I'd just like to share my most recent bag experience with all you lovely tpf-ers.
I returned from New York yesterday after a 5 day holiday. Of course I went bag shopping, with a budget of 1000 euros (about 1500 dollars) due to my CC (I'm a student and thus not allowed a higher credit on CC's). I'd worked hard this summer and thus had quite a substantial amount of money, but in NYC it is surprisingly impossible to pay by bank pass in designer boutiques.
I had a few (well, many) bags on my whish list to check out.
Went to Woodbury Commons to see the baby paddingtons I'd loved so much, but they were overpriced at $890 + tax (this is an outlet right?) and I was actually a bit dissapointed by them - too small. They had red and black. Then I picked up a regular/medium orange paddy, but it was so heavy I decided to just leave it. At the Prada/Miu Miu outlet I spotted a lovely washed bufallo doctor bag, but that one was just tiny and too expensive for an outlet ($1100 +tax) - for that price I could get a larger one here in the Netherlands. There was one of my HG bags, the suede tobacco purse with grommets from F/W 2005, but it almost fell apart when I picked it up.
Then I went to Dior, where I disliked the cannage clutch - took that one off of my whish list too. I did find a fantastic purple leather mini version of Celine's boogie as a keychain. They also had a regular sized boogie, which I loved and put on my wishlist immidiately. Unfortunately it was white, and as I don't do white bags I left it there. After trying on the entire Ralph Lauren factory outlet just to find none of his cable knit sweaters fit right I was really dissapointed and decided to get back to the city. My dad bought just about the entire Armani and Hugo Boss stores and my sister raided Guess and Juicy, but mom and I had found hardly anything. I left Woodbury with a fantastic pair of Tom Ford sunnies I'd been lusting over for a while, at the discount price of $120! (390 euros in Amsterdam!), which put a small smile on my face.
Back in Manhatten I went to just about every department store and designer boutique I could find. And there it was, sitting on the counter at Bergdorf - the black Veneta. It was love at first sight and I decided to get that one. But of course it was over my CC budget, so I couldn't get it. Went over to BV to check if I could pay with my regular bank pass/PIN, but that wasn't possible and they didn't accept cash over $1000. Crap. The search continued at Mulberry, where I took the antony off of my whishlist as soon as I'd tried it on
. Celine was lovely, but no boogies in the right colour for me. And of course I was too ckicken to go into Hermes. The Veneta was growing om me more and more, but it just wasn't happening, so I proceeded to a few more boutiques. I really wanted the Veneta and decided I'd better stop searching and get it in Europe whenever I have the chance.
It was really frustrating not finding anything, considering there are about a million times more designer bags in NYC than in Amsterdam. But I did find that many bags I'd loved online were really not so nice IRL, which made my whish list go from this:
whish list:
Mulberry oak Ledbury - got it 17/08/2008
Mulberry black Antony
Bottega Veneta noce Veneta
Bottega Veneta Knot clutch
Bottega Veneta Ebano or Green Cabat
Chanel Classic 2.55 red caviar flap with gold h/w
Chloe Brown Paddington
Dior Black Cannage clutch
Hermes Black or Graphite Clemence or Togo HAC...
Gold SO Kelly
Massai PM Clemence Vert Fonce or Gris
Picotin MM Orange Togo or Clemence
All leather Garden Party in a poppy colour
any Prada with grommets
to something like this:
whish list:
Bottega Veneta black small or medium Veneta
Chanel medium/large red caviar Flap with gold hardware
Celine Boogie - still have to decide the colour
Hermes - have to check IRL which one
Prada washed buffalo satchel in choc or black
I did get a Prada cosmetics bag at the Soho store (what an amazing store! and a great SA too
) and an MbyMJ black convertible clutch/shoulder bag as my throw around bag. My sister and I bought an MbyMJ Dr. Q Groovee bag in taupe for my mother, with a matching wallet, which made her smile for the rest of our holiday as it was her first designer bag. All in all, NYC was a great place. It took away some of my bag dreams, but certainly added some too 
And now I'm off to bed, sleeping off my jetlag before I start my quest for the Veneta 
I returned from New York yesterday after a 5 day holiday. Of course I went bag shopping, with a budget of 1000 euros (about 1500 dollars) due to my CC (I'm a student and thus not allowed a higher credit on CC's). I'd worked hard this summer and thus had quite a substantial amount of money, but in NYC it is surprisingly impossible to pay by bank pass in designer boutiques.
I had a few (well, many) bags on my whish list to check out.
Went to Woodbury Commons to see the baby paddingtons I'd loved so much, but they were overpriced at $890 + tax (this is an outlet right?) and I was actually a bit dissapointed by them - too small. They had red and black. Then I picked up a regular/medium orange paddy, but it was so heavy I decided to just leave it. At the Prada/Miu Miu outlet I spotted a lovely washed bufallo doctor bag, but that one was just tiny and too expensive for an outlet ($1100 +tax) - for that price I could get a larger one here in the Netherlands. There was one of my HG bags, the suede tobacco purse with grommets from F/W 2005, but it almost fell apart when I picked it up.
Then I went to Dior, where I disliked the cannage clutch - took that one off of my whish list too. I did find a fantastic purple leather mini version of Celine's boogie as a keychain. They also had a regular sized boogie, which I loved and put on my wishlist immidiately. Unfortunately it was white, and as I don't do white bags I left it there. After trying on the entire Ralph Lauren factory outlet just to find none of his cable knit sweaters fit right I was really dissapointed and decided to get back to the city. My dad bought just about the entire Armani and Hugo Boss stores and my sister raided Guess and Juicy, but mom and I had found hardly anything. I left Woodbury with a fantastic pair of Tom Ford sunnies I'd been lusting over for a while, at the discount price of $120! (390 euros in Amsterdam!), which put a small smile on my face.
Back in Manhatten I went to just about every department store and designer boutique I could find. And there it was, sitting on the counter at Bergdorf - the black Veneta. It was love at first sight and I decided to get that one. But of course it was over my CC budget, so I couldn't get it. Went over to BV to check if I could pay with my regular bank pass/PIN, but that wasn't possible and they didn't accept cash over $1000. Crap. The search continued at Mulberry, where I took the antony off of my whishlist as soon as I'd tried it on
. Celine was lovely, but no boogies in the right colour for me. And of course I was too ckicken to go into Hermes. The Veneta was growing om me more and more, but it just wasn't happening, so I proceeded to a few more boutiques. I really wanted the Veneta and decided I'd better stop searching and get it in Europe whenever I have the chance. It was really frustrating not finding anything, considering there are about a million times more designer bags in NYC than in Amsterdam. But I did find that many bags I'd loved online were really not so nice IRL, which made my whish list go from this:
whish list:
Mulberry oak Ledbury - got it 17/08/2008
Mulberry black Antony
Bottega Veneta noce Veneta
Bottega Veneta Knot clutch
Bottega Veneta Ebano or Green Cabat
Chanel Classic 2.55 red caviar flap with gold h/w
Chloe Brown Paddington
Dior Black Cannage clutch
Hermes Black or Graphite Clemence or Togo HAC...
Gold SO Kelly
Massai PM Clemence Vert Fonce or Gris
Picotin MM Orange Togo or Clemence
All leather Garden Party in a poppy colour
any Prada with grommets
to something like this:
whish list:
Bottega Veneta black small or medium Veneta
Chanel medium/large red caviar Flap with gold hardware
Celine Boogie - still have to decide the colour
Hermes - have to check IRL which one
Prada washed buffalo satchel in choc or black
I did get a Prada cosmetics bag at the Soho store (what an amazing store! and a great SA too
) and an MbyMJ black convertible clutch/shoulder bag as my throw around bag. My sister and I bought an MbyMJ Dr. Q Groovee bag in taupe for my mother, with a matching wallet, which made her smile for the rest of our holiday as it was her first designer bag. All in all, NYC was a great place. It took away some of my bag dreams, but certainly added some too And now I'm off to bed, sleeping off my jetlag before I start my quest for the Veneta 
I find the BV SA's are the nicest in the luxury arena. They enjoy chatting about the purses and seem eager to let customers try on their bags.