I don’t know about you, but when I fall in love with a particular handbag at first sight, it often doesn’t last. I liken it to the crushes I had in Junior High School. Sometimes, when you fall hard and fast, you hit the ground with such force that when you wake up, your face cold from the cement slab, you come to your senses. Such is the same with me and handbags. Those, in which I fall hard for, often don’t hold my attention and are destined for the dustbag. The guilt I feel when they peek out saying, “take me out to play today,” causes as much guilt as me brushing aside the advances of an eighth grade drummer I worked so arduously to gain his attention.
I gave the YSL Mombasa the quick once-over – ho-hum. A deer horn attached to the top of leather shaped somewhat like the water canteens we used to wear in Grammar School plays back at School No. 9 in Clifton, NJ, acting out Paul Bunyan and Davy Crockett. Yawn. Plus, a deer’s antler? How impractical is that? Could it withstand hours on a shoulder while slumming at the local mall? Plus, I already had a deer horn in my collection. OK, it came out of our car grill by our mechanic after an unfortunate accident with a deer on a back country road who was “in the rut” (huntspeak for ‘in heat’). But for some odd reason, I was drawn back to the bag and being the good librarian’s daughter and my obsession with researching anything to death to avoid “work”, I learned more, appreciated the unique bag and discovered it would be or is already considered a “classic.”
As one who has to stretch each purse dollar, that prediction of it’s classic status was the bait that drew me closer, circling, and giving me the hook, the justification to plunk down my cash at hand. And when I saw Nicole Richie carrying the purse, daintily in front of her walking into some club or restaurant, I had to have it. It became an obsession. The sleek design fits in perfectly with the Texas tendency to add a little Western flair without strapping on a cell-phone sized belt buckle. The YSL Mombasa is understated and gives just enough tweak to jeans for a day of running errands to enough class for a night out on the town. The deer horns YSL uses in the Tom Ford-designed bags popularized by Gwyneth Paltrow are are naturally shed. Whew! And, yes, the balance on the shoulder is quite comfortable and can be carried for hours as you browse through the sales racks. The smooth leather with four triangular pieces is handsome and durable and quite roomy. And, unlike the crush I had on one young drummer in my Junior High School band, my love affair has lasted much longer and is much more satisfying.
