Jean Paul Gaultier Trench Bag

I am going to be diplomatic here, cuz I do LOVE JPG for his whimsical sense of design and style. I own many of his gorgeous dresses and sharply cut jackets and think he's done a tremendous job hippifying Hermes since signing on as creative director. In fact, my favorite piece from him is a fitted trench coat dress from the spring '06 collection(shown below). It's the most fabulous staple a girl can have in her wardrobe. I wore it as an open trench coat with a turtleneck and jeans in New York last March and as a chic trench dress belted tightly with a big cuff to an art gallery opening in LA. I'm telling you, it's brilliant, he has completely revolutionized your father's boring trench coat. That said, it does not mean I want to buy a trench coat bag to match my favorite trench coat/dress. Look at this thing, I don't get it. What's the belt for? It looks so odd and out of place as there is nothing under it so it resembles those faceless mannequins at stores with only a torso and no legs (which by the way scares the hell out of my toddler son who hides behind me asking, "no face? no legs?" whenever he sees them). And the big button zipper pull is completely out of proportion. The fold over leather flaps have magnetic buttons to cover the long pocket which is kinda cool but it's so big and distracting to the simple lines of this potentially cute bag. My advice is to JPG is to lose the decorative belt, take the gigantic button zipper off, and trim the leather flaps to be more in proportion with the bag and you have a winner. $1295 at eLuxury.