3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just a little too pricey, otherwise fabulous, December 2, 2008
This review is from: Hype Amanda Cross-Body Flap (Apparel)
Edited to say I had to return it in the end because the bottom of the compartments are narrow, sewn together like an envelope, so they didn't expand enough to hold some of my wider items like camera and Filofax. I would take off another star but Amazon never seems to let us do that.
**
I've always loved shopping for handbags, but have never spent "a lot" on them other than a few oldies-but-goodies from Coach back in the early 1990s - the good, classic leather stuff, not the expensive fabric things they're producing now. When I saw this bag at Endless I fell in love with the picture of the "multi" color, and since I had some Amazon gift vouchers I popped over here to see if they had it. They did, and it was also discounted the day I bought it! So I ordered it. I would not have paid the full price for this out of my own pocket simply since it's so funky-looking and may not hold up (style-wise) after repeated seasons of wear.
It's a nice quality bag, with the snakeskin print and bold hardware giving it a lot of flair on what is otherwise just a pretty basic flap bag. I like the shorter top handle for moving the bag around (for example getting in and out of cars, or reaching for it in a restaurant to get my wallet out), and the long cross-body strap would be great for wearing while wandering around, like while shopping. Because it's divided, it's super organizable, and an added bonus I hadn't realized is that the center divider is actually a zippered compartment. Under the flap in front is an open pocket. The main compartment is divided in two by that zippered compartment I mentioned. On the inside back wall are a zip and a slip pocket, and on the inside front wall are a few slip pockets.
One design niggle I have is that the shorter handle sticks up even when you are wearing this cross-body, which has a strange effect. I solved this by clipping the cross-body strap in front of the rings for the short handle, so that when I wear it cross-body, I can fold the short handle down in back of the bag and not have that sticking-up loopy look. Perhaps having the short handle on two linked metal rings, like a looser chain effect, would allow it to lay flat more effectively.
Another niggle is that when full and sitting on a flat surface the bag keeps wanting to fall forward.
For those of you interested in color descriptions: I assume the blue on my multi bag is the same one used for the "Ink" bag and the red on mine is the leather used for "Rouge." Overall (from a distance) the blue is pretty much like a true blue Bic ink color, or a "new denim" color. Not a deep blackish blue. It leans very slightly towards the purple. From a distance the red is a light brick red color. Not one of my faves, though it's only on the trim of this bag so I can live with it. Both of these colors are lightened somewhat by the snakeskin embossing, which takes the solid darker navy and solid true brick red and creates lighter areas where the embossing machine did its magic. A nice touch on the trim is that the cross-body strap is Ink on the side facing the world and Rouge on the side against your body; not a huge design element, but cute.
The only thing that worries me about the longevity of this bag's construction (as opposed to 'how fast will it go out of style' :-) is that the handles are attached to the top of the flap, and the flap closes with a buckle. This means that when you are carrying the bag, a lot of strain is placed on the part where the flap attaches to the buckle. Basically all the weight of the bag is on that small area and on the piece of leather that makes up the back of the bag. I think Hype could have done better to make at least the cross-body strap (if not both straps) attach to the sides of the bag rather than attaching to the top part of the flap.
A warning! Do not pick this up by the handle if you have not clipped the clip shut! The bag tilts forward from the point where the handle attaches, and will spill your contents everywhere. Ask me how I know this. Ha ha.
Anyway, in summary, I would happily have paid $120 for this without a qualm...I think $225 is too high...but with my combination of gift certificates, Amazon's discount and the Prime shipping, my price (while not as low as $120) was still acceptable.
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