Making a bags of it.

One of the things I miss about my daily commute to work - actually, it might be the only thing I miss about it - is the people-watching opportunities it presented. Checking out handbags and ogling coats and drooling over boots and shoes... it was nearly like window shopping. Well, without the benefit of actually knowing where to procure the lustworthy item in question. And with the risk of being caught staring at someone's bag/coat/footwear like a fetish-y stalker freak.

Anyway, there was one handbag that I must have seen a gazillion times if I saw it once, and that was a black patent quilted shopper from River Island.

The "Love This" is River Island's sentiment, by the by, not my own.

It was damn near ubiquitous, and while I was rather taken with its patent, quilted ways, overall I disliked it intensely. I thought it was just, well, meh. Boring shape, and the badge - er, have Rock & Republic seen this? - just looks slapped on without a whole heck of a lot of thought. The reinforced hole yokes grommets for the handles are good news, because they usually mean you can load everything and the kitchen sink into a bag without worrying that weight will cause the handles to tear off it, but then those chain handles look like they'd shred your shoulder if they were put under any kind of pressure.

So I was a teensy bit surprised to fall hard for its sister laptop bag (which incidentally was part of my Christmas haul from my own sister!) It is done no justice whatsoever in the following photo from the RI website, but my camera is out of power and I'm not quite up to the mammoth task of rooting out the charger.

Doesn't actually have a little pot belly or faded side in real life.

The Rock & Republic River Island badge is a bit more logo-like, thanks to its encircling silver, well, circle, and the fact that it's on that foldover flap. And there are kind-to-your-shoulders inserts on the chain handles.

Now this, this is something I'd definitely have ogled from the bus.