Choosing the Right Summer Handbag

Some women have handbags for day of the week and seem to be toting a different one every time they go out. No matter whether you're looking for one or two understated purses, or if you'd prefer to have a dedicated handbag room full of ‘loud', stylized satchels, there are a few simple rules to live by when buying a new handbag or just selecting from your existing panoply of purses.

As with clothes, different handbags suit different girls with different body types. If you see someone carrying a purse that you absolutely must have this second, think about it for a bit before rushing off to visit Sam Moon; will that handbag really fit your body type, or did it just look good because of the person carrying it? If you're tall and thin, it may not make sense to get a cute and tiny purse that you saw a shorter girl carrying, as it may just serve to make you look bigger.

If you're small and petite then it's important to give some thought to proportion - a bag that looks fine carried by a taller may look oversized on your smaller frame. If you're trying to draw attention towards or away from a particular attribute, ensure that you get a bag that hangs at that body level, as eyes will be drawn wherever your handbag sits.

It's very important to give some practical thought to your handbag - if you carry very few items on a daily basis, it's not important to have a massive bag with dozens of pockets. But at the same time if you're a higher-maintenance gal, a tiny one-pocket purse crammed full of essentials is going to wind up looking like a shopping bag!

Quality is important too - good materials and good construction will yield a bag with good structure, keeping it from flopping and sagging, showing bulges from its contents, and of course a good bag will last you longer.

If you like having a veritable menagerie of handbags to choose from, you may be more able to play with effervescent summer colors, prints, and styles in all kinds of funky materials but if you're a one or two-purse girl, stick with leather or even suede in neutral colors so that you can get the highest quality and the most versatility from your purse-buying buck.

Regardless of what kind of girl you are or what kind of bag you're looking for, enjoy the shopping experience, but make sure you think ahead to what that bag will look like with your other outfits - no one likes a case of purse buyer's remorse!