They're big in TX. One of my professors even carried a Vera last year, LOL.

For years, only older ladies and "ladies who lunch" had Vera Bradley bags. You used to be only able to buy them at Hallmark stores. They were most often used as tote bags, for example, by visitors on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard. When I read here last year that her stuff had become "a craze", it made me giggle. I mean, who buys their purse in a Hallmark store, right?

So yeah, the northeast has had them for a very long time, but only recently have I seen or heard of anyone under 40 using them. I personally cannot imagine ever buying one, bc the stigma of the "ugly hallmark store purses" is ingrained into my mind.

Sorry if this offends, but that's how we saw them years ago.

I'm an old person (over 40) and use Vera's bag to help me stay organized but it suprised the heck out of me when I started seeing all these college (and high school around here) girls carrying VB bags in the last couple of years. My dd won't go near them, probably because she sees it a "mom" purse!

Ditto her ditto. I think Vera Bradley are Fugly.

It's funny to see the different levels of popularity in different pockets of the country. They've been big here for a long time, but were much more exclusive before everybody and their brother carried them. Only small gift retailers or boutiques could get them (hence the Hallmark stores, although here no Hallmark stores carried them it was higher end boutiques). They were all the rage among my Longaberger lady friends back in the late '90's.

I think here they were waning in popularity amongst the collegiate crowd about the time my oldest daughter graduated from HS in 2005, because I only saw a few people carrying them at her orientation. I know more girls probably used the luggage at that time than as a purse. My daughters had a few in high school and they have the duffle bags for luggage, but they told me they are "over" Vera Bradley.

In our area now, when I'm sitting in the carpool line, every middle schooler I see walking down the sidewalk is carrying one, which we all know is the end of any trend. I think it cycled through here earlier than some places.

The only people I know personally who carry Vera Bradley bags are my mom and my mother-in-law, who are 74 and 65, respectively.

'Nuff said.

I think they will hang in there, just that the big trend may have peaked in some areas where they got really huge.

They may end up doing better with other parts of the line that aren't so obviously Vera, and of course, will continue with the old lady and diaper bag markets. I think the luggage also makes a lot of sense for any kind of auto travel.

There are some things about VB that I really like. The fact that they are usually washable is one of them.

It totally depends on where you live. My mom is 65 and she thinks they look like young girls' purses.

Maybe they're more common among younger people in the South and seen as old lady purses in the North. Who knows.

I only have 4, three of which look like the Pierre Deux patterns that have been around forever. I have one Java Blue bag, but it's not my favorite.

But it's like everything that becomes trendy--once everybody's got access to it, the early adapters don't want it anymore. I just thought it was interesting in the difference in levels of popularity depending on where you live.

You may have a point there. My mom and mother-in-law were both born in New York State, and my family also lived in CT for many years.

I'm in the Chicago area and see Vera all over the place, carried by people of all ages.

I fell in love with them recently, they aren't very big in the midwest but on the east coast, EVERYBODY has them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE JAVA BLUE

I've seen a handful around campus, but this is the kind of campus where people couldn't care less what brand (or not) your handbag might be. You generally don't tend to see any brand name handbags being carried around (if in fact, people really carry around handbags, because many don't on a daily basis). I personally don't find VB stuff at all attractive, but that's me.

ETA: I'm in CT. The only place I've ever seen VB stuff outside the few isolated sightings on campus are at the airport.

ditto

I think I remember seeing them somewhere over the years. I just thought people were making ugly bags from ugly quilts. I had no idea VB has been making ugly stuff for 20 years.

I know of two girls in my chapter that have VB bags. However, they don't seem so popular in my area (surburban NY) otherwise. I liked the patterns but not the bags (too quilty), now they're kind of growing on me.

I agree, I was just going to say the exact same thing. They seem to be popular at the college campuses in this area, too- I was recently in the bookstore at the University where my husband goes, and there were both real and "imitation" Veras there. I have one, a tote from a few years back that I love, and I'm planning on adding a couple handbags to it - and I wear Ugg-type boots. This is Chicago and it's cold and there's alot of snow here this winter! But I admit that I did not really like Uggs until a girl that I worked with started wearing hers. She had several, including a pair of medium pink ones that started to grow on me. Mine are ivory and they are really warm & comfy.