ok, i lied

i had previously said that my first real bag purchase was a derek lam.

when it was, in fact, a fendi.

a fake fendi, bought on the streets of beijing.

i never used it.

i think i realized that even though china (and the U.S. too) was aswarm with fakes, and no one would notice, much less care, that i had joined the bootleg-bandwagon, *i* would realize that on my shoulder was perched the fendi devil (and here we all thought he wore prada).

then, in college, i told a boy i was semi-seeing at the time about my dream of purchasing a real handbag. although i had gotten through the rigors of fall recruiting and had landed a dream job, i somehow still couldn't get past my broke-ass-student frame of mind to reward myself.

he bought me, what he thought, was a gucci purse.

it was toiletry bag. much to my initial dismay.

but... then i realized, i would have been so upset if he had been the one, and not myself, to fulfill this promise to myself.

so years later, many winding bag-adventures later, i have my derek lam. he's mine, and he's all real.