Can’t ignore the cross body bag!

I hope you had a great Christmas holiday and are having a fantastic start of 2011. I have to say that I had a really quiet Christmas this year,which was a great break from the really busy year.

Today I just want to engage your fashion sense and see if we can strike a balance between fashion and practicality and hopefully end up with a win-win.

I can’t help but notice that 80% of the ladies walking past the shop are carrying cross body bags. Actually most ladies will look at a handbag, love it then ask “does it come with a longer strap?” And that really got me thinking about the cross body bags and trying to figure out why people prefer to strap the bag across the chest. Personally I have been thinking of them as quite uncomfortable. But I don’t think my all these ladies are wrong.

So what I did was I ordered one. I knew that unless I tried it, then I will have no authority to write about it. So in comes this gorgeous, camel brown, genuine leather cross body bag. The feel is exquisite but to be honest am still having my reservations.

First thing that hits me, is that I can’t put all my stuff (read trash) into it. But that’s fair enough as I will use it on weekends. So I get in my necessities and to be honest it has more room than I expected. Then I strap it across my chest and it doesn’t feel as weird as I expected. The one thing that I absolutely love about it, is that unlike a hobo that keeps slipping off the shoulder while you are picking up groceries in the supermarket the cross body bag is in position throughout. Also if you prefer not to strap it across the chest then you can drape down the shoulder.

At the end of the weekend I was totally sold out for the cross body bag! But I still thought I wouldn’t carry it to work. However that problem has now been sorted. There are now cross body bags that are just hobos. Well I should have said hobos that are cross body bags. What they do is simply design a small hobo but with two straps that you can interchange depending on how you want to wear your handbag.  So you can use the short strap to the office and the long one when going shopping. I thought that’s a brilliant idea.

The thing about it just like with all handbags is, you have to be careful to get a good material. Otherwise it doesn’t look very nice and wont last very long. My take is if you want a nice cross body bag that will last long and look nice, go for genuine leather. It may be dear to purchase but will outlast man-made leather many times over and won’t tear easily.