Luxury Bags

In college, an IRS boy once looked at me across the table and remarked: “I think you are the kind of girl who prefers momos to designer bags.”

In his defence, I was hungry and devouring chicken momos, the dumplings practically flying in my mouth, washed down by cold stinging soda water. It was heaven but I was probably not a pretty sight. Also Delhi momos have a very definite smell that people who aren’t used to it find off-putting. All in all, I don’t suppose the whole sight was very attractive.

In my defence, however, and I reiterate again, I was hungry. And you can’t eat designer bags. And at the time, I had a man-sized appetite coupled with golden metabolism so I was good.

That being said, I appreciate pretty things. And I might not have the necessary interest or the intellectual enlightenment to recognize an expensive bag when I see it. But I do recognize pretty things for what they are. Thing of beauty, joy forever, yada yada.

My office bag is a brown leather Hidesign bag and I will have to replace it soon because it’s getting old and a little worn. But I have not got around to it. And I suspect I will procrastinate for a good long while. I like what I like and I find it hard to replace anything semi-permanent in my life. Even something as functional fashion as an office bag. The bag contains what it contains. I have the memory of Dory and the day I alternate bags is the day I forget one thing or the other. So I have to have something like brown leather that can be forgiven with most attires. It is what it is. I do not look forward to the day I will need to change it.

I have never had an eye for ladies bags. But sometimes social media and celebrity culture expose you to fancy things you are voyeur to, if not partaker. And so have I, too, fallen for the scam art of designer bags that cost small fortunes that I find slightly revolting in their opulence. Eagerly consuming the culture of excessive abundance, that be me!

Beautiful things do deserve their place on the mantle. And rich things serve a purpose beyond their beauty. Think the soap-esque giant emerald locket of Nita Ambani, I mean, come on. They announce you before you speak. Like the boy whose reputation preceded him. Was it Ed Sheeran who said he had a “reputation that don’t precede me”? What does that line mean?

I digress.

Luxury bags. I went down a rabbit hole the other day. I can’t believe the prices some of those can command! Man, talk about poverty in a third world country! Some bags are prettier than others, some are definitely more upscale than others, some boast of craftsmanship and product material. I appreciate it. Also all the more so because I cannot imagine the kind of a life where I work with bags all my life, identifying design, procuring material, arranging accompanying clothes, organise designated events. It sounds a little ostentatious to me.

Even the concept of looking at someone and noticing their bag for its rarity, or price tag, is weird to me. I don’t even remember how much I paid for my bag. 

I do suppose it’s at the level of people asking how much I paid for my car, which I do value, and which I do know, and when I see other people in their Jimnys, I do randomly find myself guessing how much they paid for their car, and the little accompanying accessories, and I check the plate and see the number… I do make little guesses. Neither here nor there. What does that say about anything anyway? But I do. So I guess I understand the brand recognition and obsession.

I suppose the IRS boy was not so far off. I would love to own a designer bag for the art of it all, for the bragging rights of it all, for the luxury of it all. But he had me pegged; it’s still not very high on my priority list at all, even this side of thirty.

Different worlds!