Patent Leather Bag For You?What can one say about a patent leather bag, except you either love them or hate them. Thinking back to my childhood years, my mother bought me a pair of black patent leather shoes, and I adored these shoes. So much so, that when my daughters were small they all at some time had similar black patent ones to mine. But this is as far as my love of patent leather goes. Any higher than the ground and it loses all appeal to me. It is the type of leather that suits being down there, repelling water and being easy to clean. Why move it up? To me, the patent leather bag is stuck in upper-middleclass, and it is about as much fun as taking tea with Aunt Jemima on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Even though it is being given a remarkable modern makeover there is no hiding the fact that its glossy and looks like plastic. Fendi and Prada are both doing their best and presenting patent leather bags in bright primary colors with interesting trims. To me they look like they belong to Paddington Bear, they are a perfect match for his raincoat. Marc Jacobs has tried a little harder with his patent leather offering hoping to tempt us with his quilted spring green Ursula bowler bag. For $1075 it fails to tempt me, not even a tiny bit. Then there is Net-a-Porter's Marni bag. It is black, it is a hobo, it will cost you over $800 and it looks like a black plastic garbage bag.
But still, there are many people who would vehemently disagree with me. They view black patent leather in particular, as the quintessential bag. Particularly when it is designed in what is commonly referred to as the timeless, classical style. When these words are used in advertising, you know they are talking about the ones that your mother or grandmother would love. The ones that are taken to recitals, and to the weekly bridge parties. At least with the modern treatment the patent leather bag does make a very bold statement and openly invites criticism. It always gets a black and white response too, with people either vowing their eternal love to their new shiny hard glam friend or taking the opposite and openly saying that it is horrid. Patent leather undergoes much of the same preparation as for other fine quality leathers. Originally the very expensive kid or calf leathers were used but nowadays this type of finish can be made using any kind of hide. It is during the finishing stages that the special high gloss finish is applied. This is done in three stages by coating the leather with a polyurethane/acrylic solution and vacuum dried which seals the coating into the leather. The middle coat carries the dye color which will be the color of the finished product. The final coat of lacquer gives the characteristic glossiness. The patent leather bag is a great bag, but for someone else, not me. Its great for little girls shoes and little girls bags but never quite makes the grade when it tries to act grown-up. Channel, Versace Hermes and the rest of course don't agree with me, and thats great, because it would be depriving all those glossy patent lovers of bags that they really appreciate, and this is exactly how it should be.
|
