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| It came with the shopping bag; I don't know what the tablet is doing there. |
I first heard of Charles & Keith over ten years ago. In fact I did not simply hear about it I watched a docu-mag program on Channel NewsAsia - I don’t remember the name of the program but it was presented by Khairudin Saharom, a Singapore TV presenter [among others]. A quick search on Google did not produce any information on the show; so going on my memory [which can be cloudy sometimes], what impressed me the most about the brand was that it made its name in Abu Dhabi when the brand was practically unknown in Asia; certainly not in Malaysia. But the Abu Dhabi store was probably a figment of my imagination because from
this article by the National Library Board of Singapore it was actually in Dubai that they had their store in; their first venture in the Middle East.
However, my first experience with one of their bags was not a positive one. It was about five years ago, the bag was a gift to my mom; it was an oversized slouchy tote with chunky metal straps. My mom thought that it was too ‘young’ for her and so after a few months in the closet I had an opportunity to give it a try for a two-day one-night trip. It went well at first but the next day, towards the end of the day, the bag was literally peeling. There were flakes peeling off all over the bag and I was glad that we were going home and I didn’t need to use the bag anymore. Unfortunately I don’t have any photo of the bag and my mom has since thrown away the bag since the peeling was quite severe.
Despite that incident, the one I have right now has survived about a year. This time I bought it myself at the Charles & Keith store here in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. So far no peeling; I haven’t been taking any particular care to prevent that from happening, so I don’t know what the deal was with the other bag.
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| The Samsung Note 8.0 will only go halfway. |
Anyway, the bag I have right now is structured, and chosen because it was so; I particularly like the curved top, the fanning-out sides and the pinched corners, stitched halfway. It is rather small, which I thought, when considering this bag, would be a great everyday crossbody bag with its longer strap on, or a carry-on dinner bag with the long strap off. The colour of this bag as viewed on their website and at the store was a pinkish nude colour; the label on the plastic wrap says ’nude’. But I find that it changes with the lighting and gets even more pinkish when it is darker. I don’t think I do the bag justice with the photos here.
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| Lipstick for good measure, or measurement rather. |
So, why have I bought a Charles & Keith bag despite that peeling experience? I thought that might be an isolated case; I’m always willing to give something the benefit of the doubt. I like that their collections are affordable for my budget. And most importantly I like that, for an affordable brand, they are trying. I think sometimes a [relatively] affordable brand can be a bit too reluctant to release trendy or fashionable items; they usually go for a ’safe’ collection or timeless or versatile. Yes, for everyday wear maybe that might be preferable but sometimes we want a bit more for special occasions, for example; or to incorporate ‘timeless’ and ‘trendy’ into our daily outfit. I love a good design; I love a unique design that doesn’t always have to be flamboyant to be a ‘good’ design and I think Charles & Keith have that, and all of the above; and they offer a variety of options, for example the bag I bought came in four colour options and there are now
a few more options in size and colour.
The only thing I haven’t found one that I like from this brand is a backpack. Maybe one day.
& Buy
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