So I finally did it. I bought myself a man-purse yesterday, after walking around Megamall like a window-shopping headless chicken for a solid hour.
Just to back up a bit: I’ve been considering this acquisition for a while now. The main catalyst was when my sister (god bless her) sent me a small vertical shoulder bag from Japan that looked like it had been taken straight out of Harajuku. I appreciated the usefulness of it tremendously; it was just the right size and weight for everyday use. The sole problem was that I simply could not seem to convince my friends that I wasn’t coming out of the closet every time they saw its scaly-leather-and-gold-studded countenance swinging along on my right hip. (I suppose that the context was the issue — if we were in Japan, that bag could quite possibly have been the manliest in the bunch. Here though, you’re talking Jansports and beltbags bought at Habagat, predominantly. It was a cultural thing, Lizz, sorry.)
Anyway, so I wanted a good vertical shoulder bag. That didn’t look like it belonged to Jimmy McElroy. And by golly, I wasn’t going to stop until I found one. (In retrospect, one hour of searching hardly seems like a monumental effort. On the other hand, I’m the kind of guy who can’t walk two steps without whining about it, so it was at least a decent effort.)
In truth, I didn’t even really know what I was looking for. I was literally going from accessories store to accessories store, just waiting for something to jump out at me from the rack. I had a couple of fakey encounters too. The main problem was that I didn’t think I was ready to go back to black leather (which ruled out most of the business brands like Samsonite and Pabder), but I didn’t like the rain-proof polyester sheen on the opposite side of the spectrum either (pretty much everything else).
And then I walked into Lacoste.
And there it was, sitting on a rack at the very back of the store. It didn’t jump or scream or otherwise broadcast its presence. It just kinda sat there, and effused the shelves with a warm glow.
Ok, so I’m exaggerating a bit here. But it was certainly the nicest little thing I’d seen all day and after walking around for nearly an hour, I was understandably relieved. I tend to go for subtle designs, and this particular bag was a dark, not-black color with just a few lines of light gray (and of course the telltale croc in the bottom right corner). Not leather, and not shiny polyester. It had a little pocket on the inside that for some reason took my cellphone in like the proverbial hand-in-a-glove. And it had a wallet built-in to the back, which essentially meant that you could use this thing standalone.
I was sold right there. Sure the thing had a price tag that was greater than my Samsonite laptop bag, but you can’t argue with destiny. Or that inexplicable need to indulge in the unnecessary. And hey, at least the closet door stays closed with this one, right?