Anyone else find River island handbags a bit tacky ?

[ashbashclash]

Don't get me wrong years and years ago I loved them but now I just find them so tacky.
They would be so much better without name badge stuck to them.
Is this just me?
Does anyone like them ?

Can't stand them x

I see the tacky factor too.
The shopping bags are the school bag of choice around here amongst the mean girl posse.

Awful. Gaudy and cheap.

I can't bear any handbags that have in your face logos/branding though, even the £££ ones. Am constantly looking for the perfect black leather slouchy bag with minimal silver hardware and no logos. Not easy!

I don't think River Island was ever subtle. and "classy" their. Bags and purses are supposed to be in your face

I had a couple of beautiful leather handbags from there in the past, no nasty logos etc, but I wouldnt even bother looking now. I know it would be gaudy plastic rubbish made to last a season at best, much like the shoes and clothes.

They use to do great big bags now everything is a bit extra...

RI has descended into 'Essex chav'

Awful. Tween DTs absolutley love them.

When I was at school even a RI carrier bag was something of a status symbol.

@helloxhristmashen 1 of my Dds were in secondary it was a Jane Norman carrier bag that was a weird phase.

Oh Jane Norman, forgot about that! Definitely a thing:)

@QuentinQuarantino

Awful. Gaudy and cheap.

I can't bear any handbags that have in your face logos/branding though, even the £££ ones. Am constantly looking for the perfect black leather slouchy bag with minimal silver hardware and no logos. Not easy!

Mint velvet.

Tacky and cheap looking, although I'm not a fan of their clothes either.

Paul's Boutique bags when mine was a tween.

Isn't their target market teenage girls? Not sure classy is really what they're going for.

Oh Jane Norman, forgot about that! Definitely a thing

Apparently Debenhams kept them hidden so teen girls couldn't steal them. I remember seeing girls with pauls boutique but I don't think mine had them.

I think they try to emulate high end styles , which ultimately makes them look like knock offs.

Some I like, for instance the black bucket bag but I don't like the Gucci style ones.

Went on the website and thought "What's everyone on about? Those are all perfectly unobjectionable plain bags" Then I realised I was looking at the manbags.

God, the women's ones are hideous, remind me of the Louis Vuitton thread from a few weeks ago. No wonder I've barely been in there since it was Chelsea Girl.

Did anyone have a warehouse bowler bag style one in 2002/2003? They will all the rage when I was at college

@ashbashclash I did! A purple one.

I remember girls at school and the Jane Norman bags. They were like gold dust and would literally get stolen from the locker rooms during PE!

Teachers never did anything as ‘it was just a carrier bag’.

It didn’t help that the shops were so stingy about handing them out. I went several times with friends of mine who bought mid priced but small items, think like £15 shirts (that was loads 12 years ago) and the shop assistants would put them in a small bag and refuse to give one of the big pink ones.

I was once with a girl who was refused the bigger bag and demanded to return the item on the spot for her money back. It worked though as the shop assistant did give her the bigger bag just to avoid doing the refund. I always thought it was cheeky, if a customer is spending £15+ (was quite a lot 12 years ago) just give them a large bag FFS.

I hated Jane Norman, it was trashy and poor quality.

RI is tacky. Long gone are the days when they had those fabulous carrier bags!

Same as you, I used to like them. Haven't bought anything but jeans from RI for a long time. Its not the same anymore and a lot of the stuff is just weird, or maybe I'm just getting too old for it, but I'm only 30!

I've a couple of lovely RI purses really big to fit everything in but the thing is I rarely use these days because I use my apple watch for purchases.
I've enjoyed reading about other posters with the carrier bags with me it was Benetton (mid 90s) when I was a teen . Every girl at my school had a Benetton bag they were these big duffle type drawstring bags and you used the carrier bag for PE very cool .

[quote ForeverRedSkinhead]@ashbashclash I did! A purple one.[/quote]
I had a purple one too

RI is really tacky now, even the clothes are covered in diamanté and weird little bits of metal