Yesterday one of our lovely Australian readers, Baguette, wrote in to ask me to weigh in on the Dicha Pavlova Bag. Because I’m always happy to oblige someone that has already done the work of finding a bag on my behalf, I’m here to fulfill her request.
She’s a vintage lover just like I am, which for both of us also extends to the love of both vintage-style pieces that aren’t actually old and restored things that have been made to look new. The Dicha Pavlova bag is the latter, but sadly, it’s not working for me or the reader that brought it to my attention. I couldn’t tell you exactly why Baguette doesn’t like it, but I can speak for myself and say that it’s just way too much.
Everyone has their own ideas of what makes good vintage, and that’s why searching for finds is so much fun. For me, I prefer pieces that really embody a particular look or material that was popular in a bygone era – Art Deco, rhinestones, enamel, animal cuffs. The beauty of vintage or inspired-by pieces that I choose is in their ability to evoke a certain mood, in addition to the fact that they’re one-of-a-kind.
When a piece gets too crowded, it loses some of its charm. Not only is this bag made of metal mesh, a busy material on its own, but it’s adorned with peach-colored sequined crushed velvet, what can only be described as beaded sequin testicles, and topped of with a crystal-encrusted clasp. On a little, dainty bag that’s supposed to evoke midcentury femininity, the vintage charm gets too muddled with all of the materials’ mixed messages. Some people already erroneously believe that “vintage” is synonymous with ‘tacky” and “gaudy,” and this bag doesn’t do anything to dispel that myth. Buy through Net-a-Porter UK for £426.0
