Fall/Winter 2015 Collection
Retail $138
Happy Thursday Purseday, everyone! Today I present to you my Orla Kiely Big Owl Small Backpack, one of the cutest prints in my collection in an even cuter backpack style. When these bags first came out, I knew I had to have one and I was lucky enough to nab this small backpack during one of Amazon's sporadic 65% off sales. But even with this crazy good deal, this wasn't the easiest purchase for me to make. Read on to find out why...
This was probably THE most annoying Orla Kiely purchase I have ever made, and it all has to do with pattern placement. I think I exchanged this purse literally five times becuase I just wasn't happy with the placement of the owls. Yes, I know, I'm picky. But the bags I got before I finally settled on this one just didn't have a good Big Owl print - they were either way off centered, too cut off, or didn't have enough color on the front. I'm not even entirely happy with this one, but I just got so sick of getting yet another bag that didn't quite meet my expectations that I just settled on this one. It's still the best out of the bunch with its centered green owl, but I just don't like that it's cut off at the bottom. Ideally I would've wanted a yellow or green owl perfectly centered on the front pocket, but I'm content with this one, especially considering the other ones I got before (one particularly bad one seemed to have only grey owls on the front, so there were very few pops of green or yellow, and they were all completely off center). So something to consider if you're thinking of purchasing this bag - the pattern placement is crazy inconsistent. I purchased mine through Amazon, which has an amazing return policy so it was easy for me to exchange mine, so I'd advise ordering from there if you do plan on getting this bag.
The back of the bag has two adjustable backpack straps made of cotton webbing with silver hardware.
And, in my opinion, has a better pattern placement, but of course this is the back so you'll hardly see it anyway.
I particularly liked how the owl on one side was centered.
The other side...not so much.
The zipper pulls are a cute touch with their Orla Kiely Flower Stem embossed logo.
The bottom of the purse has feet.
The inside features a red-colored Linear Stem jacquard lining...
...that continues inside the front pocket.
There's one zippered compartment with a leather logo pocket.
And two pockets on the opposite side with attached key ring.
Don't get me wrong - I do love this bag despite my tone at the top of this post. I think it's super cute and I look forward to using it. I've since gotten over my initial crazy pickiness and can appreciate its rather cute design :)
5 comments:
I totally get what you mean about pattern placement. It's one of my pet peeves when ordering online and not knowing what you'll get. I must also look like a lunatic when I purchased Orla Kiely items from Target -- looking at each piece and then vetoing them for poor pattern placement. I also look at color intensity, because that can also vary from lot to lot.
Pattern placement is particularly important for this pattern, and yours is very nice. You know I love this bag.
Haha, we are totally on the same page. And I am also that "lunatic" at Target inspecting each piece :) Ordering directly from Orla Kiely, though, seems to guarantee more consistent pattern placement, but I do wish that exactly what you saw on the website was what you got.
Thank you! I'm glad to hear that someone else thinks the pattern placement on this bag is ok - I'm still on the frence haha. It's definitely grown on me and I still enjoy using this bag.
I love this print! I have it in the large holdall weekender bag. I can see how on a smaller bag pattern placement is important/can be frustrating! Love your blog!
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