Help me aquire the perfect purse.
November 22, 2015 8:07 AM   Subscribe

I am extremely picky about my purses. When I shop for bag first I go by appearance, quality, then strap drop. The strap drop excludes a good 95% of bags I like, but online it is the hardest thing to search by. Does there exist a site something like Zappos or Nordstrom that will let me search by strap drop? That would solve most of my problems. I have tried to google for a site like that but my Fu is failing me.

For the record, here's what I am looking for:

The specific bag I have been searching for for a few years is a warm brown (something like a dark whiskey/cognac) with looks along the lines of Frye. It has to be casual but not too western, wider than it is tall, not huge or tiny, and good quality leather. No double sets of handles (like a hand strap and a shoulder strap) but here's the hard part - the strap drop must be no less than 12" and no more than 16."
posted by Requiax to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
If you find a purse that hits every other criterion, you could take it to a cobbler and have the strap length adjusted.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:09 AM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Not to threadsit, but 95% of the time the strap is too short, otherwise that would be a great solution.
posted by Requiax at 8:17 AM on November 22, 2015


http://m.shop.nordstrom.com/s/rebecca-minkoffmini-mac-crossbodybag/4252563?origin=nullRelatedSearch

In case this link doesn't work, I would recommend the Rebecca Minkoff mini Mac (or if that's too small search Amazon for the larger version). If you look at these pictures, you can see that the chain strap clips to the bag, but you can also thread it through the loop and then clip it to itself higher up closer to the leather part of the strap. The Rebecca Minkoff site says the drop is 14" when doubled up, but I linked you to Nordstrom since it's on sale there. My bag has become a little soft and slouchy and picked up some color dye from my jeans when I purchased a light color, and my cats chewed off the long zipper pulls, but otherwise the bag has held up well and it is deceptively roomy.
posted by alygator at 8:25 AM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Forgot to say, it looks like a couple of other styles by the brand also come with the same chain strap design too (eg the Love crossbody which also comes in multiple sizes and the Avery for example)
posted by alygator at 8:33 AM on November 22, 2015


I would e-mail zappos and ebags customer service -- they are both very helpful -- and ask them this question. They may be able to search it on the seller side and give you some custom results. Ebags often lists the strap length in its listings but apparently you cannot search by it. Possibly narrowing down by your other criteria would make a short enough list that you could flip through each manually and look at the drop.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:56 AM on November 22, 2015 [3 favorites]


If it's otherwise perfect, could you find a leather worker who could make you a matching strap? Maybe if there's not one in your area, you could send a piece of the old strap to someone who does custom leather.
posted by FencingGal at 9:27 AM on November 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think there are more or less standard drops for the different styles (hobo, satchel, clutch [sometimes they have detachable straps], crossbody, tote, etc), which are usually more or less consistent across sites. I think you're more likely to find something if you limit your search to satchels (might find one without the little handles), totes (might find one with a long-enough single strap), and crossbodies (might be able to shorten their longer straps). You can maybe estimate the length of the drop if you have other dimensions for the purse.
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:55 AM on November 22, 2015


Have you looked at bags on etsy? You could probably work with a seller to customize the strap length if you found a bag you otherwise liked.
posted by gatorae at 10:03 AM on November 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Frye's artisan hobo has a 14" drop.

Are you looking for a shoulder bag like this? vs. say a tote or a messenger?

Seconding etsy as a good option.
posted by oneear at 11:17 AM on November 22, 2015


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