Okay, I am half convinced about overlooking the inconvenience of acccessing items from the bag, for the sake of looking beautiful and elegant.
What about the stress on the handle connection and the leather around the lock? I mean, if you put a lot of heavy stuffs in the Kelly, will the weight put much stress on the hande connection and the leather around the lock as you carry the bag (by its handle)?
I ask these questions, because I had a LV Beverly which has a similar design. The leather buckle is worse in the LV bag, because you tend to wear out the thin leather strap as you thread and unthread it. In addition, as you lift the bag, the top of the bag tends to separate from the rest of the bag body, leaving a big gap. Due to these negatives, I got rid of my Beverly fast. The Kelly is slightly better in that the opening is via a relatively more durable metal lock rather than a flimsy, narrow leather strap. As for lifting all that weight, I guess the problem would be worse in a larger size Kelly. Am I correct?
I guess the Kelly was originally designed years ago. Back then, the designer did not think that we ladies would need to carry so much in our bag. In addition to cosmetics, we now have to carry heavy wallets (with credit cards, driver license, etc.), cell phone or blackberry, iPod, digital camera, stationary (agenda) and etc. (mint, medicine). The only item that most of us no longer carry is a checkbook.