Mitch Harper over at Fort Wayne Observed has been hosting some light patter about Vera Bradley bags, one of the Fort’s cottage-industries-made-good. They’re not my cuppa — I’m a Coach girl, and probably always will be — but you have to give them the Knuckle Punch of Respect for their success.
Anyway, Mitch found a column in some Arkansas weekly making fun of the grannyish bags, and replied with a wire photo of the very fashion-foward Kirsten Dunst carrying one, albeit on a dress-down day.
As a professional journalist, however, I need to point out that he chose the wrong picture. This is the one he wanted:
There’s ma girl Kirsten, showin’ the Vera luv. And you thought they were just for your grandma.
Mindy said on August 23, 2006 at 6:05 am
I once saw a picture of bikini-clad Cindy Crawford toting her Vera bag on the beach. It wasn’t one of the dowdy cotton quilted ones, though.
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alex said on August 23, 2006 at 6:58 am
Et tu, Brute!
I’m sure Mitch took a pass on that one. Wouldn’t want to offend any common sensibilities, now.
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Emma said on August 23, 2006 at 8:33 am
Maybe she was drunk. (Dosen’t the H’wood blogosphere refer to her as Kirsten Drunkst?)
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brian stouder said on August 23, 2006 at 9:05 am
Well, she has her bottled water (previously discussed here in NN.C-land); and speaking of water, her soaking wet scene in Spiderman will always be a favorite of mine!
But all that aside, my lovely wife and her sisters, and her mom (and someday her daughters, no doubt) all LOVE Vera Bradley stuff, and the annual Coliseum blow-out is a must-attend event for them.
And not for nothing I will add, she always buys a little extra, with an eye toward ebay, and this always works out
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mary said on August 23, 2006 at 10:45 am
Coach bags rule. I still use one I got in 1978, and this year to rewarded myself for handing this new job and kids and a lot of other unruly things, I dropped quite a few bucks on a new Coach bag, which I love dearly. It should last 28 years as well. I can do without the logo laden ones, but the good leather bags are great.
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mary said on August 23, 2006 at 10:47 am
Clicked on the Vera Bradley link and saw a doggy carrier. I need one of those for the great dane.
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Jennifer said on August 23, 2006 at 11:52 am
I love Coach bags and am still using ones purchased 8-16 yrs. ago. I was considering updating, but was bummed to see how many are glitzed-out to the nth degree! I always thought a large part of their allure was their beautiful lines with little embellishment.
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nancy said on August 23, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Rewatched one of my favorite movies the other night — “Out of Sight,” with George and J-Lo. It’s the only documentation I can find that J-Lo was once an aspiring actress of some talent, not a pop-culture joke. I love her wardrobe, especially once the action shifts north to Detroit and she’s dressed for winter. In the big seduction scene she wears a black wool sheath with a cashmere pullover, so it looks like a skirt-and-sweater, but it’s not. She also rocks some great leather coats, but in my all-time favorite scene, she’s being menaced by a character called Kenneth, who basically tells her he plans to rape her (“We gonna tussle.”). She quietly opens her Coach Willis bag, pulls out a collapsible baton, whips it open and whips Kenneth across his rude head, twice.
“What’d you have to go and do that for?” he howls.
“You wanted to tussle. We tussled,” she says, collapsing the baton again.
Best Coach-bag-in-a-movie scene ever.
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brian stouder said on August 23, 2006 at 12:03 pm
OK, so I looked at the classic Coaches –
http://www.coach.com/content/thumbnail.aspx?category_id=289&classic=1
and I was struck by the one with the scarf and the Razr holder – as my lovely wife has recently added both things to her bag
http://www.coach.com/NewHandbags/default.aspx?category_id=287
Hell, for all I know, her bag might BE a Coach!
(This one is sorta ‘riveting’, if you know what I mean. I’m betting the woman who likes this purse would also drive one of those Honda Elements, or the very hip-to-be-square Toyota thing)
http://www.coach.com/content/product.aspx?product_no=8385&category_id=68
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mary said on August 23, 2006 at 12:06 pm
My old Coach bag is the Patricia bag, which still looks great. The new one is unembellished. It’s a slightly off-white shoulder tote bag, and I can fit all my stuff plus my lunch in there.
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colleen said on August 23, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Never “got” the whole Vera Thing. I mean, people go absolutely APE over them, and the best I can do is muster a “meh”.
Went to a family gathering in the NYC metro area last summer. The college age distant cousin who is a wee on the snooty side finally deigned to give me the time of day when I noticed her bag. “OH, you have a Vera Bradley bag. The company is in my hometown!”
Guess Indiana can’t be THAT bad if they can produce Vera bags, huh?
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Connie said on August 23, 2006 at 1:36 pm
I never got the expensive purse thing, Coach or Vera Bradley. I think the most expensive purse I’ve ever bought was a Stone Mountain on sale. I trash all purses anyway no matter how expensive or what they are made of.
Word around here is that the best place for a deal on Vera Bradley is the gift shop in the South Bend airport. They carry and promote Indiana made products, and there are always VBs on the close out shelf because no one actually buys them at full price.
My attorney at work gave my kid a lovely VB bag for a graduation gift, telling her that his son says this is what all the girls carry at Butler. Hanging out at freshman move in day last Saturday I noted that many of the freshman girls had gotten that message.
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Dorothy said on August 23, 2006 at 3:25 pm
Okay I’ve been sitting on my hands nearly all day but I’m just gonna have to share this story:
My 21 yr. old son and his new girlfriend went to some outlet stores recently. Alli gets out of the car and says “Oh great! There’s Coach!” Josh says “Where?” Alli points. Josh sees lots of people, but doesn’t recognize anyone who might be a “coach.” “I don’t see him? Who are you talking about anyway?” Alli doubles over. COACH is a STORE, Josh, not a person!
BTW I’m with Colleen. I don’t spend lots of money on bags. I use them up and in a few months I buy a new one. Most I think I ever spent on one was maybe $40-$50.
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Dorothy said on August 23, 2006 at 3:26 pm
Crap. I mean Connie, not Colleen.
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Joe Kobiela said on August 23, 2006 at 3:30 pm
Is it just me or is she flippin off the photographer??
Joe
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Dorothy said on August 23, 2006 at 3:46 pm
‘at’s exactly what she’s doing, Joe.
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alex said on August 23, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Now why do you think she’d be flipping off just you, Joe?
Since I don’t own a bag, I’m going to weigh in on wallets. I used to buy schmancy leather wallets constantly at Lord & Taylor, at least one a year and sometimes more. I think Coach makes wallets and I believe I’ve been through a few. They’d disintegrate in no time flat with the constant influx of business cards and ATM receipts busting the seams out. And they’d become ungodly malodorous too.
So about ten years ago — might be more like twelve or thirteen, come to think of it — I bought a canvas Eagle Creek wallet. It was dirt cheap and meant to be temporary when one of my leather wallets turned to dust one time in the checkout line at a travel bookstore/cafe. I’m still carrying it and it still looks as good as new. Smells unfunky; booty cooties and leather rot seem to play off each other, while this synthetic thing sheds odors like it sheds water. Even the plastic ID thingy remains crystal clear where the designer leather wallets had windows that turned brittle and yellow.
I’m sure it looks a bit odd when I pull it out from the pocket of a suit, but the only person who ever gave me crap about it was a man who wears Clinique for Men and admits it, so I’m really not too concerned.
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Connie said on August 24, 2006 at 6:34 am
Alex, my guy has been carrying the same green canvas wallet since about 1980.
Men have to replace broken library cards all time, women never do. Women don’t sit on theirs.
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Danny said on August 24, 2006 at 10:58 am
I stopped using a wallet about 8 years ago. I just have a little leather business-card-like folio for the basics and some cash. Fits well in my front pocket when I am walking or sitting. I usually keep it in a drawer when at home or at my desk.
Connie, I agree that sitting on a wallet all the live-long day makes little sense. Though I have never had back problems, I can see how it could lead to a misalignment over time.
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Beryl Ament said on August 25, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Hey, all of a sudden Vera Bradley is in the news. Or in the blogs. But I beat you, and the guy from Fort Wayne and the guy from Arkansas. See:
http://amenwithat.blogspot.com/2006/08/lucys-red-bag.html
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