From Famine to Feast

All of a sudden, after years of Purse Famine, purses are a big thing. What I mean is that today's purse is HUGE! If you don't believe me, google something as simple as 'designer purse'. Or view this pic as seen on eBay.

It wasn't long ago, only a couple years, when I noticed that young women were avoiding even Owning a Purse! A Purse was obviously an Old Woman Thing! Never mind the fact that even young women need some way to carry a driver's license, an ATM card, credit cards, cash, and all the where-with-all that a woman needs to keep on her person. If they Did carry some semblance of a purse, it was a skimpy, skinny, tiny thing on a skimpy, skinny string that they were constantly mis-laying or leaving behind. It's as if they couldn't get a handle (pun intended) on a real, genuine purse.

The marketplace has changed that scenario. Big name designers have realized a market potential and have created a demand (sexy famous women toting their stuff!) that will ensure sales for at least the immediate couple of years.

Huge purses dominate the scene. I'm talking huge as in airline carry-on size. Even I own a very large leather purse that I purchased at a yard sale for that specific purpose...to use when I fly as a carry-all for all the stuff I don't want to put in my checked baggage. It's a handy purse and serves its purpose well. I paid $4.00 for it and by today's prices that means I've saved about $1,996.00. (I'm a savvy shopper!) My purse is Leather. Name Brand. Pocket for my cell phone and iPod. Plenty of room for a book, water bottle, camera, pens, notebook, etc. Places to hang my keys. The only thing I don't have is the big price tag. And I'm laughing myself all the way to the bank.

Let's go back to the "everyday" purse. I find it highly amusing that in photo after photo of The In Crowd (translate that "Hollywood") some fantastically rich female consumer is carrying a belted, buckled, studded, glittered bag that surely, if filled even Half Full, must cause a spinal curving pain. Surely the purse must be a one-of-a-kind. Forbid that one Hollywood dame should happen to show up carrying a duplicate of one owned by another Hollywood dame.

These fashion creations carry big price tags and while I'm laughing at the $$$ spent by these women, I'm hoping there is a silver lining in this designer-created purse-cloud. Perhaps my DDs and DGDs will learn to carry a purse and stop losing the things that purses normally carry.