Let's Talk Accesories

Last week while I had a layover in Florence I made a purchase that I have failed to discuss with most of you.

Friends, without further ado, my new purse:







Now let me explain why I am talking accessories here.

I sort of envisioned my year in Italy (or however long) sort of as a quest to help me figure out not only professionally what I want to do with my life but also, on a day to day level, what qualities do I want my life to have. What do I value, and what are the things I want to strip away?

Now we all know I am a woman who hates clutter. (For those of you thinking now of what a mess my room tends to be, I would like to acknowledge that yes, clutter and I are in a battle, and yes clutter is often on the winning side of said battle). So why would I want to muck up my life with another hand bag, let alone one that is, by my standards, practically an investment? Aside, of course, from the fact that I am a woman, and I sorely need one.

But didn't Hemingway, when he wrote about his years in Paris, report that they never invested in their dress? That it was art and spirits they spent their money on? Ahhh, he was probably lying anyway. Have any of you seen the pictures from those years? They were always well groomed and dashing, not a patch or stain to be seen. Besides, Hemingway, as we all know, was no woman.

Let me explain something to you, that I'm sure will clear up all this confusion: Friends. This bag is made of real Florentine leather.

This bag is made of real leather handcrafted by artisans around Firenze, the same artisans and region who craft the leather for the big fashion houses (so I have been told). To touch it is to know and understand completely and immediately the difference, to realize the paltry imitations of a hand bag we have been duped into buying all these years. For now on, I resolve, my purses come from Florence.

This is, clearly, a bit of a departure from my usual modus operandi. I have been living in the state of Maine for perhaps a bit too long, and Maine is a state that loves a good bargain, and loves as well to talk about it. Contrary to the impulses of the rest of popular culture, which loves at least to look expensive, the people of Maine cannot receive a compliment on an item without immediately informing you just how little they paid for it. I think this culture is rooted in a history of poverty, of people from a poor state in a cold climate with a propensity towards very hard work (fishing, farming, forestry) taking pride in their ability, again and again, to make something from nothing, to make lives from land, to make fashion from scraps.

With such a collective cultural force guiding you, it doesn't take long before you forget the value of quality. I think, as Americans, that is our habit, isn't it? To maximize efficiency and cost effectiveness by chipping away at the value of an item little by little until we are swimming in a tide of reduced-price plastic. I just recently read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemmna and I believe that's very much what he reports we have done with our food source, maximize output with a steady stream of petroleum inputs that do not provide nutrition in a meaningful way to the soil or for the consumers. And that's the operative value that we apply to our food source!

So I stand by my commitment to splurge on high quality leather goods. Bury me with them, I say. And when they dig me up, civilizations from now, let them marvel at the artistry of my selected wares. I fully expect they won't be able to help themselves.