The bags of Southeast London

I previously wrote about the bags of Southwest London, otherwise known as Posh London. Now I’m back in my home area, the Docklands, I am startled to discover that designer bags have made their way here: the first time I went to my local tesco there was a group of girls in there with Mulberry bags. The area has gone upmarket! HORROR. The first time a trust-fundy art student gives me a flyer for a pop-up vegan trainer shop I will organise a pitchfork-wielding mob. However, I find that the dominant handbag brand round here is Paul’s Boutique, which is cool as it’s a small British brand. When I used to work in the sock department of Topshop, the owners sometimes came in to tend their stand, which in fashion terms basically makes us friends.

 

Happily, despite the creeping Mulberries, there are still plenty of proper SE-ers around, and they mainly have knockoff versions of the bags that people carry in Posh London. A fave is obviously the easily copyable Louis Vuitton and there are a lot of Japanese students with what I imagine is the real thing. Aside from the sweatshop/terrorism aspect of fakes, I don’t have a problem with people carrying them, but I do think it’s reasonably obvious which ones are real and which aren’t. It’s not just the bag because fakes can be very convincing, it’s more that people in possession of a £1250 LV bag probably wouldn’t be buying lychee juice at midnight in the same unsalubrious newsagent as me, in the same unsalubrious state as I was last Thursday. Surely someone with that sort of bag has a person to get juice for them? That’s a new life aspiration right there.

Real:

Fake:

I’ve now introduced some statistical confusion into the mix by bringing with me my new bag, probably my first leather bag ever and definitely the nicest thing I’ve ever bought: the lovely bird-embellished Marc Jacobs bag that I loved at first sight.

I’m really happy that this is mine. It’s stealth enough that I doubt any potential thieves or judgmental juice-buyers would look at it with interest but the friendly bird and useful pockets cheer me up every day.

S

Marimekko forever

The curators of Disconap have lives literally filled with Marimekko paraphernalia. Synonymous with Finland in the way the Moomins are (which comprises the other 50% of everything we communally own), the company is now celebrating sixty years of trading in a very lowkey way. To confirm my devotion and honour the ’Mekko I have done a dodgy Blackberry camera diary of all the stuff of theirs I have used in the past week. As I own practically everything they sell at Heals this could get epic.

Bag comes to work with me. Yuppie work Mac and bag in “design classic face-off”.

The ultra-yuppiesh contents of my bag: Grazia, Kindle, Eight Hour Cream, tupperware of berries, ‘Mekko umbrella.

Stripey socks. Sorry about the rain-damaged boots but check out the crystals on them!

Pears.

I took this jolly green bag to the farmer’s market where A kindly bought me this coconut macaroon. I ate it while reading these edifying tomes.

My make-up bag. I decided not to bombard you with pictures of towels and trays and kitchen knick-knacks, but believe me, you would think my collection was complete, you would think I’m the girl the girl who has everything.

A will sigh at my terrible photo-ing abilities but this picture is ace because this is what I look like almost every day of my life: stripey Marimekko top/skinny jeans/backdrop of Grazias, empty milk glasses and multiple gadgets.

I will cease and desist but this is only about half of my Marimekko bag collection, if that. I’m a connoisseur!

The sixtieth anniversary is bringing one aspect I am a bit concerned about: expansion. For me Marimekko is about quality and slightly weird Finnishness, not interiors trends or seasonal collections. I want it to be successful but with news that they are expanding to hundreds of locations in America I’m just really anxious that the brand doesn’t get diluted or become too familiar. I still get a thrill when I see a lady with a Marimekko bag, even though it no longer means we probably bought it at the same shop in Helsinki. Basically, no one shopping in a desultory fashion in LA could possibly love their Marimekko bag as much as I love mine.

S

Kate Spade

A and I went to have a peek around the new Covent Garden Kate Spade shop last week and we liked what we saw. I described it as “a bit like LK Bennett”, which isn’t going to set any hearts alight. But it’s much more cute and brightly-coloured than that – I think the London shop has had a more brutal edit than the US ones because the website reveals that the brand can be quite twee while Covent Garden’s stationary hit buttons on the whole scale from Smythson to Paperchase. It definitely hit my Glamour-reading funny bone as well with its many, many bows. I love a bow, and would have fallen ravenously on the handbag above if not for the hefty for the high-street price tag. And we LOVED the shop design, although the girl was right there so I was too shy to photograph anything. I know, I’m a bit of a crap blogger.

Intrinsically Florrie was a bit braver than us and photographed a lot of the shop but tragically missed out the best bit: the amazing cerulean corner with the perfect mid-century desk with sparkly shoes under it. It was the home workspace of our dreams and we have literally since been exchanging messages about what we would keep on it. I would keep a glass of milk on it. And the glass would magically refill when I’d drunk it all! And on the top would be the manuscript of the book I have written in Perfect World. It’s called something like “S Disconap: How I Achieved Lots of Respect in My Chosen Field and Made Everyone Like Me”.

I just checked and this stationary appears to come in every letter except…A. In your face blogbff!

Salut,

Satchel decision

I’ve been musing the potential for a satchel purchase and I’d like to update you on my quest. After seeing a Cambridge Satchel Company bag in real life, I decided the strap was too thin and that I really needed something heavy-duty, due to the high volume of books I will be carting around soon. Thus, and this isn’t surprising as 90% of my bags come from them, I’ve gone for the Marimekko Ladybear.

It’s massive! I bought it on my annual trip to Finland last week. I think this year’s holiday was the best I’ve had as an adult: all the necessities such as lake-swimming, fish-eating and visiting the grandparents all went off without a hitch. And no one got stung by a horsefly.

Lots of pockets:

While I was in Helsinki, I visited NEW shops I had never visited before, imported from Sweden: Weekday and Monki. I’d heard of them before, mainly from the Flying Saucer blog so I was quite keen to take a look. Only now that I google them is it revealed that Monki is aimed at teenage girls but I loved that shop and spent all my remaining Euros there. It was very brightly coloured and had weird little stuffed monsters as a mascot.

They seem to do fun twists on the basics and in addition, it is very cheap, definitely in the Miss Selfridge price range: a pair of trousers and a black sweater with frills (both of which I have worn incessantly since I bought them – pictures to come once they come out of the wash) came to 50 euros altogether. I could have bought loads more.

Weekday was a lot more trendy, in the vein of Acne or other Swedish designers. I liked their t-shirts but nothing magentised the money out of my purse the way everything in Monki threatened too. Perhaps I am just a teenage girl at heart, or I’m regressing.

S

South-west London’s bag trends

For a little while longer I will be living in swishy south-west London, before I move back to the area closest to my heart, the south-east. People from my home area do not carry designer bags because they will get stolen, end of. So moving over here to Posh London was interesting from a fashion perspective. Top bags on the arms of the lovely ladies of the SW:

The Mulberry Bayswater. This is the daddy of them all: simple, classic and 700 HUNDRED POUNDS. If you see a lady with this bag, you are looking at a £700 bag. I know bags are expensive but it’s still weird to be standing next to someone with this much cash slung over their arm. They are not short of a bob or seven hundred, clearly. But if you’re going to spend that much money, this is probably a safe bet. You will always like it and it bespeaks old-school British quality, lending subtle classiness to the rest of your no-doubt prim and proper ensemble.

The other Mulberry bag I see often is the Anthony:

Practical and much nicer in real life than this stern photo suggests because it’s so soft and nice. I see this most often on ladies who look like they own art galleries rather than run hedge funds (like the Bayswater crowd).

No Alexa has yet crossed my path but I know they’re out there.

I have a real soft spot for women with Louis Vuitton logo bags. There’s something so wrong about an item with such obvious logos and in celeb-land I find them tediously ubiquitous but in real life I think there’s something fabulous about an older lady with a nice blow-dry and her “it’s my money, I’ll spend it on what I like” bag mentality. Plus I imagine it’s a very well-made piece of kit, which isn’t at all a given with designer bags despite the prices.

Possibly even trumping the Bayswater in terms of how many of them there are about is the Longchamp Pliage:

It’s wipe-clean! Because it only has leather trim rather than being all-leather I imagine this is much more affordable than the other bags and I approve of its demeanour. A friend has this bag and it is very understated but nice. I am addicted to canvas bags but I have a nylon-y Luly Guinness one that they kindly gave us when we went and scoffed all their cakes and it makes a nice change. Possibly one day I will have a leather bag like a proper grown-up person (a post on the topic of my next bag purchase is to come).

Lastly, and not surprisingly because it is LUSH, is the lovely Petal to the Metal Marc by Marc Jacobs bag. I have looked at it on Net-a-Porter. I have fondled it in Liberty. I have seen it on several adorable girls in the vicinity of my house. Think skinny jeans, shiny brown hair, navy blue coat and this bag and then cry because you are not that cool chick with the bird bag.

And here ends todays sociology lesson.

S

Marc by Marc Jacobs birdies

These are the sort of bags that make you want to do bad things with the rent money.

S

My fabulous lifestyle

Well, you know, this blog isn’t all about A and I wishing we had stuff we can’t afford and photos of us in pumpkins. It’s also about our amazingly stylish and trendy lifestyles that you only wish you could emulate.

So, here are my tips for living up to my fabulousness:

• Get sacked. Seriously, it’s the new having a job.
• Spend three hours of your day in the jobcentre because, in the words of the kindly manager at Wandsworth “Jobcentre Plus”, where you went wrong was not giving your form to Susan. You know Susan! She’s the one you give your form to. Sorry, you’ve now been deleted from our system.
• Get toothache, go home and have a sad.
• Remember you now have a cat living with you and feel weird that it can see you sitting on the sofa with no trousers on.

The only good thing about today is that Igot to carry my new Marimekko bag around with me. Had you forgotten this is a fashion blog? Here it is in all its mustardy glory. Luckily, despite having no job, I have a lovely Finnish grandma who gives me Euroz and I spent them all in the Marimekko shop (not pictured: new additions to my napkin collection) (oh my god, I really do have one).

I think a whole other post should be dedicated to my learning to buy and apply makeup as I am not really that skilled at it. Magazines have never addressed how to make up a face whose most important feature is the cheeks.

S

TV on the Radio

A and I went to Brixton last night to see TV on the Radio, who I’ll happily admit I hadn’t heard anything by before but who were wicked. While we were waiting to be strip-searched and have all our possessions thrown away by security, we took some hurried photos of our outfits. I got the good wall but A has a better face on.

Speaking of faces – the evil pollen is back. I thought it was over for the summer? When can we start wearing corduroy again?

Rocking the black and navy workwear. This is my Dilophosaurus jacket – by rustling the frill I strike fear into the heart of those who would steal frozen dinosaur embryos. High-speed bag closeup:

I’ve finally escaped the tyranny of massive bags with my lovely little apple-print canvas Marimekko bag. I’m going to Finland in two weeks and will hopefully score a new bag from there. I have so many of them, I should do a post on them all.

A looked brilliant in real life too. Her eye-makeup matched her dress you know.

S

Owl

What the… a three and a half thousand pound crystal owl-shaped handbag? WIN.

There nothing more life-affirmingly quirky on earth than a bag that performs almost none of the functions of a bag and is shaped like some seemingly random noun.

The bag has sold out on Net a Porter, so I’m afraid, dear readers, you cannot buy it. Should have been quicker off the mark I suppose.

S

Cycling bag

I’ve had these cool Eley Kishimoto for Eastpak bags on my mind for a while now. I like their functionality – “oh, I’m just off for a cycle ride, as I often am” – combined with the awesome lightning strike print. Now that I am likely to be doing actual activities, like cycling on the new bike I’ll hopefully soon have, I feel like I can justify the purchase of this rucksack, now gratifyingly on sale at Hanon.

S