Smittie, we should go puffer and puffer bag shopping together. I am very unsure about what bags work best with puffers. I really can't figure it out. Yet I, too, wish for outerwear perfection this year. I mean, it's how the world sees us most of the time, right? We might as well look good. But how?

Wow. What an incredible amount of fabulous information. I'm quite overwhelmed! Thanks so much everyone I really need to go off and do some serious study of all these comments, which I promise to do and reply later in the week.

In the meantime, posting this reminded me of a few bags I had in my donation pile that are closer to the size I want. I'm going to revive them for a while as part of my further investigation. I added finds for them below. (apologies for the sloppy pictures with black hangers)

- faux leather Franco Sarto "doctor bag" in cognac that I was going to get rid of because the black trim on the handles was peeling off. Instead I just cut off the bad part and just took a felt marker to it to mimic where the trim was, and it looks much better. I really liked this bag for a while a couple of years ago.

- a black DKNY bag that has major structural issues. The leather is beautiful but too soft for how the bag is constructed. The leather is pulled and stretched around where the handles attach. It also has two side pockets along both sides of the entire purse, with zippers at the top of each side, and the soft leather kept shifting around near those zippers so I sewed both of them shut.

Both bags look rather nice, *Chris*.
*Suz*, going P&P shopping would be so much fun but it would be like the blind leading the blind as I am as confused as you are about what bag to buy! I think my main problem is that winter is a casual time for me, and that would warrant a casual cross body, but cross body over a puffer is a bit awkward.

Anyway, I'll stop talking about puffers and let everyone get on with their summer!

Haha, Smittie, we can reconvene when the cold winds begin.

I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful information posted here. I feel the need to go through Angie's wardrobe refresher steps again and I will use all the info here to include a bag refresher as part of that.

Honestly i'm just really not a handbag person. Once and awhile i see one i LOVE but typically i feel pretty, "meh" about most of them. And i'm often too lazy to switch my stuff out to a different one. >_>

Shoes however, are a different story. I'm definitely a shoe person.

I'm much more of a shoe person, too.

I'm kind of an emotional handbag buyer the past several years - so I do tend to end up with too many. And since I don't like changing them out very often, I end up with too many sitting in the closet. What I've tried to do in more recent years is to buy one in spring and one in fall. Problem is that I haven't gotten rid of past years spring/fall bags. Right now I have a great navy bag and a cognac bag that are both pretty new and would be great for fall. And I have a taupe/gray bag that is still in good shape I got last spring. But I have a big *want* of a bright red bag after seeing the recent ensemble by Angie. Maybe I need a splash of color for my mostly neutral wardrobe.

I know, this probably doesn't help much.

I am always adding bags -- I'd like to say I have an end goal, but I just love bags, I change bags almost daily. I tend to have two sets of bags -- work bags and weekend bags. I carry a lot to and from work daily, and a few times per week so I have many tote bags and large capacity bags that can handle a spare pair of shoes if needed, lunch, breakfast, snacks, coffee mug, giant wallet etc. Though I SHOULD have the hang of bag changing by now, something is ALWAYS missing (I'm talking to you new lip gloss that I haven't seen in 3 months...).

Sometimes I need a change from leather bags and go over to my utility style and messenger bags, Timbuk2, waxed canvas, nylon and weather friendly, I mix them in with my biz wardrobe. My theory is "whatever matches, I can make it work" I do tend to buy reds, oranges, greens -- bright colors in addition to the neutrals. Never know how I'm going to feel one day! Monday, I realized I had two bags in two different styles of the exact same colors, purchased years apart.

Suz and Smittie - the perfect puffer, wool coat and accessories for each are on my list this year. We should start a separate thread for this closer to fall - I'm sure there's gong to be a lot of discussion!