Why do people buy designer bags/shoes?

[ettieb]

I have seen a few threads recently with people discussing designer handbags and I'm absolutely baffled why people are spending so much money on a handbag.
What can be so special about a handbag (or a pair of shoes) that people will pay hundreds of pounds for them when they can get a decent leather bag for a fraction of the cost of a designer bag?
There must be a limit to how good the quality of a bag can be... surely no bag is worth £800?
The most expensive bag I have ever bought cost £35 and I felt very guilty as this is a lot of money for a bag in my world.
Is it a status thing? Do they buy and carry these bags so other people will know that they have lots of money to waste?
I honestly don't get it, it just seems obscene to me. I get that people can spend their money on whatever they want but it just seems such a waste and so show-offy.

Chanel loud and blingy? You have no idea what you’re on about @follyfoot37. Tell us what constitutes good taste for you.

No it doesn't. Nor does it matter what anyone thinks, but we all give our thoughts on here. And I have read far more 'sneery' and outright bitchy comments on MN, so you go right ahead and call mine out
Funny tho' how when a thought is expressed that others don't agree with, how it upsets people

I suspect the 'Louis Vitton' bag that @follyfoot37 saw might not be all it seems 🤣

I try to buy less but good quality. I think that’s a fair philosophy if you can afford it. But I’ve never considered spending £8K on a bag.

Certainly not gold chain handbags

I’m not all all upset.
its just a really bizarre thing to judge people on imo.

I say you personally were upset

Great. Off you pop then to the shops to buy another. I can highly recommend this one at $130,000:
https://www.therealreal.com/products/women/handbags/handle-bags/hermes-matte-crocodile-niloticus-himalayan-birkin-30-bcoh1?sid=pxogmz&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=shopping&cvosrc=cse.google.google&cvo_crid=604187126826&utm_campaign=shopping_uk&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiZqhBhCJARIsACHHEH_v9gd1WSEon6Zha4IBnzVdmhGgqO9f5NR8WT5Uo1vvtIKe3jBdZh8aAvMMEALw_wcB
I love this comment: ‘By purchasing this item, you’re contributing to a more sustainable fashion future’.

So that is good then.

I worked hard self employed and was able to treat myself to a beautiful mulberry handbag as a treat to myself. I'm also wearing designer boots, and coat as I type.

In okay with my decision

Tell us what is then. Let’s have a look at your sublime taste.

I’m perfectly happy with my Radley that I bought in a sale for £99. I’ve been complimented on it a few times. Had it three years and it still looks good.

Why does anyone do anything beyond the minimum? Why eat at posh restaurants when you can eat at home? Why eat at all when you could get nutrition from those shake things? Why holiday when you could work? Why wear colour when grey us so practical?

Why eke out any pleasure at all from life when you're going to die anyway?

I love my handbag collection! Some people will judge you for spending so much on a bag. Some people will judge you for having a cheap bag.
So buy what you want as you will never get anywhere trying to please other people.

ah yes, ‘I’m laughing’, the classic euphemism for ‘it’s very important to me that you believe I am unbothered in all ways’. By all means keep laughing, but remember to tell us about it because it doesn’t count unless you do.

We get it. You’re perturbed at the emergence of the nouveau riche, and are thus attempting to assert yourself as superior in the social pecking order. Meanwhile, they’re not thinking about you at all.

Chanel is a tad blingy

This is a lot of hate for a Friday morning 😅

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make; I am sure that if you're trying to be condescending, it helps an awful lot to be in a position from which to condescend.

The bag you have linked to is over my budget (and I'm not fond of Hermés anyway), but the sustainability point still stands and to some people that would be pocket change. Is that what really irritates you? I wouldn't have thought so from your posts (unlike the PP who's so very cross she can barely string a sentence together), but I honestly don't understand what your problem is with women buying things (and not even new things) with their own money? Why do you care so much that you consider it a worthwhile use of your time to make rude remarks to random internet strangers about their choices?

I guess we all value something.

Some people value having lots of savings or pension money put aside. It’s different choices.

If someone can afford the luxury bag or shoes and they can still afford to live comfortably without significant debt, then their choice. I do find the choice odd if it has negative consequences in terms of paying their rent or mortgage and bills.

I suppose the issue is that often people who can’t really afford it spend these sums of money. No problem for those who can afford it…but it’s the others where it’s hard to understand. And I guess for them, they are drawn in by labels and brands and status which they can’t afford.

But I suppose poor budgeting for this kind of thing isn’t hugely different to poor budgeting to buying anything you can’t afford….could be clothes or booze or holidays or furniture or beauty treatments or school fees or….

Why is your classism, and sneering at people who have earned money rather than inherited it, in any way less shallow and self-serving than someone who buys an expensive bag?

I suppose the issue is that often people who can’t really afford it spend these sums of money. No problem for those who can afford it…but it’s the others where it’s hard to understand.

Nobody on this thread cares about people who get into debt and lose their homes because they bought too many designer bags. That's exactly what most posters who don't understaaaaaand would like to happen. That's not what they don't understaaaaaand and you know it.

What they mean is that they think spending money on a designer bag is a somehow morally inferior choice to spending it on alcohol, holidays, tickets to orgies or whatever it is they buy that gives them pleasure. And they're pissed off when their superiority is not recognised anywhere.

There's a middle ground of just buying the bags you need at a reasonable price.

@oviraptor21 What is a reasonable price and what qualifies you to set it or any other proscriptions on the needs and legal behaviour of other people?

We are waiting ………..

@Sirius3030 I suppose I am arrogant and definitely opinionated. Though I'm never arrogant enough to believe one of my opinions is so striking that it really touches a nerve. When that happens I tend to think people just disagree with me. But I've always been humble like that.

The most expensive bag I have ever bought cost £35

That explains your bewilderment. Try carrying a very good bag just once and you won't be able to go back.

For me a very good bag is defined by the material, the look, the shape, the ease of accessing the various compartments and the way it hands off my shoulder or arm.

My dear mum was very much a "£35 handbag lady" for most of her life, and generally a very frugal person, until my five siblings and I chipped in to get her a Mulberry handbag. That bag was her pride and joy until she died about five years afterward. She just loved it (and the fact that we had bought it for her as she never would have spent that much on anything for herself).

p.s. this is the bag we bought for my mum. She loved it so much she even treated herself to some matching shoes!