stephanie this is great to hear. there are pros and cons to the kelly so it's super interesting to me to hear about a real life experience with the bag. elaborate if you can.
I want to thank all of you guys for your kind words by the way.
As to my real life experience with these bags - I had wanted a birkin bag for about ten years but I did not have the discretionary resources to buy one, and when I did, I still did not feel comfortable with that level of expenditure. Finally, about five years ago, I finally could afford one, but I was still hesitant. My husband, however, encouraged me. His exact words were, "You've been talking about this darn tote bag for years now - you can afford to buy one - why dont you just go put your name on the list?!" So I did. The next year, I bought two, one from the wish list and one special order. My SA said, you should think about the kelly and the bolide now too. The bolide I was drawn to immediately. It seemed a very cool, very casual bag. However, it took years to turn up the right one for me. It seemed like everything was goat and ostrich. And bright goat, at that. When I first saw the clemence 31 cm mou, though, I took to it immediately. The shape, the slouch, the leather, the zipper. The idea of a kelly bag, on the other hand, I was less sure about. I liked it on a visceral level, but I had an "image" problem with it. I thought that only ladies who lunch had kellys, NOT regular schmos like me. People who had kelly bags were all surgically altered, Upper East Side "Fekkai blonds" with nails painted in red Chanel polish and pointy, high heeled, $1000 shoes. The ladies who push me out of the way for a cab in the rain when I am standing on 5th Avenue, like a little raggamuffin, wearing my business suit and LLBean raincoat, holding a briefcase and trying to get to LaGuardia to fly somewhere (in coachclass) for work. (oops I hope I havent offended anybody here - I am sure there are some REALLY NICE ladies who lunch and who DONT push raggamuffins out of the way for a cab. Please understand, I am being somewhat tongue in cheek here). How did I get over my "kelly identity crisis?" Well, in part, it was a good sales associate, a very kind woman, who steered me to good choice for my particular taste and lifestyle. Also, over time, I realized that there were women who I really loved who had kelly bags, and who did not fit my negative imagery of a kelly-owner. Women who were smart and kind. There are even a couple of llving saints in there, with the kelly bags. I think this realization caused me to get over my ambivalence, and made me see that a kelly bag is really no different than a birkin or a bolide - its not pretentious and its really OK for us "regular schmos" to have one too.
