In recent years I have acquired several vintage coach bags. The pre-1992ish ones are awfully nice; the pre 1980ish ones are fantastic (amazing leather, some interesting design quirks) but very clearly made for a time when people didn't carry as much stuff.
It's an interesting class thing - at my school, only the rich girls had Coach bags.
There's actually a lot of very nice American-made Coach knockoffs from the eighties, too. Many independent workshops/small producers/etc made them with very small changes from the original designs, and I assume that because the shapes were mainly so simple it wasn't worth fighting on the copyright front. "Unlined leather zip pouch with wrist strap" is really pretty universal.
Of course, what I actually carry is an undistinguished although very well made olive canvas bag (this one, but I got mine used and very, very cheap due to a careless ebay listing) because it holds my gym kit, mason jar of coffee, several books, etc. while also having an external pocket for my phone and wallet. I would love to carry one of the more elegant bags I own, but then I have to haul a gym back around too and I feel like any elegance points gained from the one bag would be lost with how rumbled and overloaded I'd look carrying two large ones around all day.
Anyway, nice bag!
Hah. My mother did buy me my first (and only) Coach purse in high school.
Green in a way that I haven't seen since the 70s.
Not a fan of the Muppets revival then?
I'm betting it's 80s, actually, but yes, I do love the color. I wonder if I can figure out what year it's from.
1978, if purses followed trends in bathroom tile.
I use a version of this bag and have gotten compliments from a weirdly diverse group of people, which amuses me. I'm tempted to get a fancier one with more pen loops but I certainly don't need one.
7: Yes, you can figure out what year it's from. There's a whole online thing about figuring out when Coach bags were made. Here is a guide. Also, almost all bags labeled "Made in NYC" are eighties or earlier; bags made in the US are usually nineties and I don't think there's any US production remaining. Originally, they had either a tiny metal plate or a little "Coach" stamp.
Coach is an illustration of how growth turns things to absolute garbage - you have a smallish firm producing a reasonable number of really brilliant bags basically up through the mid-nineties and then you have the garbage they make now. Even the bags that purport to be made in the original styles are pretty poor quality compared to what was being turned out in, say, 1994.
I feel strongly about this for no justifiable reason.
(S/b 'bags labeled "made in the US"'.)
I skimmed that link and been unable to figure it out - it says made in the US, not made in New York. D5C-9790, which is called the City Bag apparently, but I can't tell if its 70s or 80s. My guess is early 80s?
I don't know how exactly to describe what happened to them, but it's a function of designer-labelism. Until, as you say, maybe the mid-early nineties, they weren't really a fashiony company, they were a maker of high quality, sort of dull, bags. I mean, they were great, but not particularly with the flashy details, no responsiveness to current trends, just seriously well-made and designed boring leather handbags. Then people noticed they were great bags, which made 'Coach' into a meaningful fashion brand, and then everything went to hell.
I was hoping the whole online thing involved carbon dating.
Nope, it looks like it was made in 1995 (probably May) at one of the non-NYC US workshops. Which makes sense, as you don't see a lot of olive Coach bags of that general type (they are more often a richer green) but the mid-nineties was the era of dusty, off colors. (No popular colors in the mid-nineties looked good on me.)
On the one hand, not quite as old as you thought. On the other, a rare colorway!
The leather really does feel phenomenally buttery. More than I expected.
I need a new wallet.
You could get my wallet! They are pretty awesome.
Maybe I can't tell quality! Worse things have happened.
17: DNA testing used tissues to see what version of the flu virus was around then.
16 seems completely wrong. In a bid for growth, Coach consciously moved from a true luxury brand to a "mass luxury" brand, which basically means "garbage but with a luxury brand name". They are now an astonishing 23% of the US handbag market.
Also, yeah, olive was a big 90s color. I like olive.
Why even have a purse without brand prestige. A plastic bag can carry stuff just fine
I'm only familiar with the Coach bags popular in China, which are hideous and covered in giant Coach logos. That bag looked much more classic and attractive than I pictured (also, it made sense because HG doesn't seem like a flashy labels sort of person.)
Also, last year at a Ross I overheard two girls with really strong Midwestern accents probably in their early 20s talking about how they had saved up for Coach bags in HS, but now they'd arrived to the big smoke they felt too embarrassed to carry the bags. One girl said something like, "In my town in Iowa I felt so stylish, but here it just makes me look like I'm from a small town."
I know a guy who makes a living designing, collecting and reselling ultra high end school-style backpacks, mostly for the Japanese market. I think the top end backpacks go for $5000. It seems like a cool life of adventure.
I'm intrigued by the wallet linked in 20, but I have a policy against buying wallets for which I have to email the merchant just to find out the price.
28 is right. Also, the flappy thing looks annoying.
23: I'm not saying it wasn't a luxurious brand -- they were always very high quality bags, they were great. I'm saying it wasn't a fashiony brand, in the responsive to trends sense , or adding perceived value because of the label as opposed to the qualities of the merchandise. When that changed, it went to hell.
Is that some kind of pro rape charity that sells wallets or what?
I've heard Coach outlet stores are now hiring Chinese speaking sales assistants, because 90% of their customer base are Chinese tourists.
25
If you have a nice plastic bag (like not a grocery store bag), it makes a great carrier for books/papers and is actually very sturdy. Working class Chinese people use them as purses, and I did too, even though MC Chinese people made fun of me.
31: I didn't even notice the url until you said that.
28: £89 from a UK shop apparently. Pretty sure you can get them domestically as well!
21: My feeling is that the US-production bags from the 1990s are really quite good, especially compared to anything you can get now. (Seriously, almost every recentish leather bag I've handled feels cheap to me, with the exception of a very few small-maker super-high-end ones. If you want a leather bag and you want to spend a lot of money on it, you should see if you can find a small local maker; anything even sorta mass-produced now is pretty much junk as far as I can tell.)
The old NYC bags from the seventies and early eighties are phenomenal, though. The leather has this strange, silky, heavy yet extremely supple hand that is unlike anything else I've ever touched.
I have this adorable little double sided bag in a bluish grey, for instance - basically two turnlock pouches back to back - and it's just amazing (if you're the type of person who is amazed by bags, okay, so what, are you going to revoke my anarchist card now, you can't, ha, we don't even have cards). And the design is so clever and satisfying - the proportions are really good and the finish is excellent. But like a lot of those older bags in odd designs, they didn't make too many and I can't find a photo on the internet.
That's a lot for a wallet. I got this backpack for less than $89 (on sale).
I've been hankering for a green bag lately but thinking more leaf than olive. Green bags trending!!!
LB correct re coach sadly.
Oh, hey, topical location for an ATM:
For 20 years my book/work/travel bag was J Peterman's leather mail bag. But I wore the damn thing out*, and it's not salvageable for me (honestly, it's not super-functional as a work bag--no internal dividers/pockets--so it's not worth trying to repair for that reason alone).
So my question is: how can I not waste it? Much of the leather is still in great shape, it's thick and supple, and the brass zipper on the front pocket is rock solid. Do I just find a leatherworker and pass it along? Obviously I don't want $$ for the thing, I just want it to end up somewhere useful.
*mistake: I wore it while bike commuting, and it hung low enough that the knobbly tire of my mountain bike caused significant wear on one corner, which subsequently developed a hole; suspect fabrication/design: a tear developed between the reinforced upper portion near the handle and the body of the bag; wear and tear: one of the leather loops holding the D-rings half-tore from its rivet
Coach purses were my mother's lone luxury item. The rest of the family would give them to her at Christmas when the previous one had been deemed too decrepit (like, holes in the bottom, not slightly worn).
Several years ago, the boyfriend, his sister, and I got his mother a fairly nice Coach wallet for Christmas. No big logo or anything, but a stepsibling kept explaining, "Oh my god, a COACH WALLET! How nice!! I can't believe you got a COACH wallet!" I kind of wanted to be a total snob and tell her it wasn't that outrageously great a brand.
Also, I just bought my first car since 2009 (that car purchased used in 2000). Wow, cars sure are different! I had some modest requirements and a not-outrageous budget we'd saved for. I ended up getting a used BMW. I promise you, heebie, your embarrassment over the purse pales in comparison to the embarrassment of telling people you now own a BMW. (Stop telling people you got a new car, maybe, ydnew. But I needed to leave work to pick it up, and the loan required some personal calls for which I had to excuse myself, so I apologetically explained I was getting a car, which led to the question of what kind. And MIL was loaning us her old car, so we had to tell her, and then she told everyone she ran into who knows us that we were getting a new car, so they asked when they saw us.)
My wife got about 20 years out of one also. I personally don't see why she want to carry that much stuff in a bad with that thin of a strap.
Green bags trending!!!
Green is the new black. You heard it here first.
That's a great bag, heebie.
I had no idea that still existed. I can't not picture Elaine's boss.
It's not that we can't have nice things, it's that we can't have nice things after the point where they're widely known to be nice and it's fashionable to have them.
39
My roommate bought a new Mercedes about 3-4 years ago, and he lets us use his car whenever. There is nothing more embarrassing than driving to one's Obamacare appointment at the low income clinic in a Mercedes. I keep waiting to be turned into a Right wing meme.
Mercedes is the new Cadillac health plan.
Green is the new black. You heard it here first.
I myself just got (though haven't yet retrieved from the post office) some green-gray shoes!
Speaking of cars, I've been meaning to delurk and express some gratitude to R Tigre. Your endorsement a few weeks ago of the V60 Polestar was just the push I needed to actually try to convince the wife to buy it. Amazingly, it worked, I bought it, and it is AMAZING. I'd been kicking myself for not buying the CTS-V Wagon when they were available, but I think this is an even better choice. Keep having awesome taste in cars, RT!
48: Suitable for wearing on magical quests!
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heebie (or others but I thought heebie might know due to kids + Texas heat) -- any recommendations on a lightweight ring sling? Pebbles loves being in the Moby wrap but I find it to be uncomfortable in warm weather.
|>
Nice purse! I feel like I should have a nice purse or handbag, because I bring my Timbuk2 everywhere, but I am so hard on stuff that I think a beautiful purse would be wasted on me.
48: Spectacular shoes!
51.1: Not quite the same thing and I haven't dealt with a baby-baby but the Baby K'tan (sp?) has a mesh side that breathes well and I think there might be an all-mesh summer version that I would google before posting this if I were more helpful.
Is that an expensive car or do I just not know how much cars cost?
Oh, I guess I deliberately bought the Breeze with mesh and really liked it and got a lot of use out of it, but I'm pretty sure Lee threw it away or I'd send it to you. I only have the extra outer bottom-wrap part I never really used.
48: Nice!
46 made me laugh out loud.
Yes, but as I told my wife, it's a more than fair price if you consider the performance category and interior features...
48: Who made the boots? They look like one of those Japanese small-production brands, kind of. Also, are they wholecuts?
With what do you plan to wear them? I like that type of non-chunky, unusual suede boot, but they don't really seem to work with any of my actually-existing clothes.
58: In the long run, it saves money.
48: Who made the boots? They look like one of those Japanese small-production brands, kind of. Also, are they wholecuts?
Maurizio Amadei (whose brand is m.a.+). They aren't entirely one piece, there's a little tab on the side, so I don't know if they'd technically count as wholecuts. I have a pair of unambiguously wholecut derbies of his, too.
I had some modest requirements and a not-outrageous budget we'd saved for. I ended up getting a used BMW.
The one thing that I've heard about (some) BMW's is that their maintenance requirements can be higher than average (both that maintenance is more expensive, and that you don't want to defer maintenance), but otherwise they sound like nice cars.
I may have mentioned, I bough a car last year ( the first car I've ever purchased, though I had a previous car which I had inherited from my grandmother), and ended up getting a fancier car than I would have originally thought (10 years old, in good shape).
To the OP: I'm no expert, but I suspect removing the leather hanging tag would make the bag much less recognizable, at a distance at least, and have zero impact on function.
Have you no respect for branding? For the hard work done in marketing departments? For America?
Check out this video of the awesomeness that one of our commenters is experiencing. Bonus appearance by Nworb fishing in Sweden.
46: Because my life is basically a performance art dramatization of Piketty, I have no money but regular access to an Audi Q5. I keep wanting to roll down the window to yell to everyone that it's not mine.
OT: Somebody just went down the hall asking "Do you know you to send saliva?" I had to resist the obvious response.
63.1 is AFAICT true of most German cars. If you do those things, though, they run forever (in car terms). I think I'll be less embarrassed when it's 15 years old and I am still driving it.
67: If it helps you make a case, after driving it one time my wife said "I love it. I'm glad we didn't just get a run-of-the-mill Subaru or something."
Huge make/model/year differences for reliability in German cars. VWs/Audis before 2012 or so are famous for problems. Mercs are generally much more reliable than the other two brands. All are expensive to fix. I had a 2000 beemer for a while that had tons of problems, but was still worth it because it was fun as fuck to drive.
Volkswagons are lying bastards if they are diesel.
Now I feel like I've engaged in Sodor-style racism.
Check out this video of the awesomeness that one of our commenters is experiencing.
That video is perfect -- it makes the car look mostly fun* but didn't make me feel one iota of desire or jealousy. Just not what I want from a car. But I love that somebody on unfogged bought one because of RT talking it up.
* I like how they snuck in at the end, "oh, it has a terrible turning radius"
All are expensive to fix
Especially because of the German car luxury tax. Most shops apparently assume that if you drive a German car, money is no object.
Relatedly, the transmission just went out on the Mercedes I got from my mom, and the cost of a rebuild is twice the value of the car, so now I get to learn how to rebuild a transmission.
I like how they snuck in at the end, "oh, it has a terrible turning radius"
That's why you do the skid-turn like in the video. Also because cool and fun.
76.last: That amuses me, since the one actually great feature on my old, old Volvo--old enough for it to rent other cars cheaply, no longer be on its parents' health plans--is its amazing turning radius.
But that Polestar is very tempting. Dunno if I'd ever spend that much on a car, though.
Between the salt, the remarkably ability to people to sideswipe parked cars, the potholes, and the general habit of taking half-assed U-turns whenever the feeling hits, I'm also not big on spending money on cars.
In the past few months, there was been two parked cars near me that have been hit hard enough that they were not driveable after. And the guy who drove unto (not into) the grocery store.
In the past few months, there was been two parked cars near me that have been hit hard enough that they were not driveable after.
How near to you were they? If about the width of the car, you might need a prescription check.
I know one of them wasn't me. He was arrested in a bar that I wouldn't be caught dead in.
Unless they had a good special that night.
71: I had a Mercedes Diesel in 2003 that was from 85. Not super amazingly well maintained but running strong. It died when I pulled ahead and stopped before entering traffic, but the guy behind me accelerated into my trunk.
We got a 'new' car end of last summer. A low mileage used (but recent) Suzuki Swift. It's fine. Quite fast/nimble if you don't mind revving it hard, and a 90+bhp engine is fine in a small car. I am not bonding with it, though. I preferred the previous (French) small car to drive, even though this one has a higher bhp engine, and modern features (electronic stabilisation, traction control, ABS, etc.). It doesn't feel as sure to me chucking it around country back roads, which I do a fair bit routing round Oxfordshire traffic.
I had a 1995 BMW that was a blast to drive but started to cost a shit-ton of money to keep on the road. The final straw was when the alternator died at night on a road known for speeding, leaving me without even hazard flashers. I had three close calls before the police showed up and parked behind me with lights on to keep traffic away. Also the fucking car was the same color as the road, rendering it effectively invisible. I'm never again buying a dark colored car. My next one will be traffic cone orange if I can manage it.
Re: 87
http://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/ford/focus-st
I drove a 74 2002 from the mid-80s to the early 90s, finally letting it go when it was just too rusty. I bought a Passat new in 2000, which my son is now driving; aimhb, I got a 2015 Passat at the end of the year for 20% less than I paid in 2000. The 2000 finds ways to cost as much to keep going, quarterly, as the 2015's lease.
This isn't mine, but is exactly the same; it's cute as a button.
87: the prius c comes in a fetching habanero orange.
My dad and sister both have Swifts, and love them. My sister so much that so that she bought another one right after writing off the first. (First new car, 3 months after purchase. She drives slower now.)
89, 90 A friend in HS had had one. Very cute indeed.
88: nice, but a little darker than I'd like. I want to trigger migraines in susceptible people if they look at it too long. I probably need to just buy a car and get in painted.
re: 92
Objectively it's a pretty good car, and since I had the tyres replaced and tracking done this week, it drives noticeably better, and the irritating tyre noise is mostly gone. But I had a lot of affection for the old one, which turned out to be mechanically a bit suspect, but in other ways, reliable as hell.
I drove it through horrific snow on the M1 once, when all around me people were crashing, and spinning helplessly between jack-knifed trucks, while the little Peugeot just kept grinding along. There was me and a couple of teenagers in a Fiesta got out at the front of mayhem, while behind us, almost everyone in bigger, more expensive cars, spun helplessly, or ground to a halt.
I'd never use a spinning rod with the reel on top like that.
I know the conversation has moved on, but Urple if you're still reading, this is my wallet (I have it in black). It's great--super lightweight, sized for front-pocket carry, tough (I've had mine for three years and it looks like new) and I get complimented on it all the time. And the price is right.
Do the cards stay in? That material seems slippery.
That's very intriguing but I'm not sure it would work for me. I carry a ridiculous number of cards in my wallet. I've actually thought out getting a more minimalist wallet in order to help me break that habit (which I consider a bad habit), but I'm not sure I'm quite ready.
Thanks, Neb. Urple, it will hold 3-4 cards a side. If you're carrying store discount cards and stuff, can you get an app for your phone that stores all the barcodes? I think Apple has a native one, but I use Keychain and it works OK. Many chains also have native apps for their cards, which can be nice because they'll sometimes give you coupons/special offers.
102 made me realize I'm hauling around a bunch of museum/zoo membership cards I could keep in my car since that's how I'll get to the places where I'd need them. Suddenly I may be in the market for a cool wallet.
103 is my problem. I could possibly learn to leave them in the car. Hadn't thought of that. But I've got store discount cards too. Lots of them. Which yeah, maybe I could get an app. For some of them. And then there's health insurance cards. Three of them, I believe. And the magnetic card that gets me into my work. Plus credit card and bank card and ID, and it just adds up.
I could put my Southwest drink coupons in my carry-on bag instead of my wallet.
I have a brown one of these:
http://www.chiarugiusa.com/florence-bi-fold-credit-card-wallet-with-i-d-flap/
as per:
Not great photos, but it's just a nice traditional man's wallet. The leather is really nice, and I've had mine for at least 10 years, and it's still good. Not too bulky.
O.K. Drink coupons moved and canceled Zipcar card plus expired sandwich club card trashed.
#lifehack
I have one of the Dynomighty wallets that the link in 11 is based on. It's actually my second one; pace the link, they do eventually start to wear out a bit. They are very tough, though, and they hold a lot of cards, although you do have to be careful not to put too many in the end pockets or it can stretch the folding enough that they fall out. Still, highly recommended.
I've got SIX goddamn health insurance cards, because they can't fit six family member names on a single card. So I've got two cards each for general, dental, and rx. It's super annoying.
I wonder how many health insurance cards these people have.
If it makes you feel better, we have two cards for each person (dental and medical) with only one name on the card. And we don't have long names or anything. I think it is just their policy. I never carry the dental.
re: 107
That seems to be inflated US prices. The Euro price is about $80 USD, and I got mine from a shop in Oxford that was shutting down and dumping all of their stock, so I think I paid about £15 or 20 quid.
My life is turning into Mayberry. Or my neighbors are afraid I'm a serial killer so they say yes to whatever I ask. Either way, I just gave away a sandbox to a guy who was passing on the sidewalk with his kids.
So, it turns out some guy got stabbed just down the street. I can prove I was a dozen miles away, so I'm not going to be thought of as the guy who goes around stabbing people, but it seems darker than most Mayberry episodes.
116: actually Mayberry was a Gothic horror under that patina of small town friendliness.
I guess it was a woman that did the stabbing. I apologize for the sexism.
The contents of my wallet, other than cash: drivers license, four bar membership cards, magnetic card to enter by building, two credit cards, bank card, separate card with my actual bank account number, hsa card, three health insurance cards, library card, ten membership cards (zoo, Costco, two grocery stores, etc). 25 cards in all.
You don't need a card to get into a bar here, except your state ID if you look young.
re: 119
3 bank cards: personal account, joint account (general bills and spending), other joint account (rent only); one credit card; University card (i.e. library card, and my staff card); NHS prescription exemption card; local library card, and son's local library card; driving licence.
OT: Am I the only person who picks lunches based on how many times I have worn my shirt since I last washed it? That is, if I put on a fresh shirt that morning, I won't go for noodle soup but if I've already worn it three days, I may as well go for the soup since I'm going to have to wash it whether or not I get soup on it.
I don't wear shirts more than once, but I do pick lunches based on whether I'm wearing a formal shirt or not, to a certain extent.
It's hard to get A&P sauce out of pleats?
And the shirt survived to see Day 5.
