Note: I received a bag to facilitate this post. I was not compensated monetarily; affiliate links are included in this post. All opinions are honest and are my own.
I am a purse loyalist. I’m not one to switch bags to coordinate with various outfits; I find one I like, and I stick with it for a long time.
I’m also pretty picky about what purse I carry. It needs to:
- look good – this is something I’ll have with me day in and day out, so I want it to be something I’m pretty thrilled with.
- have plenty of space… but not be a big cave that everything will get lost in. I love organization (in a way that clearly reaches nerdy levels!) and a cluttered bag would drive me nuts.
- be durable – as I mentioned above, I’ll have it with me pretty much all the time, which means it’ll go to baseball practices, dance rehearsals… and it’ll be subjected to my three children at any given time. So yeah, durability is key.
In my search for an ideal bag, Kelly Moore has been a brand on my radar for a while now. Many of my friends have talked about their love of the brand, and if you haven’t seen them before, Kelly Moore bags are pretty stinkin’ gorgeous.
We all know the old adage, though – form follows function. Do Kelly Moore bags hold up? I selected the Monroe, and put it to the test(s):
It’s definitely a great looking bag – I love the rich, saturated color and the high-quality finish – and there are many ways to wear it. Above, you can see I’ve got shorter straps on my shoulder, but it also comes with an adjustable shoulder strap.
That’s not all, though – the front pouch on the bag is actually removable, so you can have a small cross-body purse AND the larger bag to carry separately. This is my favorite setup:
So cool, right? I’ve never seen that level of versatility in a purse before.
Now, let’s talk space and organization. You can see that this is a generous-sized bag – it’s big enough to carry my Macbook Air – but how does it fare on the organizational front?
Really, really well.
If you don’t know, Kelly Moore was a photographer for 17 years. She said she would leave the house with her everyday handbag, her camera bag (which was bulky, black and unattractive), and a huge diaper bag. She wanted ONE bag that could do ALL these things she needed, but found nothing in the market that met all her needs. This was the beginning of a small idea that grew into what is now Kelly Moore Bag.
So these bags don’t just function as a purse – they work well for photographers (which, being a blogger, is part of my job), for moms (check!) and women in general. Let’s take a look at the inside:
The bag has a padded, removable insert perfect for protectively housing camera bodies, lenses, and accessories.
Even the insert is customizable – you can move and remove the partitions to create the sizes you need.
Without the insert you have a large open space, but even then there are great pockets on both sides of the interior – a zippered pocket on one side, and three clear pockets on the other.
Oh, and there’s a exterior pocket perfect for your phone:
The smaller purse has amazing organization built in.
There’s a mesh zippered pocket, spots for all my cards, and another pocket for other essentials. It’s small but incredibly efficient.
The last checkpoint on my list is durability, and Kelly Moore delivers again. The Monroe is part of their new Classic Collection, which features eight styles made from a material called Cambrio. This material is water resistant, abrasion resistant, and even vegan-friendly. I love knowing that it’ll hold up to all the wear and tear that’s inevitably going to be a part of my busy life.
