A very orange purse

*Note: this isn't an advertorial blog entry. I'm just having a rambling reminisce/happy customer sort of moment, so if you don't really want to read about Oroton, please feel free to skip ahead and look at other things on here. There are some soothing beach photos down further.

Anyway. It's time for some reminiscing.

Back when I was doing my degree, some friends and I were addicted to op shopping. This was before op shopping hit that popularity boom a while back and stores ended up being a) picked over and b) rather pricey for second-hand tat. We'd go most Fridays and find all sorts of stuff. One friend once found a Gucci bag, I picked up loads of vintage/antique jewellery and the other friend fed their Glo-Mesh addiction (which we all suffered from to some degree).

One of my favourite items that I picked up in that time was a white Oroton Glo-Mesh-style handbag. I didn't like it at first, apart from its gorgeous purple silky lining, but came to adore the bag after a few months. I'll have to find it in the moving boxes, take a photo and post it sometime as an update to this post. I also picked up a matching coin purse at another op shop a few weeks after that, although someone had written "50 cents" on the lining of it in biro.

Still, my love of all things Oroton has grown from that experience back in 2002. Later, when I lived near Melbourne, the friend who found the Gucci bag and I would make outings to the DFOs, including the BrandSmart one in Nunawading. They have an Oroton outlet there. Far too tempting. I bought four handbags there - three for myself, one as a present. The justification was that they were quality items, and I wouldn't buy other handbags. Which I actually didn't.

Then with having to move and ending up in a place that's near the beach - hurrah! - but not anywhere near BrandSmart, I found out they have a website, www.oroton.com. Which has been great for buying little items now and then for presents (or the lovely Alpine hobo handbag I got Mum for her birthday - got it months before her birthday on a giant sale).

I know people often don't seem to think buying brand-name accessories are worth it unless they actually have the money to do so - why put down a few hundred dollars (or thousand) when you can pick up a fake major designer item for $50? For a start, most people can spot the fakes. Plus they're generally poorly made and the emphasis seems to be on flash fashion over substance/quality.

The vintage Oroton and Glo-Mesh handbags and purses sum it up for me. They've stood the test of time and are still going strong as practical, beautiful items. Other handbags I've bought that were brand-new but cheap have fallen apart within months of buying them. Since buying the new Oroton handbags, I haven't needed to purchase other bags. The only thing that's been necessary has been some leather-care product now and then.

Although I have to say, I don't have the same attitude towards clothes as I do towards accessories. Clothes are made to come and go - fabric doesn't last forever, even if there are some items we'd love to have that happen for. But with accessories, if you choose the right ones you can keep them for years, coordinate them with all kinds of outfits and perhaps hand them down to your children/grandchildren.

The occasional indulgence with something like this isn't all bad.

"Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves." - Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)