My Handbag Collection Louis Vuitton Eclipse

Apologies in advance for what will appear to be my jumping on the current trend for bloggers sharing their designer handbag collections and unboxing of new purchases but I've had in mind to share my collection for some time and there are some long term readers who have been requesting this for some time. Yes Candypop I'm looking at you!

It seems the done thing is to offer disclaimers and various justification for such expensive purchases but I hope you don't mind I'm not going to do that and instead assume you all know me well enough by now to know this isn't designed to show off. I also hope the stories behind how they came to be in my collection will be somewhat interesting for you as I'm afraid rarely much thought is given to their purchase other than for aesthetic reasons!

Moving on. The first bag that came into my collection is the now discontinued Louis Vuitton Eclipse but before I discuss the bag itself I must take you back to explain why a Louis Vuitton bag was so coveted. As a child I had a friend whose mum owned a shop in our local high street. This was not just any shop, it was of course the 80s, Dynasty era and the shop she owned was a treasure trove of costume jewelry that sparkled. Who remembers those diamante spider brooches? Yes these were stocked in abundance.

For a young impressionable girl this mum was rather unique in both having her own business and also a rather special handbag I admired. It was a Dior print such as this and somewhere I'd aligned it with Louis Vuitton and so that became the brand I lusted for. The bag I wanted was the Alma which is rather a mature bag for a young girl to desire and I can even remember receiving a plain black version from Marks and Spencer for my birthday as it was the closest I could get to owning such a thing. I remember very clearly walking along holding the M&S 'dupe' as we could call it now and pretending it was the Louis Vuitton Alma. It was almost like I was practicing for the day it would be mine.

Fast forward a few more years and my love for Louis Vuitton had not changed but things were rather different then in that designer handbags, certainly not in the circles I mixed in, were not things girls in their early twenties were using or justified buying, so it seemed. Of course you'd spot older girls in clubs and bars using Louis Vuitton make up bags as clutches that were obviously all they could afford or had been pinched from their mums but it wasn't like today when I sit on a train and see all manner of designer labels of varying price ranges, adorning women of all ages.

One night my friends and I were in our local nightspot and discussing our love of Louis Vuitton I said I would marry any man that brought me a handbag from there. A gentleman in our group brazenly responded he would buy one. And many months later he did. Did I marry him? Sadly not although we were engaged for a brief time but the romance with my Louis Vuitton bag lasted longer so don't feel sorry for me.

I'm unsure why I picked the Louis Vuitton Eclipse over the once favoured Alma but I would suspect it was that it was similar in style, even today I usual lean towards top handled bags, but with a difference. And boy did I love that bag although I haven't used it for years. The photos for today's post were taken when visiting my brother and his family and my mum, who now has 'custody' of the bag, was accompanied by it.

The biggest downside for this bag is it's so structured and round that it doesn't allow for filling with all the daily essentials, particularly those of us that like to carry a book or similar size/shaped items which is why I have others in my collection which take preference. As a regular user of London Underground I tend to like a bag that I can zip for safety reasons. The other issue I often contend with, and why I like Louis Vuitton for it's repeated pattern is that I'm left handed meaning that to have the zip 'my side' often the design of the bag would be hidden or I'm exposing the zip to wandering hands I can't see behind me.

At the time this bag was about £300, oh to be able to find Louis Vuitton for that price now and it has since been discontinued which does make me enjoy it a little more. Perhaps it's time to remove it from my mum's clutches and give it another whirl.

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