The story of my purse that looks like War and Peace

[sabotabby]

Sorry for so much fashionblogging lately* but this amuses me so I'm sharing.

I have bad purse luck. Part of this is owing to the fact that I object to purses being a thing. Men's clothes have pockets in them. Deep pockets! Sometimes pockets that are hidden in waistcoats. You have all heard this rant before, but there is no reason beyond The Patriarchy for women's clothes having a paucity of pockets. I do not like having to haul a purse around, particularly in this day and age when so much stuff is compact and would fit in pockets if my clothes had the correct amount.

Accordingly, when I get a purse, I need to fill it with All the Things to justify its existence. Which means that my purses seldom last long. Also, women's clothing and accessories are manufactured to fall apart quickly so that you buy more of them because Invisible Hand of the Free Market.

So I've been quite happy with my CBC bag that I've had for a few years. It's cute, it's large enough to fit most things, and it's patriotic in an ironic way. The only problem is that it only has a snap to close, making it easy to open when you do not want it to open, and also that it's falling apart. Which has been a tolerable situation for awhile, but as you know, Bob, I'm headed to Morocco basically any second now, and probably having an easily opened purse whilst travelling is not the wisest.

To cut a long story short, it died. Large swatches of fabric around the snaps essentially disintegrated, as if it became cognizant of its own impending obsolescence and just gave up. I was sad.

But! I had a back-up bag, a cute little teal number that matches my hair. Just large enough to accommodate the necessities, though kind of a pain if I'm trying to fit the Little Red Book in there or get something out easily. Ah, it would do for an everyday purse, or so I thought.

Alas, no. The universe tends towards entropy, and one of the buckles on it that are necessary for keeping it closed decided to tear. Which is weird, because there was no actual structural strain on it.

This necessitated buying a new purse.

A little while ago, when I had two non-broken purses, I saw a purse I liked at a shop and thought, "hey, if I didn't have enough purses, I would buy that one." It kind of looked like a book. Cool, but I have limited storage space and am not one of those women who hoards tons of purses.



So naturally, when mine died, it occurred to me that the shop might still have purses that looked like books. And, lo, it did! Which was when I saw the other side of the thing:



Which is why I now own a purse that looks like War and Peace and I crack up every time I see it.


* Kidding. I'm not sorry at all.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're not sorry about your fashionblogging, because I love it. :D Awesome book-purse is awesome!

[sabotabby]

Fashionblogging and selfies are things that we should never be sorry for.

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I've been carrying a knapsack for a couple of years because I often need to carry it and have my arms free—and a messenger bag doesn't offer the same freedom.

Any pants I get have to have humungous pockets, simply because of the ridiculous amount of keys I carry.

In addition, I refuse to buy leather; this isn't really a problem anymore at all—although at one time, not too long ago, it was—since there are now so many non-leather options for shoes, bags, and particularly wallets. (My current wallet is made from a Thai flour sack.)

[sabotabby]

See, I can't wear knapsacks. I end up with severe back pain. And I hate that I need to sacrifice an arm to wear a purse.

I think the War and Peace bag is made out of petroleum products, equally devastating to the environment and animals as leather.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Many law school students tote their GIANT LAW BOOKS in those rolling airport carry on bags with the extending handles. That may help your back and allow you to schlep more stuff around.

[sabotabby]

A lot of teachers do it too. Alas, they are teachers who have cars and don't have stairs all over their houses and all the subway stations and buses.

[kingtycoon.livejournal.com]

The joke was- we were talking about Siberia and russian crime gangs. We mentioned that sometimes you get a bunch of tattoos when you're in the russian crime gang:

Me: "so you get the crucifixion when you've... I dunno, killed and eaten a guy in gulag."
Her: "well, not that, but okay, yeah?"
Me: "So what tattoo do you think you get when you win the nobel prize in literature?"

[sabotabby]

o_O

[ironed_orchid]

That is an excellent purse. You know, given that we live in a world where purses are a thing.

[sabotabby]

Exactly. If I have to carry a purse for my stuff, it will be a Cute Purse Dammit.

[jackspryte.livejournal.com]

Great purse! I also hate the lack of pockets and having come from a world once a long time ago where pockets were plentiful makes me probably hate the stupidity even more.

I own one purse that's pear patterned (I call it my "pearse"). It's my exception to the purse rule. The rest are shoulder bags and backpacks.

I guess if I found a purse I actually liked I might feel differently. Also how much do I hate this whole fashion handbag cult that persists that makes people buy labels like Guess, Prada. Lesportsac is the dumbest thing to ever become a thing.

I think you found something that works and probably won't become a huge thing in a bad way.

[sabotabby]

I can't wear backpacks. They cause me pain. I generally buy messenger bags, but those get heavy.

Fashion handbags are the worst. They don't even look nice.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

YOU DIDN'T TELL ME IT WAS IN RUSSIAN.

I'd lock it very carefully if I were because I'm maxing out my credit card booking a flight as we speak so that I can steal it. I'm kidding but omg that is the best purse.

And yes I really want deeper pockets on women's clothes! >:(

[sabotabby]

Of course it's Russian. It's not even, from what I can tell, incorrect Russian.

(There are more in the store, in other colours.)

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

BUY THEM. BUY THEM ALL. THEN YOU CAN MAKE THEM ALWAYS MATCH YOUR OUTFIT/HAIR. YOU CAN MAKE THEM CLASH. YOU CAN DO SOMETHING LIKE THE HANKY CODE AND SIGNAL YOUR SEXUAL PREFERENCES USING PURSES SHAPED LIKE WAR AND PEACE. THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES.

[sabotabby]

You are a bad influence.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

If by "bad" you mean the sexy, excellent kind of bad then yes, yes I am.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

Btw, I don't know if you haven't seen it due to being busy or if you've seen it but were busy (both of which are obviously fine) but it's your turn in the heart thing whenever you have time :)

[sabotabby]

It is? I checked and it looked like ironed_orchid was next.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

Oh! I thought that she was waiting for everyone else to get properly lost so Angelica and Violet could have a proper text scene, haha, but I think you're right because that makes sense.

[sabotabby]

Of course, we could go out of order because it doesn't matter at this point and I'm home now.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

That's fine by me, because I'm bored and everyone is asleep. Unless you'd rather write a scene about Fred and Margaret meeting? We could do that too instead, though it may not make sense if Fred is likely to end up even more traumatised by the events of this current scene.

[sabotabby]

I am writing stuff, because I am in somewhat of a writing mood. We can cut and paste it somewhere else if it makes more sense, but since everyone's now separated, I assume it's all happening simultaneously.

[gansje.livejournal.com]

That is a very seriously awesome purse! Keep fashion-blogging!

I am definitely not a purse person either, but between this one and a friend's very amazing owl purse, I could be convinced.

[sabotabby]

Aww, owl purse.

It's not that I dislike purses per se; it's that I resent having to carry them. There are certainly well-designed ones out there.

[gansje.livejournal.com]

I don't resent it that much, I guess, because I have so much "mom" stuff I need to carry, like boxes of wet towelettes and tissues, kid toys, books, earbuds, whatever, that I can't otherwise fit into pockets, but just isn't big enough volume-wise for a backpack. When I also need my laptop, then I carry everything in a laptop case. I'm more of a "hate purses because I'm spread too thin attention-wise and leave them just everywhere, and also I get them covered in shmutz so I can't have anything nice," person.

[lienne.livejournal.com]

i love you

[sabotabby]

<3

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

In England that is not a purse. It's a handbag.

I always have clothes with pockets (I nearly always wear jeans) but bah my purse is too big for my pockets so I have to carry a shoulder bag just to keep a purse in.

[sabotabby]

It's kind of a handbag here too, except I call all Bags of Holding purses unless they're knapsacks.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

actually I think technically it might be a purse.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

But it is a lovely handbag.

[sabotabby]

It really is.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

If you are going to carry a purse, that is one to have.

[sabotabby]

I'm quite fond of it, actually.