At what amount do you consider a handbag to be expensive?
- Thread starter PrincessCake
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At $1000, personally, a bag becomes expensive and is an investment or statement. This said, I don't consider a bag's retail expensive until about $2000. LOL. I buy a lot on sale. Expensive does not mean I won't buy, however - just that I won't buy on impulse often.
If it sits unused in your closet, it´s too expensive.
If it elicits ALMOST NOTHING BUT negative/jealous comments, it´s too expensive.
If it doesn´t give you joy but stresses you out ("Will the wrong kind of person notice it and mug me?" "Can I leave it in the gym/workplace locker or will someone break the door to steal it?" "Will it be squished beyond repair in the crowded bus?" "OMG a kid grabbed it with his grubby hand and left a mark!" etc), it´s too expensive.
If you had to shortchange yourself any other important way to purchase it (didn´t pay bills on time, didn´t repair your washing machine/car/broken tooth, didn´t spend it on a much-promised Disneyworld weekend with your kids), it´s too expensive.
If your joy acquiring/wearing was shortlived and your regret was longlasting, it´s too expensive.
If it looks out of place worn with your scuffed shoes, ratty t-shirt and threadbare trousers, it´s too expensive.
I could go on and on - a price tag may be deemed relative, but any money derived from work, translated as valuable units of your limited life energy supply, is definitely not relative.
If it elicits ALMOST NOTHING BUT negative/jealous comments, it´s too expensive.
If it doesn´t give you joy but stresses you out ("Will the wrong kind of person notice it and mug me?" "Can I leave it in the gym/workplace locker or will someone break the door to steal it?" "Will it be squished beyond repair in the crowded bus?" "OMG a kid grabbed it with his grubby hand and left a mark!" etc), it´s too expensive.
If you had to shortchange yourself any other important way to purchase it (didn´t pay bills on time, didn´t repair your washing machine/car/broken tooth, didn´t spend it on a much-promised Disneyworld weekend with your kids), it´s too expensive.
If your joy acquiring/wearing was shortlived and your regret was longlasting, it´s too expensive.
If it looks out of place worn with your scuffed shoes, ratty t-shirt and threadbare trousers, it´s too expensive.
I could go on and on - a price tag may be deemed relative, but any money derived from work, translated as valuable units of your limited life energy supply, is definitely not relative.
I understand your feelings & points. I agree that one's handbag should be a joy to use, not a burden, whatever the price tag says.
However, point #2 & #6 seem to suggest that we let others dictate our choices for us--that their views of style, etc. should ***** our own.
That would limit a life's energy far more, I believe, than owning any handbag could.
I'd no more listen to haters than become a slave to popular opinion--just my thoughts.
For me it's about cost per wear, craftsmanship, and the quality of the material used. But if I should give a number, probably $1000+. Anything under is reasonable, in my opinion.
I don't necessarily equate "expensive" with my income but more on materials used, intricacy, and designer brand(thinking marketing cost).
I think $500 on a Lodis (all leather) bag is expensive, $900 on a Longchamp (all leather mid-size bag) not so much. I feel LV Neverfull GM is expensive, LV Capucines not so much.
I think $500 on a Lodis (all leather) bag is expensive, $900 on a Longchamp (all leather mid-size bag) not so much. I feel LV Neverfull GM is expensive, LV Capucines not so much.
I like your definition of "work", Pimpernel!
Handbags over $300 are expensive but I think it depends on what value you place on an item and how much it is worth to you. A person could have a high net worth and still feel it is not worth paying that much for an item even though it was easily affordable in monetary terms.
Exactly!
Esp #1 and #6. When will I learn. I wanted nothing but to buy that kind of bag and now its "too fancy" so it sat in closet pretty much since purchase. And I cant sell it because I'll regret it and they only get more expensive. BLEH.
I TOTALLY agree with #2. And all the others. Because a bag over $1000 is definitely an investment into cachet and the opinions of others. If you exist in the kind of society where that's acceptable or accepted, good for you! If you don't (I hang out with destitute writers, but I have a lot of savings from my corporate days), carrying something flashy isn't going to win you friends.
Sure, we should do what we want, but I want to be admired and not resented. I've been considering investing in a Chanel flap but with my lifestyle, it makes more sense to buy a vintage, quirky, now-dead-designer's ~$1000 lucite clutch I found on Etsy... whose price tag I'll never have to discuss.
It takes courage and determination to live life the way we want regardless of other people's opinions. When I was younger I used to care, now I don't. In fact, if I know that will incite resentment, I might do that on purpose just to provoke negative emotions! My rebel side.
As a born aristocrat, there are very few people whose opinion about me matters to me, and that extends of course to clothes as well
I´m afraid I didn´t express myself clearly. What I was trying to say was perfectly expressed by Elisian above:"Because a bag over $1000 is definitely an investment into cachet and the opinions of others. If you exist in the kind of society where that's acceptable or accepted, good for you! If you don't (I hang out with destitute writers, but I have a lot of savings from my corporate days), carrying something flashy isn't going to win you friends."
It´s about knowing when to shine, and when to be understated; it´s knowing how to blend in and make interactions easier for everybody by making others feel at ease with you instead of intimidated (attire savviness, if you will) instead of seeking to provoke poor people by flaunting to them obscenely expensive items, and it´s also having the minimum aesthetic sense not to walk around deliberately like an eyesore (that´s what I meant with pairing a visibly very expensive bag with clothes so destroyed as to be beyond repair). That´s all I was trying to convey - sorry for my deficient English!
Understood you well. But I personally cannot feel myself to be responsible for other people's jealousy and envy. We are all of us blessed in various different ways. Everyone will have something others have not, or have not something that others have. I cannot afford above $1000 bags, that does not mean I will be jealous or envy someone who could afford. I cannot understand competition in this sense.
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