The Purse Diaries| Kate Spade 2 Park Avenue Large Beau Bag in Cipria Pink review

This week on the purse diaries, I’m reviewing this baby, the Kate Spade 2 Park Avenue Large Leather Beau Bag and it has actually been long overdue for a review. The positive note on that is that I have had it long enough to give you a really good review as to how it’s held up after all this time!

So this is the infamous Kate Spade 2 park avenue Beau bag in cipria pink. When I bought this bag, I was truly hunting for it. It was already out of the stores at that point and the color was truly hard to come by. Wherever Spadies were gathering, they couldn’t stop talking about Beau bags and which ones they wish they could get. Since the bag was sold out in stores at the time, those who already had their hands on ones, decided to turn around and sell them and they sure made some money doing so.

I happened to be quite lucky and bought this one before the prices got way too high. I was happy and giddy to finally have this beauty in my hands after all the time of waiting and searching. I seriously could not refrain from marveling at all of the beautiful details of the bag. It’s just extraordinary with the pale pink soft leather combined with the gold foil polka dot lining, 14-karat light gold plated hardware and bow accents as well.

The beau bag is definitely a beautifully made bag and now I’ll give your some more specifics! So it’s actually made from soft, smooth, cowhide with matching trim.

When looking at the size of the bag, it’s pretty large. There’s actually a larger slightly padded interior pocket for your iPad or large tech device. Along with that pocket, there are your usual two interior pockets that can hold a phone, maybe some lipstick or perfume as well. You’ll also find a quite large pocket that has a magnetic closure on the outside for your goodies! I love using this spot for my phone.

I included a picture just to give you an idea of some of the things that I was able to fit in mine.

Although the bag is lovely and a large size, I do feel that there is a drawback to this. The straps are known to be designed for an “elbow hold” and I find them to be just too small to handle the overall size of the bag and the items you may want to put in here.

For this reason, I don’t reach for this bag often because when I am wanting to carry a large bag I need it to be more practical than this. If you like this style but prefer a smaller size you can actually find a smaller version and it comes with a long strap so the whole small strap fiasco can be avoided there!

Another thing that really rubs me the wrong way about this bag is the opening. I find that it doesn’t spread open enough when I need to reach in for something and I feel like the zipper area just claws my hand each time I need to grab something. This could be overlooked, yes but it’s not an issue I have with any other bag so I think it is worth mentioning here.

You also have to keep in mind with this kind of leather that this will be a very delicate bag and if you want it to always look and stay nice you’ll have to be very careful with it. The leather is so soft that it will scratch very easily and it will make your heart hurt when this happens! When your not using it I would recommend putting in its dust bag and while you are using it handle it with care!

The beau bag retailed for nearly $400 but depending on the color you are looking for you can get it now used for less, but you could also pay more if you are trying to buy a used one that happens to be a rare color.

For the exact dimensions of the bag you’re looking at this bag being 5”h x 18”w x 6”d with a drop strap length of 4.5”. If you’re wanting to style number to help with your search it is style # pxru4458,

If you have your heart set on this one you for sure will have to do some searching for it like I did. And as usual I recommend checking eBay first for the quickest results.

Now, I tried to find some Kate Spade New York bags to serve as alternatives but had a really hard time finding anything that came close to the Kate Spade Beau bag but I think they’re still pretty good options so check out the ones I put together for you in the slider below when you get a chance.

If you happen to have any questions for me that I didn’t cover here in the post please feel free to comment and I’ll respond as soon as I can. I hope you have an absolutely lovely week!