Somewhere along the way, I stopped choosing bags I loved and started choosing bags that would do.
Six things about the Handmade Mosaic Horse Bag that made me reconsider the plain, sensible bag I thought I wanted.
Susan Thompson · Customer · Calgary, Alberta · 5 min read
I am 63, and I want to start with a small admission. I have very definite opinions about what I like. Flowers on the kitchen table. A proper cardigan. Colours that remind me of October. And horses, which I have always thought were rather better looking than most things people put on handbags. Yet if you looked at the bag by my front door, you would discover precisely none of this.
It is brown. Before it, there was another brown one. There was a black one in between, bought in a moment of what apparently passed for adventure. All perfectly sensible. All chosen because they would go with everything. Somewhere along the way, I forgot that “everything” ought to include me.
The bag I am writing about is called the Handmade Mosaic Horse Bag, from Marys Calgary. There is a horse across the front, in gold, rust, cream, burgundy and blue. The sort of design that makes you lean a little closer because you have noticed another colour in the mane. It prompted a question I had not asked myself in a while. When did I decide that something useful had to be something I felt absolutely nothing about?
The horse design, close up. There is rather more to look at than another brown rectangle.
Here is the trouble with buying a bag only because it goes with everything. You can become very good at finding reasons to be sensible and quite out of practice at noticing what you actually like. Too colourful. Too different. Where would I take it? Then you remember that you go to the library, meet friends for coffee and buy bread like everybody else. None of these activities requires a brown bag.
I had been matching my bag to my coat for years. Matching it to myself had somehow not occurred to me.
Of course, a lovely horse on the front does not answer every question. I still want a bag to be useful. At my age, I am quite capable of admiring something and asking where the zip is. So here are the six things worth looking at.
The morning it arrived. It popped up standing and has not slumped since.
The horse has a little personality. So do I.
What catches my eye is the way the colours make up the horse’s face. Cream beside burgundy. Gold running through the mane. Little stretches of blue between the warmer shades. There is something quite satisfying about a useful object that gives you a reason to look at it twice. And if you have always had a soft spot for horses, you will understand why this one needs very little explaining.
I spent years choosing bags that went with everything. The horse is the first one that feels like me.
Ann B., TorontoThe colours give a plain outfit somewhere to go
Most of my wardrobe has already made up its mind. Cream, navy, denim, a little brown. Clothes I like, know and have no intention of replacing. The horse design brings colour to that sort of wardrobe without asking for an entirely new one. I can picture it beside a navy cardigan or a simple cream jumper. The clothes can remain perfectly quiet. There is quite enough happening in the mane.
Gold, rust, burgundy and blue. Plenty of company for the colours already hanging in the wardrobe.
Mostly navy cardigans and plain jumpers in my wardrobe. A little colour on my bag makes perfect sense.
Gail F., VancouverThere is a zip across the opening
This was one of the first practical details I looked for. An open tote can be lovely, but I prefer the option of closing my bag. Particularly when I am bending down, sitting it beside me or putting it in the car. The product description lists a zipper at the opening. A small detail in the grand scheme of things, perhaps. Less small when the things inside happen to be your things.
I can admire the horse and still ask whether the bag closes. Both seem reasonable.
The horse caught my attention. The zip was the practical detail I looked for next.
Susan H., MontréalThere are pockets inside, too
I have never understood why finding a key should require taking everything else out first. This bag is described as lined, with pockets inside. That matters to me because I want somewhere to organise the little things, rather than simply giving them a larger place to disappear. A lovely outside gets my attention. Some thought about the inside keeps it.
Lovely on the outside is one thing. Pockets inside matter when you can never find your keys.
Brenda W., OttawaThe care instructions allow for ordinary life
The fabric is a quilted cotton-and-polyester blend, and the care instructions say it can be machine washed on a gentle, cold cycle, then air dried. No bleach. That is reassuring to read. I am not looking for something that needs its own set of household rules. A bag is meant to leave the house. It will encounter ordinary days, and ordinary days are not always spotless. There is a particular pleasure in finding something decorative that does not immediately sound like another responsibility.
The washing instructions were a pleasant surprise. I like pretty things that leave room for ordinary life.
Kathleen M., WinnipegThere are two sizes, because we do not all carry the same day
Some women leave the house with the essentials. Others seem to be prepared for a change in the weather, a delayed lunch and somebody unexpectedly needing a tissue. I shall leave you to decide which sort you are. There are two size options for the horse bag, so you can consider what you actually carry before choosing.
And if you enjoy looking, the wider Handmade Bags collection includes other animal and floral designs. Though I suspect that, if you have read this far, you may already have your eye on the horse.
Mine, and the dragonfly one I am pretending I have not decided about.
Two sizes to choose from. Apparently not everybody leaves the house prepared for three changes in the weather.
Norma J., EdmontonThe bag that will do, and the one that catches your eye
There is nothing wrong with a plain bag. But “there is nothing wrong with it” is a rather modest ambition for something you carry so often.
A colour chosen entirely around your coat
Appearance treated as an afterthought
Forgetting to check the inside
Wondering whether an open tote will suit you
Choosing a size out of habit
A mosaic horse design chosen because you like it
Colour and practical details considered together
A lined interior with pockets
A zipper at the opening
Two size options to consider
About the price
The Handmade Mosaic Horse Bag is currently listed at $54.95 CAD, reduced from $110.00 CAD. I am careful with money. I imagine many women reading this are, too. For me, the sensible questions are fairly ordinary. Do I like it? Would it work with the things I already wear? Have I looked at the size and the practical details?
A reduced price is useful information. It cannot decide what you like for you. What makes this bag worth a closer look is the combination: the horse that catches your attention, and the everyday details that give you a reason to keep considering it. Marys Calgary also advertises free shipping across Canada and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
The horse bag beside a simple cardigan. Sometimes one colourful thing is quite enough.
If you recognise that little habit of choosing the plain one before you have even looked at the others, perhaps pause over this one. Look at the colours. Look at the inside. Think about what you carry. And allow “I like the horse” to count as part of the decision.
It seems as good a place to start as brown.
Susan
HANDMADE MOSAIC HORSE BAG
- ✓Colourful mosaic horse design
- ✓Quilted cotton-and-polyester fabric
- ✓Lined construction with interior pockets
- ✓Zipper at the opening
- ✓Two size options
- ✓Cold, gentle machine wash; air dry
- ✓FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Sale running now, making room for the fall stock. The popular designs go first.
About the writer. Susan Thompson is 63 and lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she keeps a garden and a tidy house. She is a customer, not a writer, and she was not paid to write this letter.
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