Many of my shopaholic girl friends had already told me that Loewe is much cheaper in Spain, since it’s a Spanish brand. By the way, you pronounce it “loh-eh-veh”, said super duper quickly. Anyway, Loewe is, in my opinion, the #1 brand with the softest leather. Other brands just don’t come close. A close second is Balenciaga, but that was mainly for their first few seasons – now the leather is a lot firmer/stiffer and requires helluvalot of wear-in before it softens.

Considering my rabid obsession with super soft, smooshy leather.. you’re probably wondering why I haven’t bought a Loewe leather bag before. Simply put – the styles didn’t suit me perfectly, and they are freakin’ expensive! You pay for the quality and suppleness of the leather, despite the styles themselves being fairly basic with not a lot of bells and whistles. So for years, I always just wandered their boutiques, touching and stroking and lusting over the leather.. but never buying anything.

Until we were in Barcelona 😛

As luck would have it, they had a new style in stock: the Loewe nappa leather Ala tote. I ran to the bags like a crazy woman and started stroking them in delight. The style was PERFECT. Utterly simple and basic, it’s just a plain ‘ol tote. Specifically, I loved the perfect medium size and the way it sits on me, and I love the drop length of the handles, and I love how the handles are thin (I don’t like thick straps as they fall off my narrow shoulders). Most of all……….. the smell and feel of the leather.

Napa leather is one of the lightest and thinnest in the world, measuring at 0.7mm. These bags are made with lambskin with organic dye, and the smell of the bag is INTOXICATING. I just keep leaning over to breathe it in, and giving it a stroke with my fingers, resembling just the kind of lady you quickly pull your kids away from.

It smells soooo goooooood! And most of all, it is ultra, super duper light-weight. After all, it’s just really thin nappa leather with some lining on the inside and that’s it. Oh, did I mention it’s also the cheapest of their bags? Their only style I like, and it’s the cheapest one… SCORE 😀 I was a very good girl though and put it back on the shelf so I could “think about it over the next few days”, to Chris’ surprise. He’s the perfect bag shopping partner – patiently stands there (albeit looking a little bit lost) whilst I swoon over the bags, gives his opinion on all the bags I try on, touches and inspects the bags, then urges me to buy it if I like it – perfect husband material 😛

4 days later, I was still loving the bag, so we went back and picked it up!

LOEWE!

Happy shopping bag 😛

Loewe nappa leather Ala tote

Ridiculously buttery soft

Love the shiny gold tag

A really nice size on my frame IMHO!
 

The bag on display in the Loewe boutique window

Stock photo