Week 10 Results

Once again it’s time for my weekly challenge results post! If you’ve been following this week’s PS 1 bag challenge you may have sensed a bit of a lead up to this moment since I did tell you that I had something up my sleeve. You may have also been a little suspicious after my post on Wednesday.

So did I do it? Oh yeah, I did it! I managed to get my hands on one of the controversial and much talked about Mossimo bags from Target!

First, here’s a reminder of what the beautiful PS 1 Extra Large leather travel bag looks like:

PS 1 Extra Large leather travel bag

And now here is the Mossimo messenger bag:

Mossimo messenger bag

Now in my defense I don’t go out specifically looking to buy complete knock-offs but I was very curious about this bag since it has gotten so much attention. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the option of visiting a Target store to see it in person (at least that will change beginning in 2013 when Target starts opening stores in Canada!) but fortunately my parents were in Florida and managed to track a bag down for me (thanks Mom and Dad!). Better yet my parents gave it to me as an Easter gift so it ended up costing me nothing and leaves me with $40 to put in the SpendThrift Savings Bank!

Now since this bag is so controversial I know that some people will disagree with the fact that I have one. But I really wanted to get my hands on one so that I could evaluate it and see if it lives up to all of the hype surrounding it. So here’s my critique of it:

First of all I’m actually surprised that my parents were able to find one. You would think that with all of the attention that this bag got and the fact that Proenza Schouler expressed their disappointment in Target selling this bag that Target would have taken it off the shelves. Well obviously Target didn’t really listen to them or care because almost a month after all of the brouhaha the bag is still available for purchase. On top of that it was on sale!

Regularly it costs $34.99 but my parents got it on sale for $27.99. Maybe Target is trying to move the merchandise out of their stores by discounting it? Really though, you’d think that they would have just taken the bags off the shelves. I guess that revenues won out over business relations for this one.

In terms of the look of the bag itself I would say that it’s a cute bag and it does look remarkably similar to the PS1 bag (well the picture of the bag at least, I have also never seen a PS1 bag in person). I like the colour of the bag that I got (cognac) and with the exception of a few scratches the faux leather looks pretty good.

The smell of the bag on the other hand is horrendous! According to the tag inside the bag it is made of “non-leather material” and whatever this material is it stinks! I sincerely hope that the smell fades over time because it’s strong enough to give me a headache.

Functionality-wise the bag does have a lot of pockets: one in the front, a zippered one in the back, a zippered one inside, and lots of slots inside for cards and a cellphone.

One issue that I have is with the accessibility of the pockets. The two straps on the front of the bag need to be pulled out to open the bag and then you need to slide them through the loops again after closing the bag. It’s not a huge deal but it is a little annoying and in the Mossimo bag’s defense you would have to do the same with the actual PS1 bag. Also, the liner of the bag is pretty flimsy (but what do you expect for a discount bag) so we’ll see how it lives up to the wear and tear of use.

All in all I think that the bag is cute. If I didn’t know that it was an alleged knock-off and it didn’t smell like a chemical plant I would probably recommend buying it but because of these issues I would strongly encourage others to leave it at the store!

Now it’s your turn, what do you think of this week’s challenge?