Disclaimer: I no longer own this handbag. For my up to date luxury collection you can click here.
After the Diorama, the Sac De Jour is my favourite handbag design ever, period. I’ve owned and worn it in all 3 of the sizes above, and I finally settled on the middle size – the Baby, to be precise. To cut a long story short, I owned the small (the grey one) for about two years, it’s fab, they all are, but because it’s so big – there’s nothing small about it, let me tell you – I was only ever wearing it for work. At the moment I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home, and so I only go into an office maybe 1 – 2 days a week, I’d spent a hell of a lot of money on a handbag to not really get that much wear out of it. I also have a similar sized Mulberry Zipped Bayswater, and so it just wasn’t getting as much wear as it should. However, I adored the bag and really didn’t want to part with it; so I decided it would be a great idea to sell the bigger size, and use the money to purchase the same design, but one that I would be more inclined to take shopping, to dinner, to the cinema etc etc etc…
I knew I wanted a change up in colour – black – and I also thought it would be a good idea to go for a smooth leather choice this time, just because every single other handbag I own is grained leather; but I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go for the baby, or the nano. So I then purchased both of them, obviously with the intent of returning one; and that I did, but not before photographing all three together ready for a comparison post.
SO… we’ve established I kept the baby (middle of the three), but why? As mentioned above, the “small” isn’t really that small, it fits masses in; it would comfortably fit a laptop, and the way its designed is fab as it has three sections, so you could have your work essentials in one side, your lifestyle essentials (makeup bag, perfume etc in the other); and anything that needs keeping extra safe and secure, such as your phone and purse, in the middle zip compartment (the smaller sizes don’t have this). If you like bigger bags, it’s a winner – or if you do want this design as your work bag, I really couldn’t recommend it more, but for leisurely use, it just wasn’t working for me.
The Nano, well that one looked gorgeous. It worked well as a shoulder bag, but looked even better worn cross body. It’s kind of an “it bag” over on Instagram at the moment is the good old Nano size, and that’s because it does look incredible… but it’s not really all that practical. It fits the essentials in: a small purse, your phone, keys and a couple of makeup essentials – but that’s about it. It’s not really the kind of bag you’d take out drinking and dancing, or to a wedding – to dinner, yes; but the size of it really is only accommodating for events such as drinking and dancing, weddings… things that you’d normally take a clutch or wallet on a chain to – so it’s a bit of a funny one. If you only ever take the essentials out with you, then go for it; but I don’t and so I knew that was the one to return.
So that leaves us with the Baby, which, in my opinion, is the best of the three. You see it’s small enough to be dressed up to go out for dinner, but it’s big enough to accompany you shopping, to the cinema, and – personally I wouldn’t because I like to take a lot with me to work – but it could even be used for work if you really wanted to; it wouldn’t fit your laptop in though, you’d need a separate bag for that, but it wouldn’t look silly if you turned up to work wearing it, whereas the Nano probably would. This is also the handbag I’d recommend to anyone who wanted to invest in one designer bag, just because it’s so versatile. Again, it works incredibly well both as a shoulder bag, and as a cross body – the Small only really works as a shoulder bag, and the Nano looks the best cross body – the Baby looks brilliant either way. I love it, love it.
Exact measurements for the three are as follows:
Small: 32.0 x 25.0 x 15.0cm
Baby: 26.0 x 20.0 x 12.0cm
Nano: 22.0 x 17.0 x 10.0cm
One thing I will say about the SDJ – and this applies to whatever size you go for – is that it’s an extremely well made bag, one of the best on the market in my opinion actually. It’s structured very well too, and it’s made to last. My grey small one still looked brand new when I sold it, and that was after two years – fair enough I didn’t wear it every day, but it still got worn. So yes, the bags are pricey, but actually once you own one, you can understand why. The design has also been going strong for quite some time now, and shows no signs of slowing down – as I said the Nano is all over Instagram at the moment despite the design not being particularly new – that’s the sign of a classic bag, and the price also increases gradually year on year; so at the moment, it’s a real winner all round. When I bought my grey, I always said it’s one of the bags I’d never part with, I couldn’t bear to, the design is just so beautiful, and that’s the great thing about the SDJ, that I was able to still keep it in my life, just in a different size that meant I could use it even more.
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