The Luggage – Handbag Combo: A New Way of Thinking

My two accessory staples these days seem to be my carry-on suitcase and the handbag I bring with me on trips.   I spend a lot of time with these two.   I feel like we are a small family.

The other day while waiting out a delayed flight, and thinking about stylish travel (as we all do during flight delays??), I noticed that my suitcase and handbag, despite spending plenty of time together, stacked on top of one another no less, have completely different looks.  My suitcase is a sleek, modern looking number while my handbag has more of a boho, vintage look to it.   (No laptop bag for me.  I have this thing against standard-issue laptop bags.  I just can’t do them.)  Anyway, my “travel” handbag looks like it’s more likely to carry a daisy chain than a laptop – which is what’s actually in there.  Hmmmm.

I’d never really thought of my suitcase and handbag relative to one another, but as soon as this occurred to me, I immediately turned to some online browsing to investigate further.   Turns out I am on to something!   There are some handbag – luggage combinations that just don’t work (like mine!).  And some that look so fabulous, I would traipse back and forth through the neon tunnel at O’Hare over and over again just to show them off.  From now on I will not shop for either of these items in a vacuum.  Going forward, I will add another criteria to my suitcase shopping list: how does it look with a a handbag stacked on top? Here’s a few that do the trick:

The timing of my epiphany was perfect, since I am in the market to replace both of these staples.  What do you think?