Chantal Thomass - Paris, 1992

I love this bag, not just for the design (which is fantastic), but for what it represented to me at the time. I'd become a full-on nuisance at the now non-existent* Chantal Thomass boutique that first summer--treating it like a public museum at which one could spend hours and would not be expected to purchase anything. It was the most incredible place--giant Marie-Antionette-style ship chandeliers and pink as far as the eye could see. It was the only store in which I ever actually made any kind of "big" purchase--a $35 gold barette with little green ivy glued to it. Not only did I snag this incredible bag, but as it turned out, the barette was packaged in this beautiful little box which sits on my dresser to this day.

*That particular Chantal Thomass boutique closed many years ago, but the new one on rue St. Honoré is spectacular. Not quite the same feeling of grandeur as the old one, but still unapologetically hyper-feminine.