42. One of the last days of summer

Its been a long time between drinks girlfriend, but this just had to be shared.
Dark, dark, bitter chocolate with a smudge of olive. A complex and beautiful colour that the crappy Iphone pic does not do justice to.
Woven leather and canvas.
Coveting heavily.
It was possibly my last swim of the season. I was chastised for that remark by someone I know .... but I stand by my prediction.
North Bondi, early April.
The sun was hot but the sand was cool under foot, the season was changing. The water was clear and comfortable. Two swims and a lay on the sand. sigh.
I heart Sydney.

41. Why I cant watch Italian movies atm

Gift of a freind who recently returned from a 1 month holiday in Italy (Thx Wayne Cox)
I love a loafer, God knows I love a loafer: Im building a built-in just to house mine. (Hmmm note to self, possible new blog, something like I pap'd your loafer, OK maybe not)
Back to the Italian guy ... Im not a fan of the man bag, esp if said man bag comes with a chain shoulder strap.
WTF?
Having said that ... this image is considerably chic and raises much jealousy within me.
Hence why I cant watch Italian movies atm.
How can it be chic, Im confused, he's carrying a bloody purse with a chain strap and he's straight!?!
It makes me feel uneasy.
I have to stop looking now.

40. Hey Goldmember

I like big bags and I can not lie.
Never let it be said that I ever complain about the over sizing of a handbag.
I loved watching Nicole Ritchie (when she was interesting, b4 she got married, had kids and got kicked off TV) carrying handbags even bigger than her oversized head.
But I have reservations about this one.
OK, she’s got the Midas touch …. But she touched it too much (thanks Beyonce)
Hey Goldmember, hey Goldmember…
And when you’ve got a bag big enough to camp over night in, WHY carry your shopping in a Thomas Dux paper bag.
Isn’t that defeating the purpose of an extra large carry all?
I mean aren’t you supposed to be “carrying all” in it?
Hell, I don’t know, maybe she’s got an unlicensed day care centre in there and she didn’t want to mix cleaning products with her 3 year old daughters nap time.
Maybe she’s a bagoholic. (oh that’s new …. Im gonna use that again)

39. man crush

ho hum .... cotton shoulder bag.
But whack Marc Jacobs on the side and me likey.
Seriously, Id drink water if MJ made it.
OK ciao .... gotta go check online to see if he does.

38. as the dust settles

A couple of nights ago Tracy Grimshaw was wearing a space suit on ACA, masquerading as fashion.
It was a zip thru beige one-sie with HUGE shoulder pads and contour panels down the side of the bodice.
It was very Claude Montana circa 1987.
I should have taken a screen shot.
Its a shame she was stuck behind that desk because I really wanted to see her try a bit of Voguing.
You know, spread knee squats and flap your bended elbows around your head, sort of thing. (Madge is so last century now, lucky for her she lived long enough to see the 80's return and date that hot Brazilian boy)
The Gaga dust is settling over Sydney and I know we will never be the same again.
When stalwarts (I love using that word) like T.G get caught up in trends inspired by La Gaga, then our world has truly shifted.
I took the pic of the girl above the week Sydney was griped with Gaga fever and then kinda forgot Id taken it - until I saw ACA and it all came flooding back to me.
She's got yellow hair (the girl above not T.G) and this was not the result of some mild over / under processing home bleach job issue - this was full-on, vitamin overdose, golden, sunshine yellow tinted hair.
On purpose.
why 12 months ago we would have looked at her colour choice with a question mark on our face but now we know why - Gaga.
The bag, not really anything special, also has its roots in a recent Gaga look.
Id rest my case, if I had one.
(and wonder what bag T.G carried with that beige one-sie?)

37. Blatant patent abuse

This is painful for me to admit.
Normally I love anything in patent leather, and I mean anything.
But I have an issue with this bag.
Sit close now...
This bag is virtually apologising for itself.
I mean look at that mouth - and if you could understand its muffled Pelle dialect you would hear it yelling "Im sorry"
Its like an enchanted bin liner from H. R. Puff n Stuff for God sake.
It may well be the straw that broke the Camel totes back .... I may be over my addiction to black patent leather.
Stay tuned.

36. Woe be tide

Ive got a lot of ground to cover with this one.
You may have noticed that its more about the story than the bag sometimes, well I think Im going to have to use dot points for this beauty.
Lets start at the very beginning (a very good place to start)
Im at the Queer Screen short film festival thingy Awards @ Angel Place Recital Hall when it swims towards me, hooked over someones shoulder.
Is it a Carp or a very large Goldfish .... more importantly is it a handbag.
Yes, praise be!
This little lady thought "tonight Im going to carry the large, bright orange, lifelike (albeit unhappy looking) fish bag"
Thank you Jesus.
I got excited and fired up the Iphone. She was moving quickly and there was NO WAY I was going to miss this one, so I had to ask her.
Its a first ... I asked a complete stranger if I could photograph their handbag. It came as no surprise to her that I wanted a photo and she told me that her girlfriends name was Goldfish (we're not going to go there) and that was why she was carrying it (we're not going to go there)
Ha .... like she needed a reason.
Here comes the quandary part: What shoes do you wear with a bright orange goldfish handbag?
She chose blue.
Im not sure I agree with her choice of shoes, but then again I was still not quite sure about her choice of handbag, whose to say she shouldn't have attempted a pair of croc loafers (keeping with the aquatic theme) or even gone quirky with some orange Havaianas to compliment said fish bag ... this was a unique situation and called for an open mind.
She swam off into the crowd and we watched the short films.
Unfortunately I abandoned the dot point idea earlier and now I fear I may be rambling, but there is more meat in this sandwich if you stick with me.
After the show we all (I guess about 500 people) gathered in the foyer for champagne and things, it was absolutely bucketing down outside so we were all happily stuck quaffing free champagne and chatting.
Now the woe be tide part, the rain was so torrential that a wall of water came flooding down Angel place and washed through the front doors of the theatre.
Within minutes the whole foyer was 20cm deep in rain water, I rolled my jeans up and took my shoes off ... everyone did the same or headed for higher ground on the staircase.

It was magic.
Heaven.
We had 2 or 3 more drinks and enjoyed the floor show. I had all but forgotten the goldfish handbag at this time as we paddled and sipped our beverages amongst the watery chaos.
And, not unlike the song from the Lion King: The Circle of Life.
here ends the story.
Fish gotta swim.

35. M J

I just like the initials MJ.
No it wasn't a Michael Jackson sighting that inspired me to post this loud purple bag .... but rather Marc Jacobs.
At the beach again last week (Ive papped a few note worthy bags there recently) I stood in coffee line behind this vibrant mountain of nylon.
It looked like a ski parka was eating her right arm and shoulder.
And at Bondi, you never know where people are from ... I mean she could have just stepped of a plane from Iceland, for all I knew and, just as she arrived at North Bondi, realised it wasn't ski weather.
Anyway ... apparently its a bag.
Im a BIG fan of Marc Jacobs, I think he has a wonderfully simple and sophisticated design aesthetic.
Commercial and luxurious at the same time, savvy and sexy and smart (I mean smart in the head, not like "smart" the way 99 looks on Get Smart)
Ive kinda lost my train of thought with this one.
I need to get back into the coffee line.
Ciao.

34. Toe nails

So I really like a calico shoulder bag.
Not that I own one, I didnt say that.
Nor will I ever own one.
But I can like them sometimes.
This photo was a second too late, so we cant really see the detail of the artwork.
I was distracted by his girlfriends pedicure.
She had long pedicured toe nails.
L O N G.
Im not sure where you stand in the toe nail department.
But I am squarely positioned in the short and neat camp.
French Pedi if you must, but short and neat.
I think I threw up a little and snapped the pic a second too late (see what you made me do) and missed the detail of the Hare artwork.
It had a V cool hare painted on the side and it was a little spooky & a bit scary.
I liked it.

33. Metallicized

Where do I begin?
There was more to this bag than meets they eye:
I went to the opening of an exhibition at a gallery last week, champagne and small works in different media, some beautiful and some not so.
For the beautiful see www.lauracourtney.com
Some guy gave a speech about a donkey that went on and on and on, I guess it was not entirely about a donkey - but I tuned out pretty early on ... and I kept seeing this bag.
Its not anything especially special, except that the material is way cool.
I wanted to touch it, but that would have been creepy.
I think its leather and the finish is really good, I mean some metalics look cheap or plastic-y, but this was rich and lustrous and so futuristic.
Oh enough with the fucking donkey already, your shitting me and its hot in here.

32. Attention men

OK guys
Pay attention:
Simple and cool leather bag.
Note the lack of logos, use of simple colour ans styling and more importantly its not a Fitness First backpack (you will have read my views on those b4)

31. Phew

I wasn't back in the Eastern suburbs for 30 seconds before I snapped this one.
Phew ... thank God I live in the rich heartland of Paddington and not the GC (see below)
This was Summer savvy in heavy, camel / natural cow hide.
Chic, well styled, and individual.

30. Handbag hell

3 frigging days on the Gold Coast and all I got was this lousy out of focus photo of some tired old Jimmy Choo hobo.
Not even sure if it wasn't a HK knockoff, although the leather did look quite supple and I felt like Ive got to have something to show for 3 days in a casino.
Here goes, The Gold Coast is handbag hell.
First off they are all spit into 2 camps:
1) tourists
2) locals
Yeah its not rocket science to work that out, but there are 2 distinct tribes.
The touists are all carrying printed canvas totes, like someone made a rule about "ye must fling a poxy printed beach bag over your shoulder to have a good holiday"
Whats wrong with a little Marc Jacobs or even (if you get desperate) Kate Spade - they both do a more than adequate canvas knock about.
But oh no, our GC girls need a whole lotta cheap ass, brightly printed, throw up beach bag to tote their crap around in.
Next are the locals: Im not even going to make comment on this hot mess.
Oh what the hell .... I can spare one word.
Fake.

29. Old lady, young Chanel

OK so Ive been busy with Xmas and whatever.
Ive had blog guilt too, pulled my Iphone out of my pocket a number of times recently ... but people are just walking faster these days!
Maybe its the January sales?
But running beside some bitch with a Birkin is not exactly subtle.
So yesterday I was very pleased to see this old, old, old lady with a noteworthy bag.
It reduced her age by at least a decade, simply by carrying the shiny, perforated double C's! (decade is such a buzz word right now)

28. Urban

OK, I feel like I was a bit savage with post 27.
But sometimes you just have to get the bad stuff out to let some good stuff in...
Yesterday I saw this on my way to work, Great colour palette - Black and grey, very urban.
Black cotton maxi dress and a simple grey leather bag.

27. Oh my God

Note I chose not the use the acronym OMG.
I needed to type it out in full to express my true angst.
I mean, lets break it down:
By rights I am only supposed to be looking at the bag, but this time I can't control myself.
OK the 80's are back .... 2nd hand cotton tourist tote with Aboriginal print.. ho hum, I get it alright, Yawn.
But did you have to assault my eyes with that combo of polyester prints you chose to complete the ensemble?
Maybe you were stoned, or blind or both and clearly your girlfriend (to the right) should be left off your Christmas card list because she lets you leave the house looking like that.

26. Black over nighter

This boy was making an effort.
I mean it could have been a bloody Fitness First back pack for god sake, but it wasn't.
And Im not saying it was a GWP (gift with purchase) but he was wearing a lot of fragrance.

25. grey croc clutch

I loved this grey croc clutch until it blocked my view of the stage at the opening party @ the Powerhouse Museum.
Briefly... then it went back under the arm (its rightful place)
It was all very neat, flat and clean (oh and grey, my favorite colour)
It was after all the opening of "The 80's are back" exhibition ... so a lace dress was totally right right now.
I could then see Pastel, 3D, et all doing Xanadu, followed by Pseudo Echo (yes, for fucking real)

24. big brown vinyl shopper (seriously old school crap vinyl, but it works)

23. Sydney Opera House after party : "Satin pillows"