Due to the rainy weather of the past week, my sister used my vintage Mulberry scotchgrain messenger for five straight days and that left mo no chance of using it. So yesterday, I told her that I wanted to use it as well and I would just give her my seldom-used Mulberry bag below:
This bag was my first Mulberry bag ever. I never got to use it often because the shape and the length of the strap was very tricky to work with, which I have previously expressed when I received my latest scotchgrain messenger. For a long time, I no longer consider it as part of my collection. The sad thing was left in the cabinet and was last used in our Kota Kinabalu trip in 2010.
(This was my most favorite shot during the trip! It just finished raining and the rainbow over the South China Sea was amazing!)
Back to the bag, if you look at the details on the buckle and the zipper pull, you will notice that it is consistent with the hardware of my Bayswater from this post discussing fake and authentic Mulberry hardware.
I now officially gave it to my sister because I know she will definitely make good use of it. She carries a lot lately and the capacity of the bag and the material makes it an all-weather bag. And speaking of the material, I think the common misconception that people have over scotchgrain is that it is leather. You see Ebay auctions and description saying “Mulberry scotchgrain leather” but it is in fact “a poly-vinyl coated woven cotton and is naturally resistant to everyday wear” (per Mulberry’s website). Think of it as something similar to Louis Vuitton monogram and damier canvas or Gucci plus or coated canvas.
So next time you see this material, resist calling it “scotchgrain leather” the same way you won’t say “ATM machine”. =) Meanwhile, I just hope my sister will stop borrowing my other scotchgrain bag because her bag-borrowing habits has previously caused disagreements between the two of us because of sudden-not-so surprising issues upon returning them.