by Alison Moss

Created on: November 30, 2009

Radley are a company who produce handbags and accessories and in recent years have become very popular. The Radley trademark is the small Scotty Dog which adorns many of the bags and purses either embroidered on or the little leather dogs which hang from the bags.

This review is for the Radley across the body bag. I have owned two of these bags and felt it was about time I got round to reviewing them.

The bag is a leather bag and comes in a variety of colours including tan, black, red, blue and purple. I used to have a pink one but they no longer do this colour. I now have the tan colour and it looks lovely. The leather is really good quality and is soft and supple. The strap is leather and then becomes a woven material this allows you to adjust the length of the strap to fit you. This is great as it is suitable for smaller or taller ladies and also you can adjust the length depending on where you want the bag to sit. The bag is designed as the name suggests to sit across your body i.e. you put your head through the loop and have one arm through the loop. This allows your hands to be free (great when shopping) and also means your handbag is safer as someone cant easily just pull it off your shoulder.

The bag has several pockets. Firstly on the front is an open pocket, I tend to use this for keeping shopping lists and pens in as it isn't secure. On the back of the bag is a zipped pocket, currently in that pocket are some tissues, some plasters and some dog poo bags (unused!). Then there is the main pocket which is zipped and off which is another smaller zipped pocket. My bag is lined with a creamy coloured cord material although the colour of the lining I think varies depending on the colour of the bag.

I find the bag big enough for day to day use. I can easily fit in my phone, purse, a notepad, camera etc. I like the fact that there are lots of pockets so you can store things easily and don't have to rummage for ages trying to find something at the bottom of the bag. The bags dimensions are width of 23cm and height of 26cm there is a larger across body bag if you feel this bag wouldn't be big enough but I think the proportions of the medium bag look nicest.

The bag comes with a dust cover which again has the little Scotty dog emblem on it. This is great for storing your handbag if it's a bag that you don't use every day.

The price of these bags is the only downside, they retail for around 75 although you can get them on offer. Last year just before Christmas John Lewis did a 20% off Radley handbags offers which made a big difference. Although they are expensive they aren't really that bad if you compare them with a designer handbag. Personally although some designer handbags look lovely I wouldn't feel comfortable using them as I would be worried someone would steal them. With the Radley bag I feel it's a nice bag, looks good but I'm not afraid to use it. I am also lucky enough to have a lovely husband who has bought me a couple of Radley handbags as presents!

The bags also are hard wearing. I have had my bag for a few years now and it still looks good. I also had a pink bag before this and had it for a while before I decided that I had outgrown my pink phase! I was able to sell it on ebay and it made quite a good sum. They are really lovely bags and are made to a high standard with a nice finish making them feel really good quality items.

I love my Radley handbag and would recommend them to you if you want to treat yourself or if you are looking for Christmas present ideas!

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