A Letter From a Reader: The Willa Hobo Set (Elaine)
For twenty years I carried one tired black handbag everywhere. Then a stranger at the markets paid for her mangoes in two seconds flat.
Six things a three-piece leather set gets right that twenty years of one black bag got wrong, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Elaine · Customer · Hervey Bay, Queensland · 5 min read
I have carried the same kind of handbag for about twenty years. Black, a bit too big, one long pocket inside where everything sinks to the bottom. Every time I got to the front of a queue I would be standing there digging for my purse while the line waited behind me, with the bag wide open on my arm for anyone to look into.
One Saturday in October, Peter and I were at the markets on the Esplanade. The woman in front of me at the fruit stall had a soft brown leather bag on her shoulder, the slouchy kind. When it was her turn she reached round to a zip pocket on the back of the bag, the side against her body, took out her card, paid, and zipped it shut again. Two seconds. No digging.
So I asked her, plainly. Her name is Margaret, she is from Bundaberg, and she laughed and said it was the best thing she had bought all year. It is called the Willa, from Portsea Boutique, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. And it is not one bag, it is three: the big hobo she had on her shoulder, a flat crossbody, and a little zip pouch for cards.
I ordered the brown set that week, fully expecting to send it back. I did not, and I wrote to the boutique to tell them why, and they asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read. So here it is, the six things this set gets right.
Mine, two weeks later, back at the same markets. Peter took this one.
Three bags, so you stop asking one bag to do everything
This is the thing I would tell you if I only had a minute. My old black bag had to be a shopping bag, a going-out bag and a travel bag all at once, and it was bad at all three. The Willa set gives you a roomy hobo for the big days, a flat crossbody for walks and markets when you want your hands free, and a small zip pouch for cards and keys that drops into either one. They match, so whichever one you grab, it looks like you meant it.
A hidden zip pocket on the back, against your body
This is what Margaret showed me at the fruit stall. On the back of the hobo there is a zip pocket that sits against you, not facing the crowd. My phone and my card live there now. To get into it, a hand would have to get between me and my own bag, which on a busy market morning or a full bus is a very nice thought. The top of the bag zips shut too, so nothing is open on your arm.
The back pocket. Phone and card go in here, against me.
A place for everything, so no more digging at the till
Inside the hobo there are zip pockets and slip pockets, so things stay where you put them instead of sinking to the bottom. On a full day mine holds my iPad, my reading glasses, an umbrella, a water bottle, my lipstick and the little pouch with my cards. It is roomy without looking bulky, which surprised me more than anything.
Packing it the night before our trip to Brisbane. All of that fits, and it still zips shut.
Soft leather that looks far dearer than it was
The leather is soft and buttery with a lovely grain, and the gold zips and fittings make it look like something from a department store window. It also shrugs off rain and the odd scratch, which matters when your bag spends half its life on a car seat or a café chair. After a month of every-day use mine still looks new.
Wear it three ways
The hobo has a short handle for the shoulder and a longer strap that clips on, so it goes from handbag to shoulder bag to crossbody in a few seconds. The crossbody has its own long strap that adjusts. On our walk along the Esplanade I wear the crossbody and keep my hands free, and when we sit down for a coffee the hobo hangs on the back of the chair.
Coffee on the Esplanade. The hobo on the chair, the crossbody on the table.
Six colours, and the sale is real
Brown, black, blue, grey, a deep purple-red and a cherry red, every one of them the same three pieces. I went with the brown. Lyn, Peter's sister, has carried the same handbag since the Sydney Olympics, so she is getting the red set for Christmas. I have not told her yet.
Lyn's Christmas present, the red set, on the spare bed where she will not see it.
See The Willa Hobo Set →The Willa, against the bag I had been carrying
You can buy a handbag almost anywhere. I know, because I have owned most of them. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
One bag for everything, good at nothing
Phone and cards in an outside pocket
Everything sinks to the bottom
Digging at the till while the line waits
Nobody has ever asked where you got it
Hobo, crossbody and pouch, all matching
A hidden zip pocket against your body
Zip and slip pockets for everything
Card out and paid in two seconds
Asked about at the Saturday markets
About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The whole set of three is A$109.95, and it was A$274.95.
The boutique says the sale is about clearing the season's stock, selling directly, with no middleman taking a cut. That is their arithmetic, not mine. What I can tell you is that I have paid more than that for one black handbag I never once got a compliment on, and this is three.
If you have been carrying the same tired black bag for twenty years because it felt like the sensible thing, this is the set I would hand you instead.
— Elaine
Willa | Luxury Leather 3-Piece Hobo Bag Set
- Hobo shoulder bag, crossbody bag and zip pouch wallet
- Hidden zip pocket on the back, against your body
- Zip and slip pockets inside, fits an iPad
- Soft, water- and scratch-resistant leather, gold fittings
- Six colours, free delivery across Australia
Clearance sale on now. The brown and the black are going first.