This picture above serves two purposes. One, to give you readers suffering through 100-degrees weather some respite (remember when you were digging yourself out of a blizzard you wished for summer?), and two, to lead into a discussion about…what else but bags!

I’ve finally picked the two bags that will lay the foundation for this trip’s wardrobe, and they’re both black. One will be something I can wear messenger-style as is often necessary for navigating souks or a marché aux puces, and a smaller bag that can be worn several ways to accommodate a variety of occasions.

So the Balenciaga Day bag that you see in the first pic was a great travel bag last winter. Light as air and basically bottomless (which is great to stuff unless you mind the bottomless pit issue). The leather is so incredible–I could fold it and jam it into an overstuffed carry-on bag and it would still come out looking fabulous. There are not many bags out there that can take the abuse from the road and still get tons of compliments. Sadly, the shoulder strap is not the most comfy in the world and cannot be extended to wear the bag across the body, so I’m trying out something else this time. NO hints…you’ll have to wait for the action shots when I reach the other continent some time next week. No clues on where I’m going either, but that’s because my itinerary is still in a flux for now. Yikes.

The other bag is actually something you might be surprised to see me carry, as it breaks 3 of my purse rules. More on that later when I spill the beans photographically…actually, the reason I can’t show you this second bag is because it is coming from the UK and we have a rendezvous to meet up when I reach…wherever it is that I’m going.

So, what’s better than waking up to a sunrise in a foreign place? It’s doing so in anticipation of seeing a new bag for the first time! You know how if you’re born into a culture where arranged marriages are expected and you’re just about to see what the guy your parents picked out for you looks like? Well, this is not exactly like that because I can always get rid of the bag if I don’t like it, but I think the suspense factor is about the same.

Anyway, I’ll be back over the weekend with looks from my suitcase, now that the bags have been decided :-D.