Six things, from a customer

I am 68 and this autumn I have gone back to carrying my handbag the way my mother did

Six things this sequin flowered tote with a bamboo-style handle gets right that fifty years of straps sliding off my coat got wrong, from a woman who has already picked out her second.

Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read

So you know whose letter this is, I am Pat, I am 68, and I live in Leeds with my husband Brian, his spaniel Wilf and more dahlia tubers than any garage should have to hold. I have carried a handbag every day of my adult life, and for most of it the handbag has been hanging off my shoulder, sliding off my coat, and being hitched back up again every twenty steps. I did not think anything could be done about it. It turns out something could.

The bag I am writing about is the Harvestgarden, one of the sequin floral tote bags with a bamboo-style handle from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly finding women like me the things we did not know we were allowed to have for a few years now. There are nine designs in the collection, all the same tote with the same handle, and when the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, as long as I could be honest in it.

I first saw it at the autumn flower show in Harrogate, where Brian goes every year to glare at other men’s dahlias. In the big marquee there was a woman just ahead of us with this bag hooked on her arm, sequin leaves the colour of the flowers she was looking at, and every time she stopped she dropped another paper bag of bulbs into it. By the third stand I had stopped looking at the dahlias. In the queue for the bulb stall I asked her about it, plainly. She laughed and said I was the third that morning. Read on.

On the kitchen table the morning after the show, where it has lived ever since between outings.

Here is what fifty years of handbags taught me. In autumn they come in two piles. The shoulder bags, which slide off a padded coat, crush your collar and leave you walking round with one shoulder up by your ear. And the big bags for life, which hold everything and look, if we are honest, like the recycling. I had a drawer full of both, and I had stopped expecting a third kind.

My mother carried her handbag in her hand, with her head up. Somewhere along the way I forgot you were allowed to.

This tote is the third kind, and having taken it to the flower show, a birthday lunch, the garden centre and the pictures in the space of a month, I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The day it came. I had it out of the packet before Brian had put the kettle on.

1

The flowers are sequins and stitching, in the colours of autumn

This is what stops people. The whole front is covered in flowers and leaves, big mustard-gold leaves done in tiny sequins, orange stitched flowers with brown middles, two white star flowers, pale blue sequin sprays, a berry pink cluster at the bottom and dark green leaves filling every gap, all on a soft taupe background with a plain natural edge round it. It looks like the border at the end of September. It catches the light when you move, and in the marquee at Harrogate it caught every bit of it going.

On the garden bench in the last of the sun. The sequin leaves are my favourite part.

★★★★★

I was expecting a printed pattern with a bit of glitter. It is proper sequin leaves and stitched flowers, and in the sun it is lovely. People stop me to ask about it.

Dorothy P., Chipping Norton

3

It is carried in the hand, so nothing slides off your coat

I want to be clear, because it matters. The handle sits about 10 cm above the bag, so this is a bag you carry in your hand, not one you sling over your shoulder. That is exactly why I love it. In autumn my good coat is a padded one, and every shoulder bag I own slides straight off it, or drags the collar sideways and creases it. With this one there is no strap to hitch up and nothing pulling at my coat. I hold it the way my mother held hers, and I walk better for it.

Down the garden path to the car. No strap, no hitching, no creased collar.

★★★★★

I was worried it would not go on my shoulder, but I have not missed it once. No more strap sliding off my winter coat. I feel smarter carrying it in my hand.

Maureen A., Moreton-in-Marsh

5

It holds a proper day out

Here are the honest measurements. It is 38 cm wide, 29 cm tall and 12 cm deep, so a little wider than a tea tray. That is a real tote, not a handbag. On a day out mine takes my folded cardigan, a flask, my purse, my glasses and my phone, and at the flower show it took five paper bags of bulbs on top.

Packing for the show. Cardigan in, flask and glasses to follow.

★★★★★

Bigger than I expected in the best way. My cardigan, purse, glasses and a bottle of water all fit, and it still looks like a nice bag rather than a shopper.

Rosemary L., Tetbury

6

It goes from the potting shed to Sunday lunch, and there are nine to choose from

I have carried it to the garden centre in the morning and to a birthday lunch the same afternoon, and it looked right at both. There are nine designs, all the same tote and the same handle, all the same price. Most are sequin flowers, the Autumnleaf in russet and orange, the Crimsongarden in deep red, the Midnightbloom in navy and blue, the Lilacgarden, the Oceanmeadow and the pale Petaldream, and there is a sparkly diamond one called the Mosaicglimmer and a stitched one called the Bohemianmosaic for anyone who prefers no sequins at all. I picked the Harvestgarden because it matched Brian’s borders. The Autumnleaf is next on my list. The woman from the show owns two.

In Brian’s shed, next to the tubers he will not let me touch.

★★★★★

I bought the red one for myself and ended up going back for the blue for my daughter. They are even prettier in person.

Anne C., Chipping Campden

This tote, against the bags you have been making do with

You can carry on hitching a strap back onto your shoulder all winter, like I did for fifty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

The Harvestgarden is £55.95, down from £112.00, and all nine designs are the same.

I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these are in the sale while the first autumn stock goes, and once a design sells through, that one is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have paid more than £112.00 for a shoulder bag that spent every winter sliding off my coat, so £55.95 for one I actually enjoy carrying made it an easy yes.

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. The same six things I have walked you through come up in them again and again, in other women’s words.

If you have spent another autumn hitching a strap back onto your shoulder, this is where I would start. Have a look at the designs before somebody else takes the one you like, because the popular ones will not wait. And if you see a woman at a flower show with sequin leaves on her arm and a paper bag of bulbs in her bag, it might well be me.

Pat

THE BAMBOO HANDLE TOTE COLLECTION

★★★★☆ 4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

£112.00 £55.95

• Sequin flowers and leaves across the front
• Distinctive bamboo-style handle
• Carried in the hand, handle drop 10 cm
• Easy to carry all day
• 38 × 29 × 12 cm, room for a day out
• Nine designs, £55.95 whichever you choose
• Free UK delivery

See The Bamboo Handle Tote Collection

Sale on now. The popular designs are already going.