Tie One On

After the euphoric high wears off, reality sets in. So I’ve been looking high and low for just the right silk scarves to wrap the handles of my exotic bags. Truth be told, I’d much rather carry the bags unadorned in all their natural beauty, but my head has been filled lately by cautionary tales of people defying the consequences of getting oils and dirt into the handles and, after a few months or years of toting the bags around au naturel, ending up with darkened and stained handles on their bags. While it’s not out of the realm of possibilities to have the handles replaced by Hermes, it is an expensive and lengthy process since they’d have to find the right skin and dye to match the bag exactly all over again.

So after several frustrating rounds of looking through piles of twilly options at various Hermes boutiques, I finally settled on a silk scarf that I had stashed away in my closet for my croc Kelly; it still had the $3 price tag attached to it. Who knew when I bought the scarf years ago that it was meant for a bag that was only a twinkle in my eye at the time!

Did I mention that the Hermes twilly is now around $170 a pop? So that makes the lucky find from my closet even sweeter! Anyway, as beautiful as the Hermes twilly patterns are, I find them to be a bit too busy. Since I’m already hesitant to put anything on my bags, I’m quite sure that I want a very subtle, almost monotone option for the ostrich Birkin. Luckily, I found a grey-on-grey scarf with polka dots to mirror the leather’s bumpy texture (vacant quill follicles):

I should also mention that it’s not so easy to tie one on. I watched an YouTube video of how to wrap the Kelly handle about 4 times before attempting it, and the photos here are of the result of the first try. The Birkin, however, took a few more tries, mostly because the scarves were a bit short. The handles on the Birkin are also rounder and thinner, making them a bit more challenging to wrap. I’d retie them again (and again) to get the ends to turn out just right, but I’d rather be less OCD than apply more pressure and risk getting more of the oils from my hands on to the handles. Now if only I can find a black on black scarf with square patterns for the Kelly then I’d be all set!

April 28, 2014