Bringing a Bag Back to Life

So, there’s a story about this cute bag that you see me carrying on the pictures. To become the owner of this Lancel clutch, I did something that I never thought I would ever do and it paid off: dig in the trash! Yes I did and please stop looking at me like that, I’m not crazy.

Here’s the story. My younger sister and I were on vacation in Paris on summer of 2004 and we decided to go window shopping in one of Paris’ most expensive stores: Lancel. Little did we know the 2 students that we were would find a bag that they would actually be able to afford. My sister fell in love with this neon orange, foldable clutch and bought it right away. A few years later, as we were living together, she had to leave Canada to pursue her studies in Europe. She left me a garbage bag full of “old” things to throw away. Just to make sure that nothing important had accidentaly fallen into the garbage bag, I took a peek into it. Can you imagine that I found this clutch in the garbage bag!? It had a few stains on it so my sister got rid of it! I wasn’t gonna let the poor Lancel clutch rot in that garbage bag where it didn’t belong. I took it, gave it a little love and brought it right back to life.

 

 

 

 

So here I am, wearing a little African print dress designed by myself and executed by a local tailor during my trip to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire a few years ago. The white shirt underneath gives it a little edge and the earrings, that are dear to my heart, were handmade and gifted to me by a very talented Ivorian lady artist and “big sister” that I respect and admire a lot. How about the yellow Zara shoes? Don’t you love them?