Novelty Bags

Kate Spade has a novel idea for clutches

Well, the idea may be literally novel, but some people say it’s not figuratively novel – we’ll get to that in a minute. All I know is that the Kate Spade Book of the Month Clutches appeal very strongly to the book nerd residing just below my surface.

I’ve always been a reader. I used to make forts out of couch cushions in my parents’ living room and read with a flashlight when I was in elementary school, and the habit never really abated, even though my days of fort-building are probably over. I took so many comparative lit classes in college that sometimes I’d have assigned reading of 18 to 20 novels in a single semester, and I had so many credits in the department by the time I graduated that it became my minor by accident. For me to see two of my greatest loves, handbags and books, come together in such a perfect way almost brings a tear to this old blogger’s eye.

I’ve recently decided to join Megs and Vlad in New York City this spring, and that means I likely won’t be able to continue moving from apartment to apartment with my many and varied bookcases, as I’ve done since college. I’m seriously considering the purchase of a Kindle, but there’s just something beautiful about an actual, physical book that these clutches capture perfectly.

The only problem (or the problem that some people are having, anyway) appears to be that Kate Spade isn’t the first company to do a book-inspired clutch. Indie designer Olympia Le-Tan came out with book clutches before Kate Spade did, and you can find any number of ladies with similar ideas selling their wares on Etsy.

Le-Tan’s clutches have a much different feel to me than Spade’s poppy, bright handbags, and as such, I have a hard time caring that the brand perhaps piggybacked on someone else’s inspiration (plus, there’s no indication that Le-Tan was indeed the first person to have this idea). To paraphrase Coco Chanel, those who think they have been inspired by no one must not have very long memories. Buy through Kate Spade for $325 apiece.

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