Ladies and gentlemen, you might want to make sure there are no Valentino fanatics in the room when you look at this bag, because frankly, it is beyond appalling.

Similar to my view on people, I like to find the good in handbags. Even when a certain bag has missed the mark, I do my best to point out the positive features while making note and keeping in mind the flaws.

I am in love. Valentino continues to make me a happy handbag fan. Yes, in the past, I’ve snubbed Valentino and thought that some bags were less than impressive. Today is not that kind of day. I am highly impressed with this Valentino Glam Tote. In fact, if I had some cash saved up, I would have bought it on the spot.

You know, when it comes to handbags and the reviews we do here on PurseBlog, we can be all over the place. Sometimes we (me, Megs, Amanda and Anna) can be in complete agreement and other times we don’t see eye to eye at all. This all makes sense, of course, because, well, we all have different likes and dislikes. (I know, I am stating the obvious here, just bare with me.)

However, I feel as though we tend to be most polar on our view points with some of the big time designers, like Valentino.

So this week (and in particular, this weekend) are all about red, right? Well, according to the people that have a vested interest in selling you (or, perhaps more accurately, your significant other) lots and lots of Valentine’s Day swag, anyway. We’ll have more on V-Day throughout the week, but for a moment, I’d like to celebrate something that’s red that has blissfully little to do with anything other than good taste: the Valentino Premier Bow Hobo.

Get ready to be surprised and astounded, you guys: I’ve found a Valentino bag about which I am totally and utterly ambivalent. I know this doesn’t happen often, so if you feel like you need to take a moment to let that sink in, please go ahead and take one. We’ll wait.

You back? Great.

In fact, I’m having trouble rustling up any thoughts about it at all.

I’m…I’m underwhelmed. And a little sad, maybe. But mostly confused. Is this what Valentino Haute Couture is supposed to look like? Are they serious? I think we’ve been tricked. Fooled. Bamboozled.

It kind of reminds me of what would happen if Balenciaga and Valentino had a baby (the term ‘Valenciaga’ has already been coined elsewhere, I can’t take credit for it), and a few of the tight minidresses are reminiscent of Herve Leger, particularly with the neon inserts that were also in the previous Leger spring collection.

Some bags aren’t that hard to evaluate online – either they’re pretty straightforward, or the brand does things similarly enough from season to season that there are rarely surprises in construction or materials. For instance, I feel comfortable passing judgment on a Gucci bag without seeing it in person; I’ve seen enough of them in my life to be able to extrapolate information from those experiences.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Whether you like their bags or not, Valentino does the best detail work in the business. There’s not a major designer that can touch them when it comes to taking regular (albeit extremely supple and wonderful) leather and turning it into something that is far more than the sum of its parts.

This is not the first time we are seeing Valentino using a bow with their handbag design. In fact, I am not finding fault with the bow design, in fact, I am quite a fan of it. However, I actually didn’t even see the bow at first with this bag. Instead I was a tad overwhelmed with all of the studding.

It’s rare that I find myself completely conflicted, but that’s where the Valentino Ricamo Macro Paillettes Tote has me. Sometimes I love it, other times I’m not impressed by it at all. Would it be fair to give it the benefit of the doubt just because it’s Valentino?