Bag it.

I didn't know designer handbags were a thing until college when my roommate's mom was loopy for Dooney & Bourke purses. Then I thought maybe it was a rich suburban mom thing.

I found out that everyone my age was into the designer bag when I started teaching in California. Their poison was Coach. When I first saw the Coach logo purses, I was like "Meh."

And then suddenly I was like, "Ooh, I want one."

And that is why I don't buy expensive purses. I'm slightly obsessed and wished I owned one, but I don't know if it's because I genuinely like them and think they're cute or if it's because all my friends have them. And I haven't been able to figure it out for at least seven or so years.

I guess there's also the thing where I won't buy one because I usually have other things to do with $300 at any given moment. Like buy three pairs of shoes.

I owned a Coach purse once. It was a gift from my sister-in-law. I loved it. And then Grant smote it with my MAC Viva Glam V lipstick and now it's beyond repair. It's the primary reason I won't be paying for his college tuition.

Anyway, I think my conscience would bother me if I spent a bunch of money for a purse because most of the time when I see a really cute purse in the $200-300 range, I can find a really similar one at Target for oh, say . . . $20. So every time I have an impulse to buy a Coach purse (and I have it often), I think, "You should go write that check to Japanese disaster relief."

And I don't, but I also don't buy the purse.

But now I own an expensive purse. Want to see?

Kenny and I stumbled across this cool little design gallery on a meander through Laguna Beach last month. I liked the bag, but I was like, "That's too expensive." It was somewhere around $100. But then this lady came in, the one who sells them to the gallery, and she was bringing more in to sell. And I got the inside scoop. The bags are made by women in South Africa as a path out of poverty. They're constructed out of repurposed tires and old license plates and there are a few different silhouettes. You can check them out here if you want. (They're a better deal on the website than what I paid retail, btw.)

And I have to thank the purveyors of fair trade goods and microfinanced trinkets and lovelies so that I can own completely cute useless things AND make the world a better place at the same time.

It's like I'm a better person every time I whip out my credit card.