Giles Coren in Times magazine talking about consumer research on handbags!

[Zoe789]

ridiculous 'research' but an amusing article spun out of it. apparently the journal of consumer research knows whether or not a woman who buys a handbag is attached or not really baffled as to how they could be clear about that. They also conclude that the nicer your handbag the more likely you are to be spoken for. ( thinks back to pvc handbags I owned when with xh and the nice leather one I use now).

I would have thought single women and particularly women with no children had more cash to spend on handbags! Not having a man who'll ask innocently 'how much did that cost?' would make a woman with cash in her pocket feel inclined to go for the handbag she really wants.

Link please?

My cheapest most hideous bag was a gift from dp... Wonder what that says?

Is it something along these lines? www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/defensive-message-designer-handbag-66084/

Hmph, I buy designer goods for my own pleasure. I've never waited around for a man to buy me the stuff I want.

I doubt the op can link because The Times is subscription only

I think the point of the article has been missed though.

A report by the Journal of Consumer Research has found that “Women buy designer handbags and expensive accessories to stop love rivals stealing their men”.

“Women at different ages and relationship status inferred that a woman with designer outfits and accessories had a more devoted partner,” writes Vlad of his research. “They also spontaneously inferred the partner contributed to these luxurious possessions. Such information is especially valuable when their relationship is threatened by another woman?.?.?. the feeling that a partnership is at risk automatically triggers women to want to flash the likes of Gucci, Chanel and Fendi.”

Coren spends the rest of the article taking the piss out of the assumption that anyone, any man. can decode what women want. For once he is actually being mildly amusing.

me neither!

I tried to link to it and I can't. I think he was gently mocking the research though. But it sounds like the consumer research journal was paid by the handbag industry to make women feel unloved !

I am conflicted though, as it seems that the article (not the survey) has made me consider a new handbag, from me to me because I love me

Wuldric, I think I got the point of the article!

Giles Coren is HOT

ha ha! we can all choose a good photo! he looks handsome in his photo but I feel in the tea leaves that he rejected 38 photos before he chose the one he used. we all do it

I think he's funny. He writes with 'good timing'! He regularly gets a pasting on mn for being not as good as his father or something like that.

@summerrain it means your husband doesn't want other tightwads making a move on you.

makes sense, nothing says back-off quite like a frumpy mom bag from Tesco.

omg! wait til Tesco stop playacting around with stickers for bloody pyrex or boring white dishes. or trampolines or computers for schools! Stop boring me Tesco :-| Let's do stickers towards handbags.

I know, I got dp a lovely laptop rucksack with one of those sticker schemes.

I get a pleather handbag that my mother likes that he found in their discount section

you're owed a decent leather bag whatever way you look at it. That's my conclusion. I saw a lovely fossil one reduced to 90 from 180. It's in a local shop. I could support local business and boost the economy.

How odd that they all assumed that the male partner was buying or contributing to the accessories . I buy my own.

To me a really pricey handbag means that the woman a) doesn't have toddlers with access to pens and b) doesn't have a dog who likes to bring them things (and get bored if they don't notice and start chewing the strap.) Or that they are comfortable enough that they can just buy another enough.

Yes Havant, it's inferred, sexist inference.

I have been happily married for over 30 years and own a vast array of handbags. After all this time, DH knows better than to ask "how much did that cost". (Giles Coren is not hot.)

Yes Giles Coren is definitely hot

Giles Coren might be hot (hottish) in his touched up pictures, but I suspect he is 5' 4" in rl - he looks as though he lacks inches somewhat ...

After intensive googling I have established that GC admits to 5' 8". Allowing for the exaggeration by public figures (approximately 3" on average - allowing for the wearing of lifts in public) I would like to revise my estimate of Coren's height to 5' 5".

I do like his general gobshitery actually - although sometimes I do feel he needs to see the Head to be given 100 lines.

This in wiki, tickled me

On 13 May 2011, Coren attracted more controversy after joking about a privacy injunction by posting on his Twitter feed: "god, ANOTHER injunction tonight. another footballer. and SUCH a boring one. fucking shit midfielder... he's yet another very ugly married man who's been carrying on with a gold-digging flopsie he should have seen coming a MILE away...". Then on 14 May he tweeted "Gareth Barry looks remarkably relaxed when you consider that... first touch for gareth barry... not according to what i've heard... time for a bet. what chance Barry to score? tiny fiver on barry to score at 22–1. wdv been nice to get a double with giggs in the match before.. Barry's been pulled off...". This was later deleted but was archived.[37][38] The political blogger Paul Staines, who writes under the pen name "Guido Fawkes", commented: "It is late, you’ve had a few drinks, you tweet something you wouldn’t if you were sober", and added: "This is possibly Coren’s funniest work for ages…"[39]

Yeh that's funny. Possibly a vain short bloke but in my humble opinion a good columnist... Also at 156cm and kind of vain myself, i vote to allow short vain people. :-)