I can give you a full list of reasons... Pants too tight for wallets. Walking culture = no car to keep random junk in. ID cards and checkbooks much bigger than a typical wallet/pocket. Cargo pants out of style. Smart-phones are getting bigger by the day. Need somewhere to keep documents, USB devices, and phone chargers. It’s France.
My problem with them has not just been refusal to carry a purse, but also the fact that all of the ones I see simply look ridiculous. Like a long thin camera bag with leather straps. Seen the new iPad carrybags (which might bring the manpurse to the US)? They’re like those, but smaller and less hipster. I’ve seen a couple here and there that I could live with, but then can never find them in the stores. Well to be honest, I’d not yet gone into a store looking for one, but still.
Recently though, I saw a bag and I fell in love. It was navy blue leatherish material, shaped like a messenger bag but smaller. A cream shoulder strap, and this picture imprinted on the bag:
Now that would make me smile every time I pick it up. I love the A-Team. And when I’m home during the day, I can watch reruns in French anytime I want.
** An update, since writing this, I bought a man purse. Was out with my family buying something else when I saw a sac on a mannequin, said “I could live with that one,” and moments later my wife had found them on a rack. She pointed out the surprisingly good price, and I crumbled with no excuse ready. So I’m the proud new owner of a murse. Maybe someday I’ll put up a photo of it. It looks a little more masculine than the usual, but the problem is that inside it’s all purse. I can’t in good conscious call it anything else. There’s a spot for a cell phone, change, a checkbook... ugh. I can’t believe I’m doing this.
Posts
6 comments:
tsk, tsk, tsk
Crumbling, crumpling, confessions... seems like it really happened. I won't believe it until I see it.
You must know that urban dwellers in the U.S. have been 'mursing' for a long time. My dad has one. You are in good, hip, manly company. Don't be ashamed.
Here I am, at 10pm, and the purse is still laying on my bed with the tags on it. I'm over the idea of carrying it. I'm ok with it hanging on a hook next to my wife's. I'm beyond the cultural hang-ups of how it'll look, whether in Europe or in America (though I doubt it will be making trips across the pond with me). Yet I still cannot bring myself to actually sort out my change, credit cards, and license into their prepared spaces. Is that a spot for my chapstick? Noooo.... Perhaps it shall lay empty waiting on me.
(as I'm wetting my pants with laughter) I'm a bit surprised you've held out this long, after living in Africa . . . maybe it's just a west African thing, but I see men wearing women's pants and shoes all time here. Thank you GoodWill for shipping us all your leftover crap . . . and since only men wear athletic shoes and 'trousers'(and they're all a size 4) it just makes sense. :)
I wonder if you can get your LegoLand A-Team as an iron-on appliqué.
Ha, you're right about the goodwill connection in Africa. East Africa had that too. I'd see men in women's pants and shoes all the time, and I loved jackets with shoulder pads. Here in France they go pink by choice, there they didn't know better.
Our market in TZ seemed to have a direct line to an Ohio goodwill, as everyone was wearing Cincy Reds and OSU shirts. And when my parents visited, they were shocked to see someone wearing a "vote for so-and-sofor city council" t-shirt, a friend of their's in a pretty small race.
Post a Comment