Handbags are my Achilles heel, as I suspect they are for many women. I’ll be the first to admit that I have done some pretty stupid things in the name of handbags- spent rent money, maxed out my credit cards, even borrowed money to buy a handbag. Common sense was certainly not common for me at that point in my life when I embodied that saying- young and dumb. But here’s the thing, there’s a particular type of handbag that deserves the month’s rent to be splurged on it, that sees you eating pot noodles and cornflakes just to survive, that has you wearing ten layers in the house because you cannot afford heat after you spent, no, invested is a better word, all your money on acquiring your new hot piece.
That kind of handbag is not the Nylon Sling from The Row, priced at £900.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have done a wonderful job of developing their contemporary luxe brand, The Row and diffusion, Elizabeth and James. Theirs has been a discreet but assured ascent to the ranks of fashion main stay as opposed to flash in the pan types and it is nothing short of commendable. BUT come on now, let’s talk with common sense here- £900 for a bag made of nylon? Really?
It took them two seasons to perfect the shape. It is roomy and comes with internal drawstrings that make it foldable to pack away when not being used. It also comes in a leather version that retails from about £3,200. I’ll give them points for functionality and versatility but that’s as magnanimous as I can be without being ridiculous, because absolutely nothing about this bag, the nylon especially, is worth that much. I’ll forgive the leather, although I cannot justify spending that much on a leather handbag from a brand like The Row (my dream bag, the Hermés Kelly Retourne, which I’d much rather, retails for about £4,000 onwards), I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because not all leathers are made equal and there is something a lot less ordinary about this bag in leather, you know, if you look at it from a certain point of view. But the Nylon bag on the other hand… It is not your typical everyday bag that can guarantee enough usage to warrant you spending that much on it, it is just a trendy piece of bohemian inspired accessory- BOHO you know!- that by all accounts will not last its allotted fifteen minutes of fame, even if the designers believe everyone will love it. Puhleeze! Isn’t it the same for every other bag? Primark did something similar many, many years ago, made of canvas and PVC handles for all of £2 and I still have it today.
If ever there was an object that typifies that Nigerian saying; “money miss road”, this is it. Everything about it. Even if it has sold out on some sites, because there are people with that much money to throw away, it still does not make this any less ridiculous.
Is it just me or would you spend that much on a nylon bag?