Keep or return?


River Island gave me a £100 voucher at their press day months ago and the expiry date is fast approaching. As I’m zooming off to New York on Thursday I thought I’d better hurry up and spend the voucher or knowing me I’d miss my chance altogether. Boy, did I have trouble finding anything decent. River Island has a habit of throwing all sorts of excessive embellishment on everything. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of Swarovski (Lord knows there was enough of it at the shows), but everything in ‘River’ is just covered in stuff. The shoes were actually really good if you’re brave enough to try the uber-precarious 6-inch cone heels (I’m not) but the clothes were just way too budget-looking for me (hey, I’m way over 25 and I’m a snob). In the end I plumped for a belt, some jeans, a bangle, some sweets and this bag. It feels like it’s made out of satin-covered cardboard and the blinged-up logo is obviously way OTT. Yet, something tells me it could look OK if I roughed it up a bit rather than actually pretending it’s anything like a real 2.55. I love the colour and the size is bigger than a real Chanel thus actually usuable (my candy-pink Chanel is beautiful but hopelessly impractical). Chances are though, it will all end up going back (minus the sweets) and I’ll give the credit note to my sister. What would you do – keep or return?