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| The thrifted leather doctor's bag I gave away: wah!! |
This is a photo of me from a few years ago, pre-hubby. I'm wearing a thrifted 70s coat that I gave away to a pal when I moved. It stank of smoke so I don't miss it much. But I do miss the thrifted leather doctor's bag, pictured here, more than I care to admit - does it sound superficial to say that I regret getting rid of the MASS of thrifted items that I did before I moved overseas? This little number would have been perfect in France - the French ladies do tend to carry handbags such as this over their wrists, just SO - so stylish!
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| Another thrifted bag I gave away. |
This all-leather baby was also thrifted for a couple bucks in Canada. It was given away too (note the passive voice? I can't even handle the guilt). Now, in France, with the cooler weather approaching, I find myself brown-bagless. How could I have given them all away? Was a completely nuts??
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| The replacement bag: 7 Euros on Etsy. PHOTO: The Vintage Goody Shop, Etsy. |
An obsessive troll on Etsy.com ensued the other night after yearning reveries of my lost bags, in which I tried to track down a worn brown leather bag. I found plenty of options at 40-50 Euros, a price I didn't want to pay to replace two bags that between them cost under 10 CAD. The Vintage Goody Shop came to the rescue with this uber distressed leather bag, on sale for the equivalent of just over 7 Euros! It's Liz Claiborne, not a vintage make or anything, but I've owned them before and the bags are well-made. Plus this one is banged up enough to constitute a Grunge Queen fave, I'm sure.
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| A second replacement bag, to make up for the ones below that I thought I'd lost. PHOTO: The Vintage Goody Shop, Etsy. |
For that price (so the shopping rationale goes), I could afford to buy another from the same shop, in this case a handmade bag from the good 'ole US of A, by SAS, in a tan distressed leather. It was a little more than 7 Euros but a ways off from 40 Euros, my cut-off point, so I snagged it. It will be my go-to every day bag, I can see it! I can't think of too many bag companies that are still manufacturing in the US, so I'm happy to have this little piece of history.
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| Lost, then found again: hiding in my Mom's basement in a box! |
The SAS bag was to replace this bag, a thrifted leather beaut I picked up in a Toronto vintage shop for a song last fall, which I thought I had lost forever ....
Remember the box of handbags I thought had gone missing somewhere between Toronto, Ottawa, and the UK, which I was hoping were hiding somewhere in my Mom's basement in Canada?
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| Another lost but found again leather beaut: hope we'll be reunited soon. But in the meantime I have my replacement bags! |
Turns out they're alive and well: Mom emailed (ironically right after I'd purchased the Etsy bags) to say she'd found the handbag box in the basement!! I made her show me every single one in the box over Skype, a total of 12 missing bags!! Whohoo! I ignored Mom's comment that she hoped I hadn't bought any handbags as I already had enough? (Well, how was I to know? I thought these bags were forever lost. It was only natural that I'd replace them, n'est pas?).
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| A Goodwill find that is in the bag box. |
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| When I was working in Toronto, I used this 70s clutch as my lunch bag - most stylish lunch bag ever or worst fashion mistake ever? |
And who knows when we'll meet again, since there's an ocean and expensive postage separating us? At least I know they're safe and sound at Grandma's, now residing in her cedar chest.
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| So glad I didn't give this 70s carpet clutch away. |
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| Ditto for this wee patent baby found at Goodwill for a few dollars. |
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| Vintage Missoni-esque carpet bag I will see again soon: can a gal love a handbag any more than I do right now? |
It may seem silly to be so attached to my handbags, but I can't help it. They hold life's important baubles, everything from under-eye concealer to I.D. We should revere them, in my humble opin.
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| I gave away the wonderful patent bag and the plaid clutch behind it, but the wee suede doctor's bag in the front, which I found for .99 cents in a Toronto junk shop, made into the lost-now-found-again-box. It's got a red leather interior and is, simply put, utterly glorious. |
I may need to ask Mom to ship a few of the lost tribe over to me. The rest can be stowed away in my sis (and her family's) luggage when they come on skiing holiday in the winter.
Isn't it nice to find stuff you thought was forever gone? Sometimes I'll even put things away, so I can experience the rush of finding them again.
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