Swoon.
You hear that? I’m swooning. Pretty hard. I’m a bit desensitized to beautiful handbags in the same way that I imagine fashion photographers are desensitized to beautiful women – when you look at them all day from a business perspective, it’s can be kind of hard to recapture the feeling of excitement that they once gave you. Well, folks, the Pauric Sweeney Metallic Python Shoulder Bag has me giddy like a schoolgirl all over again. How could it not? The charms of this particular purse are so many and varied that I barely know where to start.
I’d begin by talking about the material, but the reasons why I love the texture-rich python should be obvious. Instead, we’ll start with the color, since gunmetal is not only my favorite neutral, but also one of my favorite colors for clothing or accessories, period. The depth of the shade avoids the cheap look that can come with some metallics, and the finish here is particularly interesting – it’s sort of matte, isn’t it? A matte metallic sounds like an oxymoron, but somehow, Pauric Sweeney made it happen. And it’s beautiful.
A good color and material are nothing without a good design, though, and luckily this particular bag doesn’t lack in that department. The structure is a somewhat more modern iteration of the drawstring trend, with the one-piece modified box chain playing the part of the string. The chain can either be doubled as it’s seen here or used as a single, longer shoulder strap, depending on your preferences.
The only part of the bag that I don’t like, from a functional perspective, is the skinny flap over the opening. I like that the color and material provides a nice contrast to the rest of the bag, but that’s the sort of closure that NO ONE ever uses – it usually ends up flopped sloppily over the top. On a bag this slouchy, however, I’m not sure that’s as big of an aesthetic problem as it would be on a more structured design. On the whole, this is the best bag that I’ve seen in quite a while. Pre-order through Luisa Via Roma for $2276.
