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Kipling Defea Rounded Shape
by sas87
Kipling is my go-to bag brand of choice - I love all the features of the Kipling basic range bags; super lightweight, great organisation, water resistant, huge array of colours and the novelty fluffy monkey keyrings! By the time I had my fourth child, I decided against the usual baby changing bag (that becomes redundant after 6 months ... or so) in favour of the lovely Kipling Defea - as it is the perfect size and can be used beyond the baby years.
The Kipling Defea is described as a medium bag, but I would say it's really much larger than you'd expect a medium bag to be, without looking enormous. Kipling have this clever knack of making bags spacious yet compact, usually by making them deep from front to back (or a large gusset if you prefer!). For arguments sake, the measurements are 33 x 24.5 x 19 cm. It's large enough to hold an A4 folder with plenty of space to pack it full with other bits and bobs, OR as a baby bag you can fit plenty enough for a full day out in the main section, leaving the front pockets free for your personal items.
The Defea has a main zipped section, which has inner drop pockets/slots for your phone, IPod, 3 x pens. It also contains an inner zipped compartment for extra security or privacy, and a clipped key cord. The key cord is one of my favourite features of Kipling bags - it makes it so much easier to instantly pull your keys out from all the junk in your bag, without having to rummage or empty contents out.
There is also a back zipped pocket, which is good for keeping items close against your body when wearing (such as your purse), and two zipped front protruding pockets - one of which has an extra velcro closed pocket and the other a diagonal zipped pocket. Each of the protruding pockets are a great size to hold items such as a camera in a case, or several items of makeup (I use one as a makeup pocket/bag). The extra little velcro/zipped pockets are small, but still useful for things like parking/bus tickets, pack of tissues etc. There's even discreet dip velcro pockets on either end of the bag where the strap attaches. The organisation is just brilliant with this bag!
The Defea has three methods of carrying; either by the grab handles (these may be long enough to go on your shoulder if you have slim arms), or you can attach the removable shoulder strap, which can be adjusted to fit over your shoulder or across the body. The handles and strap are made of strong cotton canvas, with a metal slider to adjust the length which is really smooth to adjust and holds it's position without slipping.
The material of the Defea (and all Kipling basic bags) is a very strong, yet very lightweight crinkle nylon. It's has a lovely matt appearance, with a slight sheen in certain light, and is of superior quality. It's hard to imagine a nylon bag looking good quality, but it's not the cheap shiny nylon you might expect. The advantages of the material over leather/suede handbags, is both the weather resistance and the weight. It also allows the bag to be packed completely flat or folded, to allow easy packing for storage or taking on holiday.
This is a perfect bag both for work, or as I currently use it - a baby bag. But of course you could use it for anything you wish. I could also imagine it being a good overnight or possibly even weekend bag (if you pack carefully. It's definitely a design that works with you, and one that will last a long time. The only downside with Kipling bags is that they don't wear out!
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Tula Mallory Small Zip Top Purse
by koshkha
~ A Distress Purchase~
The Tula Mallory small zip top purse is - as the name suggests - a zip-topped purse although it's probably larger than you might expect for a so-called small purse at 12 cm wide and 9 cm deep. I bought mine from the Radley shop at Cheshire Oaks Outlet village in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. The RRP for one ... of these is £15 and I was happy to pay just half of that for mine.
I've been a fan of Tula for about 20 years. I used to live in a suburb of Manchester which had an excellent Saturday market and one of the traders always managed to get really good Tula bags and purses. Consequently, it's a brand I always think of when I need these type of items. I had been using a really good Tula purse which had everything I needed in a small purse but after many years, the leather had started to split alongside the zip so I went looking for a replacement. The old purse was on its last legs and I was anxious to get something more secure but unwilling to spend a lot of time searching.
Sadly the type I had liked so much is no longer made and my options were quite limited. Strange as it might sound, I usually carry three purses or wallets. One is a Cross pink leather case for all my credit cards, another is a mid-sized Radley zip top purse for all my Euros and the last was the now obsolete Tula coin purse for my English cash. Ideally, I want something large enough to carry notes and coins and possibly one or two cards but I wasn't willing to invest too much time or effort in trying to find something.
~Tough choices~
The Radley shop had quite a wide range of purses but most were too big and too fussy or were too tiny to take more than a few pounds. My purchase of the Mallory was one of those 'I suppose it'll do' buys - not something I felt strongly about but it seemed to be fit for purpose. Over the weeks since I bought it, I suppose you could say we've got to know and tolerate each other.
The Mallory small zip top purse is very simple. It's just an oblong purse with a single zip and no internal divisions. The lining of mine is mid-blue fabric and the exterior is a pleasantly textured plum-purple leather. The fun part - and Tula is a brand that likes fun - is in the striped highlights around the edge and in the pull-tab. The purple leather is contrasted with the bright yellow stitching and the edge is trimmed in narrowly striped leather in purple, yellow, red and blue. On the front of the purse - if it could be said that a purse HAS a front and back - there's a striped multi-coloured leather button in the same colours as the trim. The pull tag has an inset of the same striped leather. On the back, the name 'tula' is embossed in yellow and blue.
~ It's not you, it's me. And this relationship isn't working for either of us~
I don't love my Mallory purse but I don't hate it either. The colour is a good one, bold enough to stand out inside my over-stuffed handbag but dark enough to not get dirty or grimy in use. The size is large enough for notes and coins and a few cards but the lack of internal structure or anyway to keep the coins separate from the paper and cards frustrates me a little. I can't afford to let the contents get too stuffed with receipts and odd notes or it quickly becomes unmanageable and I can't find anything I need without emptying the whole thing.
I've given it a couple of months to get used to it but this isn't going to be a long and happy relationship and I think I'm quickly reaching the point where I'm ready to go hunting again for something that suits me better. As a distress purchase, something bought in fear of its predecessor splitting and shedding coins all over the place, it's filled a gap in my life but it's not really what I want or need. It may take over as a holiday purse or find another use, but for carrying mixed cash and cards, it doesn't work for me.
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Coach Legacy Leather Rory Satchel
by Whizz11
I absolutely love handbags and have a bit of a designer collection going on. When I lived in the United States for a while I became familiar with the Coach brand of designer leather handbags. They are amazing quality and have some really classic, timeless looks and bags. As well as handbags they also produce other leather goods such as ... gloves, wallets, key rings but its the bags I love as they are really something special.
According to an article I read, "Coach was founded in 1941, in a loft on Manhattan's 34th Street, New York City as a partnership called the Gail Leather Products. Gail Leather Products began as a family-owned business, with six leatherworkers who made leather wallets and billfolds by hand."
It used to be that you could only purchase Coach handbags in America but they now have a store in London. Last year my husband went on a business trip to Miami and brought me back an amazing tan leather handbag called the Legacy Leather Rory Satchel. I had my eye on this one for a while as I like quite big bags so I was excited to get it.
On their website Coach describe this bag as, "A softer take on the tote, this slouchy, unstructured design is handcrafted in supple glove-tanned leather and finished with Legacy tassels. Interior mobile phone and multifunction pockets keep it organized, while the shoulder strap provides hands-free ease."
The look of this bag is amazing, the leather is very soft and smooth and it looks like a well structured, classic, well designed bag. The accents are gold, the zips are gold as are the studs on the large strap and the handle hooks are gold too. The words "Coach New York" are printed in gold on the front part of the bag, just a simple logo but effective looking. As means of decoration there are two leather tassles hanging from on of the handles and also a little leather Coach tag on a little chain. I think these give the bag a bit of a nice look but also are quite understated and work well with the classic look of the bag.
What I like about this bag is that the handles allow you to carry this bag two ways. You can carry the bag with the two small handles or throw it into the crook of your arm or you can use the long strap to throw it over your shoulder or across you body.
There is one large zip across the top of the bag and inside you get one big compartment which has a heavy duty fabric. This is hard wearing and has not ripped or torn or anything like that. On one side of the bag there are two little open slots which are handy for dropping my lip balm or the like in and then the other side there is a zipped pocket in which I keep any spare change, tickets, etc that I want to make sure stay in place.
On the outside of the bag there is another zipped pocket which is handy to put my keys or phone in so I have quick easy access to them.
This is a beautiful bag that I love carrying around and have had many compliments on. It costs in the £400 region but in my opinion is well worth it as it will last years. In fact, my mum has a Coach bag that she got about 30 years ago that looks almost as good as new, that is the beauty of Coach leather bags.
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