A Woman's Handbag - a new perspective

I was out bag and shoe shopping with an Image Quest VIP recently at Ricardo Ferro in Ivanhoe, Melbourne.  It's a unique and fabulous experience for accessory shopping in Melbourne's North East suburbs.  Joe and Ivana import beautiful Italian shoes and bags at a fraction of the price you might expect to pay elsewhere.

What I really love about this place is the SERVICE!  Staff know their product and go out of their way to assist and genuinely serve the client.  Rare these days.

My divine client was looking for a bag to house her ipad and other bits and bobs she carts about.  It needed to have a shoulder strap to enable her to be hands free.  Some of the bags fitted the bill but did not have the shoulder strap.  Mmmmm ......

Over the arm!

Joe commenced a conversation about Australian women and their desire for the shoulder strap on her hand bag.  Interesting to note that in Italy, women wear their bag over their arm as an accessory to the outfit.  They would not even consider using a shoulder strap.  Why?

1. Potential damage to the garment at the shoulder line
2.  Potential damage to the body of whacking the spine out of alignment due to the bag weight
3. It just looks bad

Italian women also love a coloured bag.  We feel so much safer wearing a black or beige bag, eh?

Beige Bag

Seems us Aussie sheilaghs have a way to go in the fashion stakes.  We think we are focused on function rather than style, yet we are doing ourselves some damage in the process.

My VIP is now strutting her stuff with her bag over her arm.  Her fears about looking like the Queen Mother have now vanished into thin air!

Methinks we can have it all, function and style by wearing the bag over the arm as opposed to the shoulder.  So if it's ok for the Queen, it's ok for me too.  Off I go wearing my bag over my arm today as I phaff about looking stylish .......... Keeping my spine in line and health in check.

Where do you wear your bag?