Guess the Price – Guess the Purse

The Gucci store window
The Prada store window

There is a district, just west of the center of Florence, which I refer to as the “Thousand Dollar Purse” district.

Here the truly extravagant end of European fashion displays itself for the delectation of the envious masses.

Here one can spend $500 on sunglasses, $1,000 on boots, and ooh and aah over purses whose merits elude my understanding.  Yet I know to that, to the stylish, the differences are as obvious as when I glance at an altarpiece and tell a Saint Sebastian from a Saint Jerome.  It is a language, and I do respect the effort it takes to achieve fluency.

In preparation for a more substantial post on the subject of thousand dollar purses, I present a simple guessing game. I challenge you to guess the prices of the three black purses shown below. I will not pull any cheap tricks and include a purse from the sensible end of town: all three of these purses cost over a thousand dollars.  My challenge: Guess the price of each!  To whoever gets closest I’ll give the prize of suggesting my next topic.  Or if you’re not confident enough in your knowledge of high fashion to guess the prices, simply guess which of the three purses do you think costs the most.

By the way, the Prada jacket shown above on the left left costs 3,950 euros, and the purse she’s holding costs 2,700 euros.  The Gucci dress at the above right is 2,700 in green, 3,500 in pink.  Oh, also, the green dress should be worn with a 500 euro belt and 585 euro shoes, and the little purse is a mere 1,350.

Now, the challenge!  Guess the price – guess the purse:

 

Purse #1: the unnecessarily quilted reptile purse

(up close, it’s not reptile leather, it’s smooth leather quilted to look like reptile leather)

 

Purse #2: the inconveniently-small reptile purse

(No, there’s no shoulder strap, just the wrist loop, so it constantly occupies a hand.)

 

Purse #3: the crumpled trashbag look purse

(yes, that’s a Prada label)

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

5 Responses to “Guess the Price – Guess the Purse”

  1. Hanah said:

    I’m going to guess that the first one is the most expensive.

    The second one is technically a clutch, not a purse. It’s carried on very formal occasions and is only intended to hold cab fare, a credit card, and possibly a makeup unit or two. Because a purse would spoil the look of your outfit, you see. The wrist strap *prevents* you from having to hold it the entire time; some clutches have no strap at all.

  2. Ex Urbe said:

    I agree it’s cluch-style, but I have trouble thinking of it as a proper clutch since, if that’s the case, it’s assuming a lady with very strong wrists who doesn’t mind a thin strap cutting into her skin, since the object itself is quite large, a full foot across if not more (fully as large as the accompanying manikin’s head), and the leather is thick and clearly heavy. I’ve seen clutches that were small and light, made of nice fabric or single-layer leather, so they could be left to dangle, but doing that with this one for even a few seconds would be very unpleasant. Still, I’m sure that wouldn’t stop some. I suspect it’s intended to spend most of its time tucked under the upper arm.

  3. Well, then that’s just ridiculous.

  4. Alexa said:

    Well the first one is both the most attractive (sadly) and also somewhat practical, so it’s probably the cheapest. I’m going with 1750 euros.

    The middle one, while it seems horribly impractical, isn’t suuuper ugly, so I’m guessing it’s the next most expensive. 2500 euros.

    The last one looks like a fucking trash bag. Hence it is the most expensive, by the law of blocks of rough wood around your neck cost more than the price of a plane ticket to the goddamn country. 3600 euros.

  5. You…have to pay extra for that dress to be in that awful pink instead of that nice green? Whenever I think I’m starting to understand this game….

Comments are closed.