The Pashli.
Phillip's unassuming, little leathery bundle of vestiary perfection is exactly what sparked off our rant introspective into the It Bag last weekend. A discussion between us, which we thought we'd share with you since it involves our beloved topic of fashion.
If not for the annoying popularity of said Pashli, I would be sitting here now holding aloft my (
then envisioned) Bangkok purchase and this post would have never been conceived. Of course, you all know that I:
1. never got a Pashli because they were sold out; and
2: settled for the Speedy 25 instead out of it being a pure "classic". It so happened that S too was on a simultaneous path of bag-lust and had fallen in lust with the Pashli. As was K (
of Render Sublime). And so I partook in two rather involved conversations about why we wanted it so badly, but on the other hand, had all experienced the collective feeling that feeding into the It-Bag trend of 2012 would get old rather quickly.
There is something about the It-Bag that gets us going en masse. Almost daily I see the Trio, the Trapeze, the Antigona, the Pashli, and more - a plethora of last year's most desirable bags. And what more is that these desirable bags hang off the arms of desirable women who have lives that are probably more desirable than mine. It's desire overload! Those bags are also hideously expensive! Therefore, what I think my illogical brain does is saunters over and slips me a neuronal napkin on which it is written "whoever owns those are damn cool and have their s*** sorted". It's a status symbol; a symptom of affluenza, duh! Thus of course, along I trot, longing after the next and the next.
S & I do, however, have a logical side to our brains, and we got a-thinking about the downsides to buying into the It-Bag craze. You see, an It-Bag only has its time in the sun for so long until it gets old, and a younger, more attractive It-Bag sidles in and takes its place. And as the
Man Repeller's article most adeptly puts it: "
the only thing that seems worse than wearing something outdated is wearing something outdated for which you overpaid for with the sole purpose of it being on trend". Ouch. Our other major gripe is that S & I are searching for individuality in a (blogger) world where every new cool thing saturates the blogosphere and simultaneously becomes more detestable to us whilst boosting street-style cred. As much as we enjoy the craftsmanship and quality poured into our dear little Pashli and Trio, we have for the moment resolved to watch from afar for this very matter.
Will choosing to buy a bag that never reaches It-Bag status solve our personal conundrum? But on the other hand, (
to play devil's advocate) why drop a money-bomb on a expensive yet unrecognisable designer bag when you could get a cheaper alternative which garners the same level of attention?
Something to think about whilst stroking your nappa leather.
