Quote Originally Posted by Alan H View Post
I assume that since it's wrong, somehow, to use a re-made purse as a sporran, that people will be consistent and will find the following vendor to be absolutely horrible. They have destroyed the sacred mens sporran and turned it into a WOMANS CLOTHING ARTICLE...which is, at it's core, fundamentally WRONG.

http://sporran-nation.co.uk/sporran-bags.html



Sporrans are for MEN, and anything that looks like a sporran but is for a woman is SACRILEGE.

I mean, if the logic goes one way...that somehow it's "wrong" for a man to wear, even modified....a womans bag to carry his wallet and keys in, then it must be equally "wrong" for a woman to wear, even modified...a mens bag to carry her wallet and keys in. That nifty pink bag is clearly a modified sporran, right?

Right?

Because you know, I figure that if the logic works one way for one gender, it's only fair for it to work the other way, for the other gender. If you think it's fine for a woman to wear a sporran-ish shoulder bag, modified with pink leather and buttons and flowers, then I kind of don't see where you can get off throwing a fit about a guy modifying a plain brown leather purse to wear as a sporran.


I think there's a clear distinction here that no amount of rhetoric can erase.

The pictured "sporran-purse" is obviously a "gimmick", done up to be cute and trendy, much like the fad of "cigar-box" purses a few years back. Despite the fact that it is clearly constructed in the manner of a sporran, it is created to be used as a lady's purse. The fact that it looks like a sporran is what makes it "gimmicky", "ironic", etc.

The original example is a woman's purse, bought at a thrift shop. No matter what you do to it, it will still look as if you've strapped a woman's purse on the front of your kilt. It looks contrived and costumey, and contributes to the notion that highland dress is a type of Halloween costume, a mishmash of whatever you happen to throw together, like a kid tying a bath towel around his neck and saying it's "a cape" as he pretends to be Superman.

I have a couple of day sporrans here at the house that I no longer wear. If someone is really in need of a sporran and considering wearing a lady's purse, please PM me. I'll mail one out today.

David