My first luxury: A Louis Vuitton birthday present

Shopping for designer goods is about more than beauty, workmanship and cost. It’s an emotional experience that often comes with a personal story. In this series, women recall a singular piece and a moment in their journey into luxury. 

Angela Branch, 39, a health care professional in Chicago recalls the decision to not only save designer purchases for her niece but create her own archive showing her life in those pieces.

When I was in high school, after my mom died, we moved into housing projects. They were on the opposite side of the city that I lived on. I met a girl in the projects and she had an aunt in her early 20s, and this was the first time that I had met a young Black person that went to college. She had graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and she was the most sophisticated to me. Just smart, and she had a very classic style, jeans and a polo.

This was the first time I ever saw a Louis Vuitton bag. I was like, “What is that?” And my friend was like “Oh, you don’t know what that is?” I had seen luxury on TV and in videos, but this was the first time I saw someone that looked like me, that came from where I came from, with a designer bag. In my mind, it was like a light came on. I kid you not. It was like, “Oh, I have to go to college. I have to get a job. I have to act this way, because I want that. I want to be like that.” She is my reference point for who I am today, stylewise.

My first designer bag item was a gift from my boyfriend. We were both fresh out of college. We were broke but I wanted a Louis Vuitton Speedy so bad. I wanted the 45, the bigger one. We went to Tennessee State, so we would go into this mall in Nashville. We would walk past the Louis Vuitton store, and every time I’d be like, “I want that Speedy so bad.” 

He must have been taking mental notes because one year he got it for me for my birthday. This was 2009, they were less than $1,000 at that time. It was a surprise and I’m like, “How did you even afford it? We cannot afford it.” I wore that bag everywhere. I’ve actually passed it down because it’s just way too big for me. I gave it to my little sister, who has never bought a designer bag.

I haven’t bought a Louis Vuitton piece since. I would, though. I’ve been considering going to get a smaller Speedy. It’s a classic, logo or not. It’s one of the bags that if I had children — I have a little niece now — and before with designer pieces I didn’t understand passing it down, the history that’s tied to it. Once I got tired of stuff I would just resell it.

Now I have a little niece who makes fun of all the little trinkets that I buy, and she’s like “They’re so weird. They look so funny!” You know, Tabi boots and stuff like that. I’m like, I feel like when you get older, you’re going to love this stuff and I would love to give her a little Speedy.

Now anything that I buy, that I spend a lot of money on, it’s always with the intention of this is gonna be [my niece] Logan’s one day. I don’t buy things just to buy them. I want them to be worn. I want her to see the wear in it and imagine what Auntie Angela was doing when she wore these things. That’s another reason I take a lot of pictures, a lot of which don’t make it online, just so if something ever happens to me, she has a reference for all of these things.

My little sister – when I say little sister, she’s 34 – she hates it because she feels like it’s really morbid. But I’m like, if something ever happens to me, my computer doesn’t have a lock on it. There’s a folder that says “family.” There’s just pictures and videos of me just doing random stuff: Unboxing bags or clothes. Like I said, [the videos] don’t make it on the Internet, but I make the stuff for them. I’m trying to start traditions that aren’t tied to being coupled and that’s one of them.