2024 Resolution: Shopping my own Bag and SLG Collection

[Sparkletastic]

December Activities and Challenges - pick and choose as you please.

I. 2024 Year In Review Reflection
(Thanks @Vintage Leather)

Utilize these thought starters to evaluate your collection, your usage patterns and your lessons learned in 2024.
• What is your most useful purse?
• What is your best purchase of the year?
• We’ve all had a lot of lifestyle changes this year - how has it affected your style?
• What is the one thing we’ve learned this year that you want to take into the next?

II. Setting 2025 Goals
Take this month to consider what you want to do with your handbag collection, wardrobe or even your beautiful life in 2025. Share these thoughts in January when we start the 2026 Shopping Your Closet thread.

III. End of year optional challenges

• Holiday colors: December has many holidays celebrated across the world - red & green, brown & gold, blue & white and more! Pick the holiday that you want to honor and wear / show off your bags in those traditional colors.

• End with a bang: As we come to the last part of the year, wear the last bag you’ve purchased at least 3 times this month.

@Vlad please pin this to the top of our thread.

 

[A bottle of Red]

Ooh love the idea of a navy dress, with maybe a shawl for needed warmth but easy to remove if it's too hot?
One thing I always hated was that I was not up to current fashion trends, so I'd show up to a wedding in pink and uh oh everyone was in all black or vice versa.
Tbh I have never figured out how people know what to wear to each event ( my family is extremely unfashionable). I would love to have some of your ladies' confidence to wear what I like and be ok .

 

[msd_bags]

@jblended Here's wishing that things will get better fast for you and your mom! You are in my thoughts.

@papertiger Hoping for your hubby's recovery soon! Speaking of Lazy Boy, for close to a month now, I've been sleeping on my recliner chair. It started after an oral surgery, where I was more comfortable sleeping in a certain position. I've not transferred to my bed yet since.

 

[Bag peace]

Someone suggested this to me for my sister - who just had back surgery from the nape of her neck to her sacrum - so a major surgery.

Wishing your sister a speedy recovery! That surgery sounds intense!

The good news - I secured a position that is both a promotion & significantly more money.

Congratulations! How wonderful!

Wait wut not me actually posting the correct colour of the week

Stunning bag!

@jblended Here's wishing that things will get better fast for you and your mom! You are in my thoughts.

Thank you!!

 

[msd_bags]

I'm also at a loss what to do with my humongous bag collection. What I am realizing, at least for now, is that no matter how beautiful I find certain bags are, there seems to be an expiration date on my interest to wear them. I don't like that I am feeling this way, but I'm on the acceptance phase that this is is me now.

I have bags from well before COVID that I still love, but I am more interested to use my newer bags (bought last year and this year). And I don't change bags as often as I did. In short, I have a lot of bags in my closet that are just sitting there. I can probably bring some to a consignment store I had used in the past, but I have to make sure that I am really ready to let them go. Other than the consignment store (which takes 20% as commission, if memory serves me right), I don't have any other reselling options where I am.

Part of my thought process on this is, if I let these bags go, it is as if I'm accepting that I lost a battle - that I was wrong to devote so much time and resources to this 'hobby', even when friends and family were constantly reminding me not to. But it's all pride, isn't it? I enjoyed having and using them anyway.

This is where I am now. Maybe I only use 4 bags or so on regular rotation, while I have a total of X bags (I've stopped counting, but likely more than 30; maybe even close to 50??). But when I look at the "old" bags, I still love them. But using them is a different matter altogether.

 

[papertiger]

@jblended Here's wishing that things will get better fast for you and your mom! You are in my thoughts.

@papertiger Hoping for your hubby's recovery soon! Speaking of Lazy Boy, for close to a month now, I've been sleeping on my recliner chair. It started after an oral surgery, where I was more comfortable sleeping in a certain position. I've not transferred to my bed yet since.

Thank you

Ah, interesting. I'm going to look into some of the options today.

 

[Bag peace]

Other than the consignment store (which takes 20% as commission, if memory serves me right), I don't have any other reselling options where I am.

I understand this. My only consignment option locally takes 35%! It's harder in some bits of the world than others.
If you can, since you tend to travel, can you look into consignment stores that let you cash out your bags abroad? Then when you're in other countries for work or holiday, go drop off the bags there and get some 'fun' cash in your hand to enjoy on that trip.

Part of my thought process on this is, if I let these bags go, it is as if I'm accepting that I lost a battle - that I was wrong to devote so much time and resources to this 'hobby', even when friends and family were constantly reminding me not to. But it's all pride, isn't it? I enjoyed having and using them anyway.

I wouldn't look at it like this at all. I mean, the amount of bad clothing purchases I've made over the years hurts me to think about. I should have known these things didn't work for me but, I still paid good money buying special clothes that I thought would work (but didn't) while trying to figure out my style. I also did this with bags- for instance, I kept buying flap bags when I should have realized I prefer zippered ones. It happens.
It's not money or time wasted. It's a journey in figuring out your personal style and preferences. Like you said, you enjoyed them and used them, so you only gained from it.
We can't ever know in advance what our ideals are. It's always a process of experimentation. It's part of self-discovery. You're in a new stage of your life, so some of those bags no longer serve you, but that doesn't erase the fact that they served you when you got them (they brought you joy, they connected you to other bagaholics here, and they toted your things for you).
Enjoy this new phase without regretting the old one. Tastes and needs change, and that's fine.

But when I look at the "old" bags, I still love them. But using them is a different matter altogether.

Can you challenge yourself to carry them for a week at a time? Just give them all a test run. You might find you fall in love with them all over again.

 

[papertiger]

Ooh love the idea of a navy dress, with maybe a shawl for needed warmth but easy to remove if it's too hot?
One thing I always hated was that I was not up to current fashion trends, so I'd show up to a wedding in pink and uh oh everyone was in all black or vice versa.
Tbh I have never figured out how people know what to wear to each event ( my family is extremely unfashionable). I would love to have some of your ladies' confidence to wear what I like and be ok .

TBH, I'm not sure I have navy dress apart from a full-length formal gown and that's a bit too far removed from the dress-code.

Everyone's different. Some buy new for every event, some people have one party dress and that's what they wear to everything. I think we always imagine others know more than us. There's a fear that everyone will get some specific memo, but the dress-code is usually about levels of formality - except when there's a theme. The word 'formal' 'full-length' and 'gown' at one extreme (bags go tiny/mini/micro) end and 'come as you are' at the other. It's the middle-layers that are trickier IMO. Themes are even more difficult to get right. I almost recoil when someone chooses a theme for their wedding.

 

[msd_bags]

It's not money or time wasted. It's a journey in figuring out your personal style and preferences. Like you said, you enjoyed them and used them, so you only gained from it.

Enjoy this new phase without regretting the old one. Tastes and needs change, and that's fine.


Can you challenge yourself to carry them for a week at a time? Just give them all a test run. You might find you fall in love with them all over again.

So much wisdom in what you said, thank you! I don't want to rush into anything so I'll take my sweet time deciding on the next step. Maybe if time permits (I'm normally rushing in the mornings), I will try to rotate bags and use more of them.

I've thought of bringing some bags when I travel to Japan for resale. But I forget to do preliminary researches. So I end up not taking any.

 

[papertiger]

I'm also at a loss what to do with my humongous bag collection. What I am realizing, at least for now, is that no matter how beautiful I find certain bags are, there seems to be an expiration date on my interest to wear them. I don't like that I am feeling this way, but I'm on the acceptance phase that this is is me now.

I have bags from well before COVID that I still love, but I am more interested to use my newer bags (bought last year and this year). And I don't change bags as often as I did. In short, I have a lot of bags in my closet that are just sitting there. I can probably bring some to a consignment store I had used in the past, but I have to make sure that I am really ready to let them go. Other than the consignment store (which takes 20% as commission, if memory serves me right), I don't have any other reselling options where I am.

Part of my thought process on this is, if I let these bags go, it is as if I'm accepting that I lost a battle - that I was wrong to devote so much time and resources to this 'hobby', even when friends and family were constantly reminding me not to. But it's all pride, isn't it? I enjoyed having and using them anyway.

This is where I am now. Maybe I only use 4 bags or so on regular rotation, while I have a total of X bags (I've stopped counting, but likely more than 30; maybe even close to 50??). But when I look at the "old" bags, I still love them. But using them is a different matter altogether.

Close your eyes and imagine you've given/sold a bag. Then, imagine someone else walking down the road with it on, how do you feel? Do you want it back or feel happy that someone else is making good use of it? If you felt remorse, keep and test, if you feel relief, let it go to a more appreciative home.

I think fashion has changed a bit since pre-Covid. You could start to build different outfits around each bag and see if it helps. It's like putting those old bags into a new context. I'm digging out Y2K (from the first time around) and just re-working what I wear with.

You could do a single test day with each older bag you never use. Sometimes we lose connection with things and it's only by seeing it as ours we bond again. Just think of it as an exercise, a social experiment to be done before you give-up (in each case). You may find that one or two were a mistake or no longer work, but you may also find a new favourite from your own 'stash'.

 

[papertiger]

It's not money or time wasted. It's a journey in figuring out your personal style and preferences. Like you said, you enjoyed them and used them, so you only gained from it.

Enjoy this new phase without regretting the old one. Tastes and needs change, and that's fine.

I love this. Bad feeling towards ourselves never ends well.

I think it's partly the amount of love and excitement we have for our bags when we buy, and then there's the love and money investment, we feel a kind of loss if we end-up feeling nothing at all. Like "Where did those feelings go"? Maybe it was never there? Maybe I can't trust myself because those feelings felt real?

A wardrobe has to work for us, at least as much as we work for it.

 

[dcooney4]

Yes, but I call her Luella 😅

Ikr. Doesn't show its age of almost 25 years

It's gorgeous!

 

[dcooney4]

@jblended Here's wishing that things will get better fast for you and your mom! You are in my thoughts.

@papertiger Hoping for your hubby's recovery soon! Speaking of Lazy Boy, for close to a month now, I've been sleeping on my recliner chair. It started after an oral surgery, where I was more comfortable sleeping in a certain position. I've not transferred to my bed yet since.

Hope you are feeling better.

 

[dcooney4]

Close your eyes and imagine you've given/sold a bag. Then, imagine someone else walking down the road with it on, how do you feel? Do you want it back or feel happy that someone else is making good use of it? If you felt remorse, keep and test, if you feel relief, let it go to a more appreciative home.

I think fashion has changed a bit since pre-Covid. You could start to build different outfits around each bag and see if it helps. It's like putting those old bags into a new context. I'm digging out Y2K (from the first time around) and just re-working what I wear with.

You could do a single test day with each older bag you never use. Sometimes we lose connection with things and it's only by seeing it as ours we bond again. Just think of it as an exercise, a social experiment to be done before you give-up (in each case). You may find that one or two were a mistake or no longer work, but you may also find a new favourite from your own 'stash'.

I think this could be a challenge for all of us.

 

[essiedub]

Close your eyes and imagine you've given/sold a bag. Then, imagine someone else walking down the road with it on, how do you feel? Do you want it back or feel happy that someone else is making good use of it? If you felt remorse, keep and test, if you feel relief, let it go to a more appreciative home.
'.

This is so good.

 

[papertiger]

This is so good.

This has literally happened to me.

I once took a just-a-tad-too-big fab coat to a vintage designer concession in Islington, London.

Never mind Sliding Doors, this was the "Met Myself on the Stairs" moment:

Once an upon a time, I was on my way, merrily going to where I worked, a club in Islington, and had taken the Tube. While I was ascending on the escalator (moving staircase?) going towards the entrance/exit at Angle Tube station, mmmmmyyyyy coat was on descending escalator at the same time the other side of the main hall. The woman looked so fabulous. The coat was a little bit big on her too, and I thought "That's myyyyyyyy coat, I want it back!!!!!"

Happily, I have learned since that the coat wasn't in my 'best colours' so I can let it go