My handbag wore out. I am not quite sure how old it is, but I know I had had it for a while already when we moved from London back to Stockholm. I remember it being a bit worn already in 2009: during our company trip to Budapest that year I noticed a shop that had similar bags and thought I’d go there and get a new one, but I didn’t have time. Somehow I got another 6 years of use out of it, with repairs to the lining here and there.

Now one half of the magnetic clasp fell off and I had nothing to replace it with, so I couldn’t close the bag any more. It had definitely reached its end of life. I needed a new one.

After who knows how many years with a backpack handbag, I cannot imagine using anything else. It is so nice to have both hands free and not have to worry about the bag slipping off my shoulder. I can cycle; I can run with the kids when needed.

I googled. I ordered 4 backpack handbags from Zalando and sent them all back. I scoured Etsy. And I found nothing that worked! The main problem was all the bags I found were too large. Mine is not exactly tiny but it’s definitely a handbag, not just a leather backpack.

Finally I had the ingenious idea to google in Italian. After some trial and error I found handbags that seemed to match mine almost exactly. Awesome! I guess that company hired a designer at some point, got them to design ten or fifteen bags, and they’ve been making the same bags ever since.

Less awesome was the fact that the Italians were on vacation all of August, but didn’t say anything about that when I ordered, so I had to wait 6 weeks for my bag to arrive. But now it is finally here so we’re back to awesome again!