By VIVY YUSOF
alltherage@thestar.com.my

Designer or not, handbags are heaven-sent for girls. Think for a second how our lives would be if no one invented the handbag – cellphone in right hand, purse in left, make-up bag on head, keys inside our pants … the world would be hilarious!

We always take something for granted until it is not there anymore. Our handbags are always there for us – there to help us carry all our junk like a worn-out hairbrush and Mamee packets, there to shield us from the rain, there to help cover our faces when we’re hiding from people, etc.

It is no surprise that handbags are the main cause of many women’s credit card woes (the other one being fine jewellery). My dad’s wrinkles on his face are partly my fault, what with my spending on designer handbags when I was still living in Britain.

I would spend my allowance on a gorgeous leather handbag from Miu Miu, and live on noodles for a month. No pain, no gain! I was one of those girls who would go to great lengths for a handbag like sprinting to the boarding gate because I lost track of time and spent too long at a handbag the store, or covering my handbag instead of my head when it’s pouring like crazy on the streets of London.

People there are much more fashion forward and new “It” bags emerged almost every month from Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Judith Leiber, Chloe, Louis Vuitton, you name it. Everything was within reach and the price in British pounds seemed a lot more “attractive” since they would have fewer digits (back then, a RM6,000 handbag in Malaysia would just be £900 in Britain). Same value, but you feel like it’s “cheaper” in Britain because the numbers are smaller.

I was like a mad woman then, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at new shop displays everyday on the way to university. How I managed to graduate is still a mystery to me.

Ginza Tanaka's diamon-studded Platinum handbag.

Did you know that the most expensive handbag ever sold is the Ginza Tanaka Platinum handbag? At a cool US$1.63mil (RM5.2mil), this handbag is covered in thousands of diamonds and features an eight-carat pear-shaped diamond that can be worn as a brooch. The bag’s straps can also be taken off and worn as a necklace or bracelet. It’s multi-functional, so US$1.63mil price tag seems fair then. Just like the RM70 char kuey teow I had earlier (note the sarcasm).

The second most expensive handbag is from Chanel. The luxury brand’s Diamond Forever Classic handbag features loads of diamonds on it, too, and when it was launched in December 2007, it was priced at US$261,000 (RM861,300).

Can you imagine if you had one of these bags? Let’s not even talk about the guilt of flaunting such wealth on a single item when there are starving people out there. Where on Earth would you bring these handbags to? Fashion events just don’t cut it!

Chanel's Diamond Forever handbag

The purchase of either of these handbags would only be justified if you brought one of them for tea with the Queen, right in the middle of a fashion event because obviously you’ll need an audience for the bag. And quite possibly an insurance policy, too.

Women, we are really a bunch of puzzling creatures. Put a “CC” logo on a tree bark and we’ll buy it, hoping we’ll grow more Chanels in our backyards.

“But this is a really nice bag! I have never seen a bag this nice before.” I used to always say this and every time I do, my loved ones will just shake their heads. Because they know that to me, it would just be the nicest bag that day.

Tomorrow, somehow another “really nice bag” will appear in the window display.

“When will you ever learn?” my dad would ask back then.

Today, I can answer him with full honesty: “When I started earning my own money.”

Starting my own business and knowing how difficult it is to earn money really opened my eyes. Everytime I get that salary slip, I will think a hundred times before splurging on anything. Suddenly the pink ostrich Hermes Birkin bag I dreamt of was going further down the priority list, and all I want after a long day of work is a good mattress to sleep on.

As much as I like to advocate the value of money to teens out there, I still insist that it is alright to dream of something. In fact, I encourage everyone to want something badly and work hard towards it. It can be a nice sports car or a limited edition Louis Vuitton bag, it doesn’t matter. Let that dream be our motivation to upgrade our lifestyles and excel in what we do.

Pink ostrich Birkin, you’ll be mine someday.

* Vivy runs FashionValet.net. Follow her on Twitter (@VivyYusof) to find out how you can help fulfill her dream of buying her very own Birkin bag … kidding! 🙂