Life is Deeper than the bag you carry

Designer bags: treats or status?
Most of my life, I have looked at purses and thought, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a bag.” That’s what you are supposed to say, I mean, otherwise you’d sound a little shallow.

But a few years ago, for my 25th birthday, I got a Coach bag as a gift, and it was a big deal. Having that purse reminded me of the women I used to see in my neighborhood when I was younger. They carried Coach and Louis Vuitton. They looked like they were going places, places I hoped to one day see.

So when I got my small, pink purse it meant something to me. It meant I was finally one of those women. It meant I had a career and had places to be.

Designer bags are status symbols, of course. And women can even dip into that status thing temporarily at places like Bag, Borrow or Steal, an online rental boutique. That’s right. Prada by timeshare.“Your whole life is in your handbag,” says Rachel Murphy, 28, a freelance writer and former assistant manager at a Coach store.

“I know women who carry everything from diaper wipes to pocketknives in their bag. It says a lot about you. How much do you need to get by and how concerned are you with what it looks like. And with higher-end bags especially, it’s a status symbol. It does the same thing as a bag at Wal-Mart does, but it represents financial freedom.”

When I carried my first Coach bag, women who never seemed to notice me before stopped to ask about it. Apparently the label meant something.

Daphne Cox was a little girl living in the projects in Kentucky when she saw that having a designer bag meant you were successful. Now she has two.

“I bought my first Coach bag simply because of that. I had arrived,” says Daphne, 40, an Overland Park legal IT analyst. “I chose Coach because that was the only thing I knew.”

Daphne got her second bag, another Coach, as a gift. By then she realized a bag didn’t really equate to success, and she couldn’t even tell a real one from a fake. But that didn’t stop the gift from tapping into that good feeling she had as a girl when she discovered the power of a purse.

“It’s something you don’t let go of,” Daphne says.

Now she views designer bags as more of an indulgence than a sense of accomplishment. I agree.

So to all you college fashionistas eating Ramen noodles to save up for that must-have bag, I feel your pain but don’t end up chasing purses.

Sure, Coach, Kate Spade and Dooney & Bourke aren’t nearly as expensive as Hermes, Bottega Veneta and Chanel. But even a $100 bag is real money — two tanks of gas, maybe — especially at a time when we’re all dealing with inflated fuel prices and a shaky economy.

Daphne is right. A bag should be a well-deserved treat. And the more you accomplish in life, sometimes the bigger your treats can be.

One day I hope to own just one Louis Vuitton, one that is small and maybe affordable. But I’m never going to be the kind of woman who fills her closet with tons of luxury brands. I still carry Hello Kitty purses, no-name clutches and put plastic jewelry on my wrist and around my neck.

A bag doesn’t make you different from what you were yesterday. Seriously, ain’t nothing deep or intellectual about a designer bag. But they sure are pretty.