The Story of My Florence Bag

I want to share with you all the lengths I went through to get my beloved Modalu Florence bag. It first caught my eye in a Modalu mail out catalogue I received after purchasing my Pippa bag. I loved the Florence from the moment I saw it on the cover but was hesitant about spending the money on another bag so soon. I kept an eye on the bag for months and decided I would get the black one since the oak color was so close to my other Modalu bag in toffee. Mind you, Modalu only exists in England and will ship to the USA for a lovely 15 pounds ($23 USD) fee.

Then it went on sale online to 50% ($180) and I decided I would buy it with next week’s paycheck. The day came, I logged on to buy the bag and it was sold out! Oh no, how could this happen it was available yesterday!? Modalu.com is nice enough to have a “notify me” option so that when the bag comes back into stock they will email you. I followed this and decided to wait until it came back in stock. Other websites had the same bag but at $100 more. Christmas came and the bag became completely sold out on the site and everywhere else online. I emailed customer service who told me they would not be getting any more and that the bag was discontinued. I now desperately wanted the bag. Every black bag reminded me of the one I wanted more, no replacement would do. You know what they say- you always want what you can’t have- true story.

For weeks, I stalked every Ebay site I could think of: USA, Canada, EU, Germany, France, Paris, England, China. Nothing. Finally I found a purse blog that mentioned a Canadian sight called Town Shoes. I looked and voila! My bag in stock and available. But their shipping policy does not include the USA! I did not get discouraged because I figured you never know until you ask. I made sure to be extremely nice to everyone I talked to over the phone and explained my desire to have that bag. They located one of 4 left in their stores and agreed to make the exception to ship it to me. I was so happy; I finally found my bag!

2 weeks later I received the package in the mail and opened it right away, only to discover I had been sent the wrong bag completely! A black Pippa which I was nice enough to sell it to my mom.  I called right away to fix the mistake only to be told they had sold the last black Florence bag that day.

Another day another hurdle. I continued my daily search for the black Florence, staring longingly at the picture on Google images. I even asked Modalu headquarters to send me every phone number of every British outlet mall that may still have the bag. I called every single one and not one of them did. Finally I found a picture that contained another phone number for an outlet store I had not heard of. I got up early to call the London store via Skype to check and lo-and-behold they had my bag! Modalu customer service and the outlet store made an exception to ship me the bag from the store. I called the next day to confirm that it was indeed the BLACK bag. Good thing I checked or they would have shipped the oak. I decided that when the package came I would be prepared for another surprise.

I am happy to say that after all the searching and all the international calls, I have my black Florence Modalu handbag and I love it as much as I thought I would. What can I say, I love me a Modalu. Moral of the story, when you really love something, and it goes on sale, get it! Because if you wait to long it may be gone. Thank you to all who made my bag fixation dreams come true!