A letter from a reader

At 64, a stranger stopped me in the grocery store to ask about my bag

Susan HayesOakville, Ontario · October 2026

I have never written anything like this before, and I want to say at the start that I am not a writer and I am not in the habit of telling other women what to carry.

But four different people have asked me about my bag in the last few weeks, one of them a woman I had never met, and I have now explained it enough times that it seemed easier to write it down properly.

It started at the grocery store. I was reaching for the oat milk when the woman beside me touched my arm.

I'm so sorry, I have to ask. Where on earth did you get that bag?

I nearly laughed, because a month earlier nobody would have dreamed of asking. For ten years I carried the same black nylon shoulder bag, gone grey at the corners, the strap fraying, a zip that stuck every second time.

I did not choose that, not really. Nobody decides to carry something dreary. You buy the sensible black one meaning to treat yourself later, and then ten years go by.

How it happens

A bag at our age is supposed to be practical. It is something to carry, not a thing you choose to love.

So the stores sell us black nylon and beige faux leather, all of them the colour of a waiting room, and we buy them without a second thought and then carry them for a decade.

And because it is only a bag, you never get around to doing anything about it. It is always the next thing on a list that never comes up.

What I had wrong

Here is the part I got most wrong. I thought a practical bag had to be black and plain. Holds everything, wipes clean, keeps its shape, does the job.

It turns out a quilted one does all of that and is lovely as well. It is roomy, it stands up on its own on the car seat instead of tipping everything into the footwell, and it wipes clean with a damp cloth. It simply happens to have a picture on it instead of being the colour of nothing.

Practical and pretty were not a choice of one. I had just never been offered the pretty version. That took me until 64 to find out.

See The Artisan Bag Collection

Mine is the Doriane

It's from Parker & Klein, a boutique out of Vancouver that has spent twenty-seven years dressing women, and makes a small line of quilted totes as well.

Mine is the Doriane, a quilted tote with one big cat's face across the front, half midnight black and half gold, with one amber eye and one pale blue one. They do about thirty designs, though, from dragonflies and magnolias to a little Yorkshire terrier, which I will come back to.

It is properly made. The quilting is soft but structured, so it holds its shape whether it is full or nearly empty, and the stitching is raised so the cat sits in soft relief and you can run your thumb along the whiskers. The handles are sturdy and sit easily on the shoulder, even with a laptop and a book inside. The design goes the whole way round, so it looks lovely from every side.

And it comes in two sizes, so there is one for every day and a bigger one for the market or a weekend away.

What happened when I took it out

It now goes everywhere with me, which the black one did as well, except that now people actually see it.

Four different people have asked me about it in a few weeks. The woman at the grocery store, the girl at the pharmacy counter, and my friend Diane, who does not notice things, picked it up off my hall bench and turned it all the way around before she asked where I had got it. And my granddaughter has decided the cat is called Biscuit and says hello to it whenever she visits.

Nobody has ever asked me about a bag in my life. Now it is the first thing they mention.

Three things I have learned since

One. It stands up on its own. This is the thing the nylon one never managed. Set it down on the car seat or the floor of a café and it stays upright, so nothing rolls out and I am not fishing for my keys under the seat.

Two. It holds more than it looks. My laptop, a library book, my glasses case, a scarf and a bag of apples from the market, and it still sits neatly against my side.

Three. A lovely one gets carried. The odd thing is I leave the house a little more cheerfully now. It is a small thing to look down and see something pretty on your arm instead of something you stopped seeing years ago.

About the price

I want to be straightforward about this, because it was the thing that made me suspicious.

The Doriane is $49.95 CAD. It was $165.95 CAD.

My first thought was that it was a lot for a tote, until I worked out what I had spent on plain black bags over the years, without loving a single one of them.

It's from Parker & Klein, a boutique out of Vancouver that has spent twenty-seven years dressing women. They are moving shop, and the current collection isn't making the trip. There is still stock across every design for now, but once a design sells out, it isn't coming back.

I did what I imagine you are doing now and went and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over 1,200 of them, sitting at 4.7 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some websites, which if I am honest made me trust it rather more. Real people, mixed opinions, mostly very good.

Then I ordered one for my sister as well.

See The Artisan Bag Collection

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were sitting out on the back deck with a coffee and you asked me, this is what I would say.

Have a look at the bag by your front door. If it is black, and tired, and you cannot remember the last time anyone noticed it, you have simply never been offered a nicer one, and now you have.

It is a small thing. But the small dreary things we carry every day wear on us more than we notice, and this is one of the easiest to put right.

Two practical things. The sale is on now, and the most popular designs go first. And there are about thirty to choose from, so there will be one that is properly you.

The black one went in the donation bin and I have not missed it once.

Susan

The Doriane Quilted Tote

★★★★☆ 4.7 out of 5 from 1,200+ reviews

38 x 35 cm · 43 x 40 cm

$165.95 CAD$49.95 CAD

• Soft, structured quilting that holds its shape
• Raised stitched cat design, lovely from every side
• Roomy enough for a laptop, a book and everything between
• Sturdy handles that sit easily on the shoulder
• Wipes clean with a damp cloth
• About thirty designs in the collection
• Free shipping across Canada

See The Artisan Bag Collection

Moving Sale on now. Once these designs sell out, they're gone for good.