from MrA to accommodate his camera, wallet, sunscreen etc, as he has conveniently forgotten to bring with him the man-bag I bought him for that very purpose, and which he loathes with a passion

There is one enormous advantage of handbags over other items of clothing is that (wait for it) is that you don't need to go up a size!

It can also be used as a weapon!

About 30 years ago, you could buy a Mulberry bag for under £100. I wanted one then, but just never got around to it, purely because they had such a good name for durability and smartness. Now it is just laughable.

I bought a really nice leather bag on Ebay last year for £3! No make, someone had taken the labels off, but beautiful leather.

My favourite bag looks exactly like leather, but isn't, and came from a market stall in Bury St. Edmunds.

I love bags, but can no longer be bothered to keep changing them to match my outfits. I have given most of them away. Once you stop working and socialising as much, you just want something functional that goes with everything. I do have a posh leather backpack that is good for sightseeing abroad, of the 'mountain goat climbing with no handrails' variety. I like to kid myself that it is a bit smarter than my usual 'Fat Face' one.

My handbag consists of a purse, a combe, packet of tissues, a pen and note book and a mobile phone. That's it.

Always over the shoulder strap. Never hand held.

Blimey I feel boring. . You ladies really do have taste.

I bought a 'last season' Tula antique brown leather bag in a local outlet place which should have been £60, down from £120, but was reduced by an extra 50% 'on that day only' - so only £30! It is really soft leather and goes with everything - I love it!

I love handbags and have to restrain myself whenever I see a nice one because I know that it will usually stay in the cupboard as I can't be bothered to keep chopping and changing!

Thanks to this thread, I bought a Tula bag on eBay for seven quid yesterday

' A HANDBAG?' [Lady Bracknall]

Nice work, GK. I was browsing there myself last night until I pulled myself together and reminded myself of the big box of handbags under my dressing table.

J52- small world, small world indeed ;)

Just watching Flog It- from Gildings in Market Harborough. We try to go to an auction there everytime we are back- love it.

Saw a nice Rowallan one in TXMaxx today but then I thought of all the handbags I have already .....

I've moved over to using a Healthy Back Bag: www.thehealthybackbag.co.uk/lifestyle/all

They distribute the weight better and my back has appreciated the change. I carry quite a lot in my bag and because I wear it across my back I have both hands free and don't even notice I am carrying anything.

I used to have a Kilpling back pack but will use the HBBs from now on I think.

Too much of a Yorkshirewoman to pay designer prices! My current handbag was a present from a friend who got it as a present herself but had too many already.

I had a bargain yesterday in the cancer research charity shop. Nice T shirts for £4 each. They had a tarty label on them, and a tag with a load of guff about them being uniquely distressed (they might even have their own unique holes apparently!). Sounds like spin on poor quality control to me. And indeed some of them had necklines that lined up below nipple level.
The original price tag was nearly £70!!!!!!!!

But you bought one (or more), Jess ?!

Only after trying them on and checking them over ana. Nice soft fabric and a flattering fit. I bought 3.
I think the thing that annoys me most about "designer" items is that the people making them probably still get paid a tiny amount of money somewhere in a poor country. But the markup is vast. A t shirt that costs 50p to produce gets marked up to £70.
I was talking to a watch repairer and he said people bring in expensive "designer" watches and they have cheap Japanese movements inside them. He liked my Rotary brand better.

I'm sorry, Jess, I was being facetious about the 'below nipple level' factor. I totally agree about the ridiculous mark-up for designer labels, and the probability that those actually making them are being paid next to nothing.

My favourite bag for summer is a canvas Prada with green leather trim. I paid £17 on ebay because the previous owner had spilled black ink over the green satin lining. Who opens your bag and looks at the lining? The outside is fine.
I've got a Nicole Farhi T shirt I bought years ago for about £10 in a sale. The original price was about £50. It's a nice T shirt and good quality cotton but it's still just a T shirt - how can it be worth £50????

I have several Mulberry handbags but they are heavy even before filling them. DH bought them and they cost the same as our first house

I am addicted to handbags, and change mine every day depending on my mood/ clothes /what I am doing...the most I ever spent was £110 on a lovely Radley in 2003, and I still use it now, I buy mine at our women's groups frock market, a bit like a dress agency , I got a lovely leather coach back pack for £20, I also ebay a lot , I also bought an amazing red leather briefcase, which I adored, for £15, then the puppy ate it

Well - thanks to all of you - I have just successfully bid for a Tula bag on eBay, looks a lovely dark wine colour and I paid £16 for it

Well done yogagran. I fell a certain triumph when I successfully bid on e bay. X

And I bought a leather-look backpack from Ebay , because of this thread, too. I told myself it would be easier on my shoulder when we're on holiday - and have also persuaded myself its pocket will be hidden enough to deter pickpockets. However, just in case it's not going to be secure enough, I'm watching another one on Ebay......

I never imagined myself contributing to this thread, but I actually have a handbag story......bear with me and all will become clear.
Every year my very clever sister has an appraisal at work and although she is a whizz at maths (required in her job) she's not so hot on the written word and so she fills out the form and then sends it to me to work on. We discuss the contents over the phone (she lives in America!) until I understand what she has achieved that year and I edit her waffle into something corporate and businesslike. On the basis of her appraisal she is awarded a bonus - or not. At this juncture I should point out that she is amazingly successful at what she does and works incredibly hard, but the company she works for is suffering in the recession and so moves the goalposts every year in order to make attaining a bonus ever more difficult. In discussion I ascertained that not only had she achieved her set targets for the year, but had substantially exceeded all but one of them. I wrote this in her appraisal and made sure to evidence each statement of attainment.
Last week I got a call from my sister to say that she had received a letter of commendation from head office and on the basis of her appraisal she is getting a $9000 bonus. She was (and always is) very grateful for my help and asked if she could buy me a suitable gift as a thank you; suggesting a handbag. Now, as it happens I am in need of a black leather handbag and so I sent her a couple of pictures of handbags to give her an idea of size and style, including a photo of a Michael Kors tote bag. I stressed that they were style guides only, but today she phoned me and said that she's going to buy me the MK bag - even though I told her it's a bit like casting pearls before swine!! I'm fairly nonplussed that I may soon be in possession of a handbag that costs more than my first car!!

Aren't you a lucky lady grannyactivist, but it certainly sounds as though you deserve it.

Marelli for really secure bags take a look at www.pacsafe.com.
I bought one of their city safe anti theft bags on eBay last year before a visit to Barcelona. They have slashproof strap and several other "anti pickpocket" features. I felt that I had protected myself as much as possible against losing my bag or its contents