Ugh. I know so of you fashionistas are really, really, REALLY into purses and shoes, and I can kind of understand. The right purse and shoes can literally transform a “blah” outfit into something fierce. But what I don’t get is why some purses–that look just ‘regular’ to me–cost as much as what you could buy a car, pay a couple months rent or book a flight to Europe for.

Case Numero Uno: I occasionally, in a frantic and frenetic urge to spend money out of some tick of anxiety, go on to my favorite online crack store, Hautelook.com, to compete with other nameless and faceless women as we engage in virtual combat to scratch each other’s e-eyes out to get to the cheapest and best deals. It’s the worst when the seasons change and retailers are looking to unload their spring and summer stock at bargain basement prices, which is perfectly fine with me because I live in Southern California and it never gets below 60 degrees during the day, save for some freakish global warming/global cooling episode. While you East Coast ladies are buried in yarn and leather, I’m wearing a maxi dress and sandals. So this last Hautelook fire sale was conducted with the usual insanity, complete with their system crashing, incomplete orders and epic shipment errors. As a victim of these errors, I was perturbed that my kid’s $9 t-shirts hadn’t come in the shipment as promised, and instead, got two pairs of Calvin Klein cotton pants, which would have been OK if they both weren’t an ugly brown and size 12. The other shipping error was a teal colored purse that I thought was just…meh. I sniffed it…leather. Looked inside and thought it was well-built enough, but it wasn’t really my style. I thought I might just keep and give it away as a birthday or Christmas gift to some unsuspecting friend or relative. After all, it was leather. I sniffed.

But the more I looked at it, the more it started to grow on me. I thought that I might keep it and wear it some time or another, but it wasn’t NEARLY going to be my favorite. I took the errant-shipped purse out of the plastic once more and opened it. I look in really close this time and saw that it had a black satchel with the name, “Onna Ehrlich” on it. So of course my next thought was to Google it, not really expecting much. But then I saw this…

Did you see that price??!! $650.00!!! I got shipped a purse that is about 1/3 of the cost of my ENTIRE wardrobe. Now keep in mind I saw the purse BEFORE I know it was some fancy-schmacy designer that stars like Halle Berry and Oprah think is all the rage.

Now the question is, “Do I like it more now that I know it’s designer??”

I’m too ashamed to say.

Here’s to Hautelook.com,  fire sales, and errant shipments.