Bag Wise.

I'm having a purse dilemma. In my mind's eye, I can see that out there in the great retail abyss somewhere, there's a lavender-grey handbag fashioned after vintage snap-top change purses. It has a moderate shoulder strap, maybe some rouching on one side; there's no loud hardware or shiny patent details. It is large enough to hold a paperback book and a magazine (though maybe not W), but doesn't look like a feedbag. It's made of leather so soft that my new boots are jealous, and it looks vintage without smelling like someone else's basement.

This bag--my marvelous bag--does not exist.

Still, because I live at least a couple hours away from anyplace that might have Dream Bag in ready supply, I spend an impressive number of hours on Etsy, poring over the Colors Tool, seeing if somewhere out there someone is picking up what I'm telekinetically putting down, bag-wise. And that is how I came across this bag, which has set off my purse search in a completely new direction:

Because though this bag is the wrong color (I'm looking for lighter and purplier) and less structured than I'm looking for (ahem, gorgeous), it is striking in its material: recycled leather.

Now, last I heard, we weren't in a cow hide shortage. And I don't mean that in any crass way: I've not eaten meat in 10 years (save for last Christmas' fried turkey incident, which we shouldn't discuss), and I've tried on my share of veg-tan "leather" footwear, only to be certain that they'd fall apart three dog walks into the muddy season.

I don't feel particularly strong about wearing leather at all, but the idea of having a fab bag made of something that once was headed for either the landfill or one of enormous shipments of secondhand clothes shipped overseas and then shirked is, well, appealing in this time of RECYCLE (OR ELSE!). Additionally, if repurposing leather means less jackets like this and this are taunting Goodwill-goers, yahtzee.

And I'm a-mazed by the great used-leather bags I've found, though none have yet struck me as The One:

So, the search continues. Though I *might* have just been convinced to sate this repurposed leather craving with one of these envelope totes ...