about us

Gemma

Hi, my name’s Gemma. I’m 22 years old and I’m a HANDBAGAHOLIC! Seeing a delicious bag is like meeting the man of your dreams! You go weak at the knees, butterflies cartwheel in your stomach, you can’t move, speak or breathe! I’ve always liked handbags just like any normal girl but I blame my two aunties for my addiction....sorry....EXPENSIVE addiction. They were the ones that introduced me to the HANDBAG world of Karen Millen, Mulberry, Chloe and D&G. Let me take you back to my 21st Birthday. They sat me down, put two bags in front of me and told me to choose which one I’d like for my Birthday, a Chloe Paddington or a Mulberry Roxanne. How does a girl make that kind of decision! That was the day handbags became my life! Each payday making that difficult decision on whether to blow the lot on the latest arm candy VB has been seen posing with OR paying the rent, food, phone bill – all the mind-numbingly boring inconveniences that are getting in the way of me and my next bag! Of course a girl has to live so food is important – but life without a Marc Jacobs is so dull!!! Bills, schmills!!! Unfortunately in the real world we can’t always afford the bag ‘we so have to have or we’ll die’ – we aren’t all an ex Spice Girl and married to Mr B (I wish – would love to be a Spice Girl!). So this is where the abfab idea of swapping comes into our lives. Every girl has a dream bag, just as every girl has a bag sitting in the back of her wardrobe. That lonely bag could well be the bag of another girl’s dreams. So girls.... let’s get swapping. xxxx

Mary-Louise

Hi, I’m Mary-Louise. I’m Gemma’s Aunt and a shopaholic! I’m 39 and I adore handbags. I remember my first bag, a late starter by Gemma’s standards, I was about 26. I was on a shopping trip with my Sister in Croydon when a bag caught my eye in Alders Department Store. It was actually calling out to me so I picked it up and ‘tried it on’. Perfect, the smell, the feel, all to die for. I knew I just had to have it! It wasn’t until we got to the cashiers counter to pay that we realised that we hadn’t looked at the price - £80.00. Not a lot by today’s standards but back in the day this was expensive. We just looked at each other and laughed as I handed over the money. That was the moment I never looked back, my life now depends on getting THAT bag!

Now my Sister’s got a truly delicious Chloe Molly bag she never lets out of her sight. I can’t buy my own as they’re discontinued. I have the perfect outfit to match, but trying to pry it off her is near impossible! Don’t get me wrong I have my own small collection of Mulberry’s and Chloe’s but I need a MOLLY and my only hope is you guys! So why not join our merry band of handbag worshippers and help me in my quest to own my very own Molly! xxxx

Sarah

I love shoes! I love clothes! But my fashion passion is most definitely HANDBAGS! I’m Sarah, Mary-Louise’s Sister and Gemma’s Auntie. My Mum’s always going on about how many bags I’ve got but she’s actually to blame! She gave me a Clutch bag when I was around 6 years old, I kept my marbles in it along with my Pippa doll! I don’t know if you read in the paper about the guy who swapped a paperclip and ended up with a house! Well why not do the same with a ‘Strategic Swapping Strategy’, you could swap a Radley and end up with a Hermes Birkin!!!! A Russell & Bromley for a Kenneth Cole, a Bayswater for a patent leather Mabel, a Marc Jacobs for a Dolce & Gabbana, the possibilities are endless! So join our worldwide handbag swap and help get my Sister’s greedy eyes off my Molly – ‘cos Mary-Louise.... it ain’t gonna happen!!!!

Cathy

I’m Cathy, Gemma’s Mum. As this is a family site, I’m just along for the ride, probably making tea, doing the filing and answering the phone! In other words, ‘the Handbag Apprentice’.

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