Perfect Shoulder Bag for You?

I’m handbag fickle. Many women love shoes and want a ton; for me, it’s purses.

But I’m also very picky. For me, the best purses are easy, breezy shoulder bags . My ideal handbag needs to have an easily accessible pocket for my phone, too, and just one main compartment; I hate rooting through two or three pockets to find what I need.

Lately I’ve been loving bags with a single strap, particularly over the shoulder bags. I carry so much in my purses and totes that I need them to distribute the weight easily. When there are two straps or more, I find that one of them frequently slips off my shoulder and leaves a gap in the opening of the purse.

When it comes to color, I’m fairly liberal. During the winter, even down here in Florida, I tend toward blacks, browns and metallic shades. A really good, well-made bronze or burnished gold bag looks terrific, particularly around the holidays. Reds are also great, as are some darker shades of purple or green.

But my favorite handbag time of the year is spring. Then all the colors of the rainbow flood the shelves of my favorite stores. Pinks, purples, even yellows and greens are gorgeous once the weather turns warm.

In the last few years, as I’ve gotten used to carrying my laptop with me to write, I’ve also become a little bit of a tote bag addict. The absolutely perfect tote has to have a safe, padded compartment for my laptop. It should also offer a few special pockets, for things like pens, pencils, my glasses and other necessities of life and travel.

Many totes are open bags, but I far prefer something with a zipper closure that ensures nothing is going to fall out. I also like the tote to be large enough to accommodate the various plugs and other cords that the computer requires.

In a perfect world, my handbag and tote would always match, but since I don’t always have time to redistribute both bags, I prefer a tote in a color that goes with anything. These days, for me, that’s purple; since it’s become my signature color, most of my family and friends know which of us has the shiny purple tote!

I’m always searching for the elusive perfect bags, the ones that will meet all of my needs forever. But who am I kidding? The chase is just as much fun as the bag itself.