The Hot (and Heavy) Handbags of 2009
Until a year ago, I bought a handbag and carried it until it was an embarrassment to my family, or more often, until it became too heavy to carry. Weighed down by accumulated loose change tossed recklessly into bottom, my handbag became a lethal weapon in the wrong hands, an airport security check nightmare, and a portable trash bin, all in one.
I cannot remember the day or reason that my eyes and mind were suddenly opened to the prospect of owning, and carrying more than one handbag per year, but that epiphany has changed my life. Handbags are everywhere and everyone is talking about them, drooling over them and waiting and hoping to find the next “hot” one… Where have I been lo these many years, anyway?
As handbag envy set in, I began to look at what was on other women’s arms rather than what was in their grocery cart. I wanted to have one of 2009 “it’ bags. I wanted women to drool over what dangled from my wrist or shoulder, too. This required research, as 2008 has seen a lot of hot handbags in so many shapes, colors and textures.
My first purchase was an adorable royal blue, quilted, lambskin minaudiere by BCBG Maxazria. This great little bag fit so many of the hot handbag criteria: the boxy shape, the rich cool color, luxe fabric, the chunky gold chain wrist strap. I loved it and suddenly women, and men, were complementing my little clutch bag wherever I went. Call it a clutch, or an evening bag, it fits both of those descriptions, but mostly it fits me.
In 2009, the clutch style handbag has been a good fit for other women, too. Whether it be a lace Prada clutch on Katie Holmes, or a Louis Vuitton Vernis clutch for Claudia Schiffer, small, clutch, evening bags are fabulously functional, and they do actually fit in one’s hand!
