Express Yourself, with Lil Purses

One exciting fashion development that has come along with the blazing hot days of summer has been the revelation of little patterned purses. Over years of thrifting, I have accumulated about a million little novelty purses that have done little else but monopolize an entire dresser drawer's worth of valuable storage space. It is safe to say that it is a big purse world that we live in, and being a little, loud, albeit totally adorable purse can leave you left in the dust.

But Summer has proven the perfect opportunity to bust these guys out. Unfettered by bulky outerwear, fearlessly exploring a variety of color palettes, and making an earnest attempt at regaining a natural slope to my right shoulder, I am switching to the tiny purse team.

Here are some of my favorites; some are new acquisitions, and some have been around forever and are finally seeing the light of day. This first lil purse is one such, and has been my go to statement accessory of the summer:



I love the bright woven stripe and the tooled leather. I am venturing to guess that this purse originate from Southeast Asia, Thailand maybe, from the style and colors of the weaving. The satchel shape of this actually proves to very spacious as well, and I can fit quite a bit of stuff in it.

Another one with it's stylistic origins in the same part of the world is this ikat stripe purse with chain strap:


Although in this case it is certainly not authentic, ikat is an Indonesian weaving technique where the warp of the fabric is printed before it is woven, creating a vertically blurred effect. It is very cool. And it is also very IN right now, and I love to be IN. I also love the chain strap, which seems to be a really mismatched element.


Then there is this tour de force:


A two-toned floral tooled leather purse! This thing is just BEAUTIFUL if you ask me, and set me back a whole $4 in Milwaukee this past May. Add it to the list of epic tooled leather bags that OpSparkle has brought you over these past few months.


Then there have been a few carpet bags that have struck my fancy, like this sweet little pastel flame stitch bag:


I got this thrifting in Buffalo about a year ago, and every now and then it is the perfect compliment to an outfit.

And last but not least is the carpet bag that I found on the same Milwaukee trip as the tooled leather bag, for $2:


I love the red-browns and the quality of the weaving. I bet this thing is from the 70's, and it looks like it was never used. LOVE it.


It looks like something straight out of my favorite book, Woven Fashion!