“Nobody had ever asked me where I got a single thing I own. Now it happens every week.”
Peggy Lawson on eleven years of buying the same plain bag without thinking, the four questions she asked before she ordered, and what came in the mail on a Tuesday.
Peggy Lawson, 57 · Customer · Lexington, KY · 5 min read
Heading out the door on a Tuesday morning.
For years I had a system, and if I'm honest the system was terrible. About every year and a half I'd walk into the same store out on Nicholasville Road and buy another everyday bag. Tan, then black, then tan again. Each one was fine for a season. Then the corners went limp, the whole thing caved in on itself on the passenger seat, and at the first stop sign half my groceries would roll into the footwell. I'd grumble at it, and then I'd go buy the next one.
Eleven years of that. Seven, maybe eight bags. Not once did I stop and ask why.
What finally changed it wasn't a bag at all. It was a woman in my Thursday book club who always turned up with the same bag, and it always looked brand new. For months I figured she was just careful with her things. Then I noticed it was a different pattern every time. Same shape, same shop, four or five of them by now.
The week she came in with a black cat curled up asleep on a pile of books, I looked down at my tan one slumped against the chair leg and thought, oh.
So I asked her, plainly, where they came from. Clara & Owen in Asheville, North Carolina, she said. They've been selling their quilted bags out of a little boutique there for years, and right now they're clearing out their studio.
Eleven years of buying the same bag, and it took a woman in my book club for me to notice I'd never once picked one I actually liked.
The four things I wanted answered first
I'll be straight with you here, because I expect you're thinking exactly what I was thinking.
“It's a printed tote. Aren't they all the same?”
That's what I figured, and it's what I'd been carrying for eleven years. It isn't the same at all. These are quilted, not printed onto a flat piece of fabric, and that turns out to be the whole difference. A quilted bag keeps its own shape. Mine sits up straight on the passenger seat instead of keeling over at the first turn. I didn't know that was something you could even buy until I had one in the car.
Kroger run. It just stays where I put it.
I didn't believe the bit about it standing up on its own until it did. My old canvas one never once managed that.
Linda S., Bowling Green, KY“That much off? What's the catch?”
I sent them an email and asked, because I've been burned before. Clara wrote me back the very same day. She and Owen have been selling these out of their little boutique in Asheville for years. Right now they're clearing this year's designs out of the studio to make room for the new collection, and she said at this price they're not making much on them beyond what they cost to make. She told me that without my asking, and that is not how someone with something to hide writes back.
Kroger run. It rides along in the cart like it owns the place.
I emailed with a question about sizes and got a real answer from a real person the next morning. That's rare these days.
Barbara H., Knoxville, TN“Will it actually hold up?”
This was the one I couldn't answer for myself, so I went and read what other women had written about theirs.
This is my third one. The first has been hauled around every day for a year and still looks good, and the colors haven't faded a bit.
Carol D., Huntington, WVWent through the washer on gentle and came out just like it went in. Still holds its shape.
Donna R., Evansville, INMine are only a couple of months old. Ask me again in 2029.
“What if I don't like it when it shows up?”
Thirty days, free returns, your money back. I looked that up before I ordered, not after.
I ordered two to be safe, planning to send one back. I kept both.
Janet M., Asheville, NCThe Tuesday it came
Mine arrived on a Tuesday. The cat one, same as the one from book club.
The day it came. Before the coffee was even finished.
The first thing I noticed wasn't the cat. It was that when I set it on the passenger seat, it stayed exactly where I set it. I sat there in the driveway for a minute and thought, well. That's all it ever needed to do.
Three weeks later a woman at the Walgreens counter asked me where I got it.
Then my hairdresser.
Then a girl working the register at Target who couldn't have been a day over twenty-five.
Nobody had ever asked me where I got a single thing I own. Now I keep Clara & Owen's name ready.
There are three of them sitting on the bed in my guest room now.
The black cat on the books came first. Then the dragon with the teacups, which my grandson picked out and which I pretended I was buying for him. Then the big black-and-gold cat face, because by then I'd given up explaining myself.
The cat, the dragon, and the one I didn't bother explaining.
That is not a reasonable number of bags for one woman. I've made my peace with it. Clara mentioned in that email that most women who carry one end up coming back for another design. For the record, I lasted three weeks.
Printed tote or quilted tote
If you've been buying the same plain bag for years like I was, here's the difference side by side.
Flat fabric with a picture on it
Caves in the minute you set it down
Corners go limp after one season
Looks like everyone else's
Nobody ever asks about it
Padded, stitched and quilted
Stands up on its own and keeps its shape
Goes in the washer on gentle
Dozens of designs to pick from
Strangers stop you to ask
About the price
Right now the regular size (15 x 12 in) is $37.95, down from $118.95, and the larger one (17 x 14 in) is $39.95, down from $132.95. Shipping in the US is free.
They make each design in a batch, and once a batch is gone, it's gone. The popular ones go first, so if there's one you like, I wouldn't sit on it the way I sat on my tan bag for eleven years.
Peggy
MIDNIGHT | BLACK CAT ON BOOKS QUILTED TOTE
- ✓Black cat asleep on a stack of books, fully quilted
- ✓Stands up on its own, keeps its shape
- ✓Soft, comfortable shoulder handles
- ✓Machine washable on gentle
- ✓Two sizes: 15 x 12 in and 17 x 14 in
- ✓Dozens of designs in the collection
- ✓FREE US shipping & 30-day free returns
Studio Clearance on now, making room for the new collection. The popular designs go first.