Six things, from a customer

I am 63 and this fall I have gone back to carrying my purse the way my mother did

Six things this sequin flowered tote with a bamboo-style handle gets right that forty-five years of straps sliding off my shoulder got wrong, from a woman who has already picked out her second.

Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read

Let me say right up front who is writing this, so there is no mystery about it. I am Peggy, I am 63, and I live in Austin, Texas with my husband Frank and more tomato cages than any garage should have to hold. I have carried a purse every day of my grown life, and for most of it that purse has been hanging off my shoulder, sliding down my arm, and being hitched back up again every twenty steps. I did not think anything could be done about it. It turns out something could.

The bag I am writing about is the Harvestgarden, one of the sequin floral tote bags with a bamboo-style handle from Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly making the ordinary things a little lovelier for a few years now. There are nine designs in the collection, all the same tote with the same handle, and when the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, as long as I could be honest in it.

I first saw it at the State Fair up in Dallas, where Frank goes every year for a corny dog and to squint at the prize pumpkins. In the big hall with the garden displays there was a woman just ahead of us with this bag hooked on her arm, sequin leaves the color of the mums she was looking at, and every time she stopped she dropped another little paper sack of bulbs into it. By the third booth I had stopped looking at the mums. In the line at the bulb table I asked her about it, plainly. She laughed and said I was the third that morning. Read on.

On the kitchen table the morning after the fair, where it has lived ever since between outings.

Here is what forty-five years of purses taught me. In the fall they come in two piles. The shoulder bags, which slide off a jacket, drag your collar sideways and leave you walking around with one shoulder up by your ear. And the big reusable grocery totes, which hold everything and look, if we are honest, like the grocery run. I had a closet shelf full of both, and I had stopped expecting a third kind.

My mother carried her purse in her hand, with her head up. Somewhere along the way I forgot you were allowed to.

This tote is the third kind, and having taken it to the fair, a birthday lunch, the garden store and the movies in the space of a month, I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The day it came. I had it out of the mailer before Frank had the coffee on.

1

The flowers are sequins and stitching, in the colors of fall

This is what stops people. The whole front is covered in flowers and leaves, big mustard-gold leaves done in tiny sequins, orange stitched flowers with brown middles, two white star flowers, pale blue sequin sprays, a berry pink cluster at the bottom and dark green leaves filling every gap, all on a soft taupe background with a plain natural edge around it. It looks like a flower bed at the end of September. It catches the light when you move, and in that big hall at the fair it caught every bit of it going.

On the garden bench in the last of the sun. The sequin leaves are my favorite part.

★★★★★

I was expecting a printed pattern with a little glitter. It is real sequin leaves and stitched flowers, and in the sun it is beautiful. People stop me to ask about it.

Darlene P., Dalhart

3

It is carried in the hand, so nothing slides off your shoulder

I want to be clear, because it matters. The handle sits about 4 inches above the bag, so this is a bag you carry in your hand, not one you sling over your shoulder. That is exactly why I love it. Once the weather turns I live in my quilted fall jacket, and every shoulder bag I own slides straight off it, or drags the collar sideways and creases it. With this one there is no strap to hitch up and nothing pulling at my jacket. I hold it the way my mother held hers, and I walk taller for it.

Down the garden path to the car. No strap, no hitching, no creased collar.

★★★★★

I was worried it would not go on my shoulder, but I have not missed it once. No more strap sliding off my jacket. I feel more put together carrying it in my hand.

Maxine A., Clarendon

5

It holds a real day out

Here are the honest measurements. It is about 15 inches wide, 11.4 inches tall and 4.7 inches deep, so a little wider than a serving tray. That is a real tote, not a little purse. On a day out mine takes my folded cardigan, a thermos, my wallet, my glasses and my phone, and at the fair it took five little sacks of bulbs on top.

Packing for the fair. Cardigan in, thermos and glasses to follow.

★★★★★

Bigger than I expected in the best way. My cardigan, wallet, glasses and a bottle of water all fit, and it still looks like a nice bag rather than a grocery tote.

Rosemary L., Quanah

6

It goes from the potting bench to Sunday lunch, and there are nine to choose from

I have carried it to the garden store in the morning and to a birthday lunch the same afternoon, and it looked right at both. There are nine designs, all the same tote and the same handle, all the same price. Most are sequin flowers, the Autumnleaf in russet and orange, the Crimsongarden in deep red, the Midnightbloom in navy and blue, the Lilacgarden, the Oceanmeadow and the pale Petaldream, and there is a sparkly diamond one called the Mosaicglimmer and a stitched one called the Bohemianmosaic for anyone who prefers no sequins at all. I picked the Harvestgarden because it matched the mums on our front porch. The Autumnleaf is next on my list. The woman from the fair owns two.

On Frank’s potting bench, next to the pots he will not let me touch.

★★★★★

I bought the red one for myself and ended up going back for the blue for my daughter. They are even prettier in person.

Anne C., Texas Panhandle

This tote, against the bags you have been making do with

You can keep hitching a strap back onto your shoulder all winter, like I did for forty-five years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

The Harvestgarden is $79.95, down from $160.00, and all nine designs are the same.

I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these are on sale while the first fall stock lasts, and once this stock is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have paid more than $160.00 for a shoulder bag that spent every winter sliding off my jacket, so $79.95 for one I actually enjoy carrying made it an easy yes.

I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots. The same six things I have walked you through come up in them again and again, in other women’s words.

If you have spent another fall hitching a strap back onto your shoulder, this is where I would start. Have a look at the designs before somebody else takes the one you like, because the popular ones will not wait. And if you see a woman at the fair with sequin leaves on her arm and a sack of bulbs in her bag, it might well be me.

Peggy

THE BAMBOO HANDLE TOTE COLLECTION

★★★★☆ 4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

$160.00 $79.95

• Sequin flowers and leaves across the front
• Distinctive bamboo-style handle
• Carried in the hand, handle drop about 4 in
• Easy to carry all day
• 15 × 11.4 × 4.7 in, room for a day out
• Nine designs, $79.95 whichever you choose
• Free shipping

See The Bamboo Handle Tote Collection

Sale on now. The popular designs are already going.