It's a Relief it's Gone~

I know that Hollywood celebrities have made the bbag (Balenciaga "motorcycle bag") an "it bag" that won't go away. And for the longest time, I couldn't understand the appeal of them. They had all these long fiddly tassels and I thought they were pretty ugly... until I actually a held "first"* at Neiman Marcus.

Haha. So the bag that I thought was "soooo ugly" was actually kind of... cute, except for the price that is. And being a color lover, the fact that the bags came in all sorts of fun colors won me over. About two years ago I took the plunge and purchased my first bbag off Ebay... a giant gold hardware City in French Blue. (Don't worry... it was authenticated by the fab ladies of TPF :P)

I can honestly say that I liked it. Since I favor hand-held bags and bowler bags, I liked the double handles. The strap was convenient too when I needed my hands to be freed up.

But...what I didn't like about the bag was that the color faded. WHAT THE HELL BALENCIAGA?! The primary reason why I bought this bag was because of the beautiful saturated cobalt blue color!!! And it faded! I then looked at threads in TPF's Balenciaga forum and found that fading was actually a common issue, especially for blue and purple colors. The members hypothesized that these colors had issues due being partially made up of red pigment, which is a notoriously unstable color (e.g. in hair dye). Others hypthesized that the bags were not colorfast because of the soft "unfinished" leather Balenciaga is known for.

I thought to myself, what a bunch of bull. These bags are not cheap and they can't even maintain the color which they are famous for. It's probably some kind of scheme to get you addicted to buying them, only having to replace them once they get kinda icky/discolored/old.

By the way... that's not my only grievance with the bag. The leather on the bag is EXTREMELY fragile and delicate. After a few months of use, my bag started to look a little worse for the wear. And now, two years later after my purchase, the bag looked kind of beat up.** I'm one who takes pride in their possessions. Just look at the condition of my makeup. I use everything meticulously and keep it neat and clean. I am an anal person about certain things. I do not treat my things like trash. Yet... despite all this, my bag was starting to kind of look like trash!***

What the hell? I just couldn't deal with it. So I sold the bag on ebay... and I can tell you I'm relieved. This bag was high maintenance and heavy. Even nekoball commented on the weight of the bag. He asked me what I put in my bag. Sadly... at that moment my bag only had my wallet, keys, cellphone, and makeup bag. I estimate the bag to weigh about 2.5 - 3 lbs when empty.

So here is a parting photo of the bag. Look at me shake it in anger. Haha. Just kidding. I will kind of miss the bag... it is still a lovely color, despite having faded.





* "First" is a style/model of bbag
** In the bag's defense, I did not spray the bag with leather protector. I have not used a leather protector on any of my other high end bags and those other bags are fine. It should be noted that bbags are more delicate.
***I actually own another bbag. It is a City with Giant Silver Hardware in the color Sapphire. However, I have not even used it due to my fear of damaging the bag. I will acquire a leather protector before even attempting to use the bag.