Well,
My obsessive quest for a Work with a shoulder strap has finally reached a conclusion ... except that now I want another one!!! I bought a Pale Pink Work in rather poor condition from eBay and sent it to Artbag to have it repaired. Chris (of Artbag) had some similarly-colored leather, and said he would repair the piping by replacing it. When I heard about the similarly colored leather, I asked if he could add a strap. Long story short: he agreed.
The color of the leather is a good match color-wise & top-notch quality, but of course it's nothing like the distressed Balenciaga leather...there is an obvious difference when you look closely. The good color match helps to hide that difference, though.
My next plan is to ask him to add the shoulder-strap attachments to my Blue India Work using the perfectly-matching leather from the shoulderpad of my Blue India Part Time. Then I can simply use the Part Time strap on my Work whenever I need to. I am also going to ask him to try to more nearly duplicate the way the shoulder strap attachments are on the Part Time. One of the problems is that he does not have the studs that Balenciaga uses. He does, however, have flat brass studs, so maybe that will be a good enough approximation. I will have to think long and hard about doing this, though...because the BI Work is pristine and I have a lot harder time doing it to a perfect bag.
Here are a few photos. Please note that the photos of me were taken by my 9yo daughter, who is much shorter than me ... therefore the bag looks larger than it looks from a normal perspective. It really looks pretty similar to the way the Part Time looks when worn w/shoulder strap. I am tall & big, but I think I may have gone overboard in the strap length I requested. I thought it was better go too long than too short.
Finally...I want to ask...why won't Balenciaga do this? As you can see, it "works" just fine. I know some prefer the "clean" look of the Work w/o a shoulder strap, though...so ya can't please everyone.
My obsessive quest for a Work with a shoulder strap has finally reached a conclusion ... except that now I want another one!!! I bought a Pale Pink Work in rather poor condition from eBay and sent it to Artbag to have it repaired. Chris (of Artbag) had some similarly-colored leather, and said he would repair the piping by replacing it. When I heard about the similarly colored leather, I asked if he could add a strap. Long story short: he agreed.
The color of the leather is a good match color-wise & top-notch quality, but of course it's nothing like the distressed Balenciaga leather...there is an obvious difference when you look closely. The good color match helps to hide that difference, though.
My next plan is to ask him to add the shoulder-strap attachments to my Blue India Work using the perfectly-matching leather from the shoulderpad of my Blue India Part Time. Then I can simply use the Part Time strap on my Work whenever I need to. I am also going to ask him to try to more nearly duplicate the way the shoulder strap attachments are on the Part Time. One of the problems is that he does not have the studs that Balenciaga uses. He does, however, have flat brass studs, so maybe that will be a good enough approximation. I will have to think long and hard about doing this, though...because the BI Work is pristine and I have a lot harder time doing it to a perfect bag.
Here are a few photos. Please note that the photos of me were taken by my 9yo daughter, who is much shorter than me ... therefore the bag looks larger than it looks from a normal perspective. It really looks pretty similar to the way the Part Time looks when worn w/shoulder strap. I am tall & big, but I think I may have gone overboard in the strap length I requested. I thought it was better go too long than too short.
Finally...I want to ask...why won't Balenciaga do this? As you can see, it "works" just fine.
I know some prefer the "clean" look of the Work w/o a shoulder strap, though...so ya can't please everyone.
With the longer strap, you can even wear it messenger-style.
