I know a collector of handbags and I spoke to her recently about her pursuit of the purse. In our chat, we talked about many of her handbags being in the same colorway or color scheme. That is, in the same color family – like all black or brown for example.
As a fashion expert, she noted that bags repeating the same color scheme is not necessarily a bad thing. (Budget considerations aside, of course.) Her point is – as long each same-colored bag serves a purpose in your life, they may be worth keeping in your closet.
For example, she let me share with you her black handbag collection. She has:
- Black Birkin 35cm Barenia with palladium hardware.
- Black Box Kelly 32cm in gold hardware.
- HAC (discontinued leather) 32cm with Gold hardware (akin to a Birkin 30).
- Chanel Black Caviar Jumbo Flap bag with silver hardware.
- Prada Nylon Crossbody
Sizes and Hardware
Each bag listed above is a different size. Thus, she has a bag that meets life needs – dinner out, lunch with friends, grocery shopping, or work. If you noticed, she also rotates the hardware on her bags between gold and silver. Each gives the bags a certain look (silver being more casual with the gold being more formal) – along with each handbag having the ability to match jewelry.
Bag Leather
Lastly, each bag has a different leather, which also gives the bag a purpose. The Birkin 35 size along with the Barenia leather makes it a workhorse/ casual bag, vs. the Black Box Kelly 32 is more formal and sophisticated.
She loves black. (Heck, who doesn’t. It is a great neutral.) So it is a color she also uses a lot with her outfits. So, she reaches for black a lot. Then she is able to reach for the right black bag based on her vibe and her daily activities.
So if you love a certain color – pink, red, brown, tan – repeating a colorway in your handbag wardrobe is not necessarily a bad thing. While you may want to spend your dollars on a rainbow so you have a bag that matches anything, it is not the only way.
What to Do
While she has Hermes and Chanel bags, the concept still applies to whatever designer or non-designer bags you have. While she went with leathers, it can also apply to non-leathers, such as nylon or vegan leathers. So don’t get hung up on the type or brand name – but rather the story or purpose of this post.
Consider sticking with neutrals and assembling a purse collection that has three or four sizes in that neutral. (See what neutrals you should have in this post here.) Then you can splurge on a few ‘outliers’ (aka colors) that you love for fun occasions.
So, you’ll have a bag that fits any part of your life – and be ready to meet whatever day it may be!
