Honestly, I don't know if this is fashion-forward or frankly faux pas, but color me fascinated either way.Until a year or so ago, I thought Dooney & Burke was a pedestrian store brand, the suburban second cousin to the Gilligan & O'Malley underwear I buy at Target. At some point I learned that, no, D&B was a chi-chi department store line of handbags that cost waaaay more than I'd ever paid for a purse in my life. This bit of information didn't matter to me in the least because the only Dooney (seriously, that person wants his name on a purse?) & Burke products I'd noticed before were emblazoned Coach-style with big DB initials. And the only initials I want on my belongings are my own (or maybe REM or U2, or WTF if I'm feeling really anti-social).
Then, right before Christmas, I set eyes on a Dillard's circular in the daily paper that featured prominently on its cover these hot-off-the-Chinese-assembly-line handbags looking for all the world like the hide of a giraffe!
Giraffes are remarkably beautiful creatures. I distinctly remember observing one closely, many years ago, at the Knoxville Zoo as it reached for the leaves on a tree that angled over the walking path. And, as a longtime devotee of animal programs on television, I've watched these veld dwellers amble along, their regal heads high above the dust. I have admired the intricate pattern of the giraffe's pelt, but it never occurred to me to wear it slung over my shoulder.
Granted, I've never been much into animal prints, save the rare leopard print undies roaming in a sea of black and nude in my dresser drawer. But I can see how, having been there with zebra and done that with crocodile, giraffe is merely the next creature summoned out of the jungle or forest to participate in humans' never-ending fashion show.
Only a week after spotting Dooney & Burke's giraffe purse in the newspaper, I spied one in the wild when I was approaching the entrance to Belk at West Town. There, dangling casually from the arm of a woman pushing open the glass door. And then tonight at the Fellini Kroger--aha! Another chance encounter with D&B's new addition to the handbag stable.
Do I like this purse? I'm compelled by the dramatically different and yet familiar print to notice it on three different occasions. But I suspect this pattern ultimately belongs on a giraffe and will, as a trend in leather goods, expire quickly. Or maybe my fashion instincts are just endangered.
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