My shoulders have opinions about handbags. This is the bag that finally listened
My shoulders have opinions about handbags. This is the bag that finally listened
Six things the Elena gets right that handbags get wrong, from a woman who does not review handbags.
Maggie Whitfield · Customer · Cheshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Maggie, I am 67, I live in Cheshire, and I have never in my life sat down to write about a handbag. What I have done is carry fifty years’ worth of them, the gapers, the slippers, the ones that weigh more empty than mine does full. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about a bag, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Elena, from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly making the ordinary things a bit lovelier for a few years now. I first saw it on a woman at the Chester park-and-ride, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
What struck me was not the bag. It was her hands. Both free, one steadying a tray of winter pansies, and no strap sliding off any shoulder. Read on.
Here is what fifty years of handbags taught me. They come in two piles. The soft pile, which gape open on the bus, slide off the shoulder, and require a spare hand on permanent guard duty. And the smart pile, structured things that hold their shape and weigh roughly a house brick before you have added your glasses.
A bag that needs one hand to hold it and another to guard it is not an accessory. It is a dependent.
The Elena is the first bag I have owned that asks nothing of either hand, and having worn it daily for a fortnight, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The day it came. I ordered it expecting very little. I apologised to it within the week.
It lies flat and stays put
The shape is a soft crescent, slim from front to back, so worn across you it sits flat against your coat like it was drawn there, and worn on the shoulder it tucks under your arm instead of swinging about. It moves when you move and otherwise keeps still, which is more than I can say for any bag I have owned or several people I know.
I wore it across me to the market and kept both hands for the shopping. Nothing swung, nothing slid. I felt organised for the first time in years.
Barbara H., NantwichEverything zips shut
Three compartments, three zips. The big one for the day’s cargo, a front one along the seam for the phone and the shopping list, and a small zipped pocket for the things that must not wander. Nothing gapes on the bus, nothing rains out when it tips over in the car, and nothing is on display to the queue behind you.
My old bag was an open invitation. This one shuts like a sensible front door. I got off the bus in Chester with everything I boarded with.
Sheila P., NorthwichThe little braided pulls are the clever part
Every zip has a chunky braided cord pull, like a small plaited rope, and I thought it was decoration until the first cold morning. Gloves on, bus coming, and I opened the right pocket first time without looking. My last bag had a fiddly metal tag I could barely pinch in July.
The braided pulls up close. Decoration that turns out to be engineering.
It weighs next to nothing
The bag itself is feather light, softly padded rather than stiffened, so the weight you carry is your things and only your things. At the end of a market morning my shoulder used to file a complaint. It has gone quiet. The padding also means the whole thing has a gentle squash to it, so it fits where you put it and comes back to shape after.
I emptied my old bag into it and genuinely checked I had not left something out. Same contents, half the weight on my shoulder.
Dorothy K., KnutsfordThe strap adjusts to the day
The strap is wide and soft, cut from the same fabric as the bag, so it does not saw at your shoulder, and a little slider lets it run long for across-the-body days or short for over-the-shoulder days. Long for the market and the dog, short for church. One bag, both moods.
One slider, no rethreading, no swearing. Long for Mondays, short for Sundays.
It earns its keep everywhere
This is the part I did not expect. It does the market, the garden centre, the bus into Chester and a hospital visit with equal manners, and the beige goes with every coat I own, which none of my occasion bags ever managed. It has not been put away in a fortnight because there has been no day it did not suit.
Its spot by the door, under whichever coat is on duty. It goes with all of them.
The Elena, against the handbags you have been putting up with
You can find a shoulder bag for twenty-odd pounds anywhere. I know, because I own a cupboard of the evidence. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Gape open on the bus for all to browse
Slide off the shoulder every third step
Weigh a brick before you pack a thing
Fiddly zips you cannot work in gloves
One strap length, take it or leave it
Three zips, everything shut and private
Lies flat against you, shoulder or crossbody
Feather light and softly padded
Braided pulls you can find without looking
Sliding strap, long or short as the day needs
About the price
The Elena is £24.95 at the moment, down from £50.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that there is a sale on now and the first autumn stock is already going. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with something, and a fortnight of daily wear has not found it.
And 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 rather than robots, 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.
Mine, and the slate blue I am pretending I have not already decided about.
If your handbag needs one hand to hold it and a second to guard it, and your shoulder has been filing complaints for years, this is the one I would hang across you myself, while the colour you want is still there. Stop dithering and go and look.
Maggie
ELENA | Beige Shoulder Bag
- Soft crescent that lies flat, shoulder or crossbody
- Three zipped compartments, nothing gapes
- Braided pulls you can work with gloves on
- Feather light, softly padded, no shine
- Sliding strap, long or short as you like
- Eight colours in the collection
- Free UK delivery
Sale on now. The first autumn stock is already going.