Up close and personal
In a break from economic news. . .
If you've been reading here for a while, you might have seen that I like to poke fun at the Hermes Birkin. I smile to myself every time I spot one on the street because not only does it cost upwards of $9000 or thereabouts, it's quite possibly the fugliest handbag I've ever seen.
While flying back from the West Coast last weekend, I got upgraded to first class. Shortly after getting settled, I ended up swapping my aisle seat for a window seat so another passenger and his wife could sit together. As I got ready to relocate, I hitched up my sweat pants and collected book, backpack, handbag, and pre-flight drink. My hand tremors were acting up and I had a lot to balance anyway, so my club soda started wobbling as I approached my new seat. The passenger in the aisle seat next to me saw me shuffling in her direction and her eyes widened. (I didn't think I looked that bad, but what do I know?)
As I neared, my new neighbor suddenly snatched the drink out of my hand, carefully set it on the armrest drinkholder, and clutched her lipstick-red handbag to her chest like a baby. As I squeezed by her and resettled in my new seat, I noticed that the red bag was actually a red leather Birkin with gold accents. I probably smirked outright because I realized that my neighbor had grabbed my club soda away because she was terrified that I was going to spill it on her expensive bag.
Seeing a Birkin from less than twelve inches away did not improve my opinion of it.
I didn't want to make the woman uncomfortable by staring at her bag, but I did glance at her out of the corner of my eye from time to time because I was interested in her behavior. As boarding continued and people waddled through the aisle loaded down with coats, backpacks, and roller bags, my neighbor not only continued hugging her bag to her chest, she also bent over it to protect it from being bumped by any of the boarding passengers. It really did look like she was guarding a newborn baby except for the rather bizarre part that the "baby" was fire-engine red and had handles.
After boarding was complete, instead of putting the bag under the seat ahead of her prior to takeoff, my neighbor put it on the floor and clamped it behind her calves. During the flight, the Birkin resided between her calves except during the five visits I made to the restroom. (I wasn't trying to torment her, by the way. Five trips on a cross country flight is pretty normal for me.) On those occasions, she did the chest-clutch routine again.
My neighbor and I talked for a while during the flight and she was really a very nice lady. Having said that, the lengths she went to in order to protect her expensive handbag made her look ridiculous. She appeared to be going through great stress, all over a very unattractive and floopy bag.
If that's what luxury goods do to people's ability to relax in comfortable surroundings, doesn't that suck away the enjoyment?
I kind of think it would.
9 retorts. What say you?
I actually like the bag. :) But there's no way I'd spend more than $50 on it let alone $8000!
I seriously do NOT understand the expensive handbag fixation, especially since so many of them are festooned with trampy buckles, unwieldy chains and those big metal loops . I don't know what message women who buy these bags are trying to send but all they scream to me is " I am dumb enough to shell out x dollars for this thing!"
Some other time, can we talk about engagement rings as a means by which women who are feeling feeble advertise their value to society? Please? I'll sharpen my claws special.
Speak of the devil...
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/moneymag/0810/gallery.crisis_real_people.moneymag/3.html
I feel the same way about cars, not necessarily ugly outrageously expensive cars, but the uptight stress, silly obsessive behavior people exhibit once they get a new car. My father took a hammer to the hood of his brand new car, much to the amazement of onlookers just to get people over the "new car" talk that was driving him crazy. Granted, his car was a "shitty Hyundai" (his words)but people were aghast. Go dad! I have a used car that was given to me and if I scrape against a curb, branch etc, no worries, no stress.
emmy - Fifty bucks sounds about right. ;-)
neimanmarxist - yeah, I'm a simple bag kind of gal myself as well. I had terrible angst over dropping $71 on a black leather closeout Coach bag on Ebay, but I use it every day and it's proven to be a good buy.
Yeah, I'll take a crack at engagement rings this weekend. Should be fun. Thanks for the suggestion!
Tom - Yow. Well, yay for her if she can afford it and that's what makes her happy. I was trying very hard not to inflict too much of a value judgment on Birkin devotees simply for their love of Birkins when I was writing. The behavior it seemed to trigger in the owner is what I found so bizarre and interesting. I don't think I would ever want an thing that I was so invested in, both financially and emotionally.
Anon - Go Dad!!!! That is really cool. I'm not religious, but I'm very interested in the Buddhist philosophy of non-attachment, particularly as it relates to material things. Sounds like attachment is not a problem for either you or your dad.
Great article. Handbags are my wife's fixation and she could not understand why I don't think they are worth spending thousands of dollar on. In regards to your lady on the plane, I think that perhaps she was hiding something more valuable in the purse...
I was fascinated by a story that I saw several years ago. Apparently, the heir to the (Baskin Robbins?) fortune turned down the rich corporate life for a cabin in the woods. I hear the father (or grandfather?) was devastated.
That was the first time in my life I really started to consider what a stress it could be to chase and maintain money/material possessions. The woman with the bag was a classic picture of "maintaining" the prize. Why accumulate a bunch of stuff that you must stress to protect, and in these days + times... sometimes protect with your life?
Each year, my happy thoughts move closer and closer towards quaint small-town living, a general store, and a bike. I hope for the chance to try such living...
For now, with two sons, a job, an unemployed fiance, and no money in the bank, it's the rat race for me.
Hawa, author of
Fackin Truth Blog (Personal Blog)
and
Cleanse Master Remix (Health Blog)
andy - you could quite possibly be right: the plane lady could have been protecting something inside the bag instead of the bag itself.
I'm not faulting your wife for liking handbags, by the way. I just can't imagine sinking so much money into something that causes so much personal angst when it's really supposed to represent enjoying the good life (or something like that, anyway).
hawa bond - Thanks for stopping by. It's rat race for me too right now, but I really like your vision of a smaller and simpler future.
Hahahaha, I've actually seen a similar looking handbag for $50! It probably wasn't 100% leather, but at least its potential buyers won't be clutching it to their chests like a newborn child :)
I've had the same $99 handbag big enough to hold A4 paper and folders that I've taken to work for the last 5 years. I've literally spilled milk on it while rushing through breakfast to make it to the morning train but did not cry :)
I simply cleaned up the mess and went on with my day.
The bag is tough and can still pass for brand new, despite me being somewhat accident-prone and frequently overloading it with work papers, manuals, water bottle, lunch and snacks, and not to mention my wallet, mobile phone, chapstick, tissues and other feminine day-to-day things.
If something's going to cost $8000, it had better be damn near indestructible to justify it!
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