Coach — some fashion aficionados have a love/hate relationship, or more specifically, a hate/detest relationship. The thing is, it’s not against the design of the bags in general. It’s more of a status thing. Coach is known to be the starter luxury designer — women who have a fistful of cash to spend go here to experience the feel of the splurge. Coach targets women who earn over $100,000 — but many women who are into handbags are willing to spend more than the average price of a Coach bag.

Well, Coach certainly realized that there was a bigger piece of the spending pie that they could get their hands on. So, they upped their average price, until they topped out at a $10,000 bag in python. In the meantime, preteens and women who just wanted to be seen in a designer bag were snatching up the signature C logo bags for proud display.

Backlash time: women who rail against displayable logos in blatant sight refuse to buy into the Coach dream, thereby demoting its status as a high-reaching status label.

Coach still has bags at various price points, so it remains to be seen where Coach will rest on the status totem pole. In the meantime, many of their leather bags are still nice finds.

I’m currently a fan, at least from the pictures, of the Legacy Thompson Hobo in ink blue or chestnut. The blue version looks like a pair of bluejeans with the pocket, while the chestnut looks like a lovely, rich hue in this particular leather. It seems like a stylish everyday bag that is roomy for the essentials — dimensions are 16 3/8 (L) x 15 3/8 (H) x 2 (W).

It has the Legacy stripe lining, and the price point is a little higher than their normal bags ($598), but I think this one might be a keeper.

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