Britain's Bag Ladies

For some girls it's shoes, for others it's bags... and for a few of us, well, we have a fetish for both! When I was at school I used to hang my handbags on the back of my door, until the sheer weight of all that leather (and faux leather) caused its hinges to buckle. I thought a count was in order... I stopped at 54.

At the age of seventeen I sold half of these to friends and family - not for much mind you, maybe 5 bucks a pop? I can't quite remember... Five years later when I found myself packing for my move overseas I realised that I would once again need to shed some leather. I had bags-a-plenty, and shoes a-cupboard-full. So, I took myself off to Roselle Markets - that's just one of Sydney's favourite weekend market spots, for my Northern hemisphere readers - and managed to make back a mini fortune ($1,500 or thereabouts), enough to fund a portion of my flight and I think, a top from Bettina Liano (oops!).

Naturally I felt heaps better on the commute to work today when I read in my morning paper that the average British woman owns 111 handbags in her lifetime. This is according to study undertaken by the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex, who surveyed 1,500 women. Spending an average of £76 per bag, that's a hefty £8,436 over the course of her handbag career. Nice.

Unpacking all my boxes last Saturday (thus finally putting an end to my nomadic lifestyle over the past two months), I realised that I also have a lot of shoes. Practically, I can only wear three or four pairs (which is in line with the Lakeside study that suggests of their 111 bags most women use only three on a regular basis), as most are heels that pinch and make me wobble on my toes... but their abundance, while absurd, does actually bring me some comfort. I feel slightly Carrie-esque, you know, when she realises that she's spent the equivalent of home deposit on her footwear. If it's good enough for SJP, it's good enough for me!