Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Deidre talks about her Aaliyah Red Flat Clutch from Phillip Noel.
Before I knew how to do it myself, I'd drag The Cat in The Hat and Peter Rabbit books around my house asking my older cousins to read to me and then beg them to do the same two books over and over again. The moment I figured out how to make sense of letters grouped together, I was an unstoppable nerd. I would go to kiddie birthday parties with not one but two books in tow, since I knew that I would inevitably get bored with Pin the Tail on the Donkey and dodging wild swings intended for the piñata. In middle school, I would volunteer to work the book fair just so I could get a sneak peek at all the goodies before they went on sale to the private school masses. Currently, right up there with shoes and good meals, books are among the things that I willingly spend more money on than I should. It's rare that I'm ever caught bookless.
As any New Yorker knows, lugging personal items around the city and on the subway is a part of the day-to-day and too many purses just can't fit my necessities, especially my extra-long books. To quote the vogue ballroom announcer in Paris is Burning, "An evening bag is a must! You have to carry something. No woman is sure at night!” And though I prefer that evening bag to be a clutch, they are traditionally fussy little bags. I believe that they were created under the premise that women shouldn't require much more than the essentials when they step out. But obviously, I'm a modern girl with a lot of essentials, and the most important one is a book. This minimalist clutch from Phillip Noel, in a shade called Aaliyah red no less (designer Noel is mega-fan of baby girl), is fancy enough to wear when I'm going out and perfectly sized to hold my chapstick, lotion, keys, comb, hand sanitizer, lipstick, iPhone, iPhone charger and still my latest book. And that's really all I can ask for in clutch.