A Letter From a Reader: The Celeste, For The Woman Who Wants Nothing (Wendy)
Five Reasons It Is The Present For The Woman Who Says She Wants Nothing
A note from a reader whose book club friend has said "I want nothing" every birthday and every Christmas for eleven years, and who finally found the one thing she wanted.
I am 64, and my friend Pam from book club has said the same three words every birthday and every Christmas for the eleven years I have known her. "I want nothing." She means it, too. She once gave me back a box of soaps, still in the cellophane, and said they would be wasted on her. So when Pam turned 70 in the middle of October, I went looking for the one thing a woman who wants nothing would actually use.
I found it at The Mount Coastal Boutique, a small New Zealand boutique I already buy my dresses from. It is a little crossbody bag called the Celeste, and I own the brown one myself, which is the only reason I knew. Pam has worn hers to bowls every Tuesday since. Three of the women at the club have asked me where it came from, and I am writing it down once so I can stop saying it over the afternoon tea.
Pam's, in a box I kept from the chemist, the morning of her birthday. The ribbon was from last Christmas.
What it is
A small crossbody, 13 centimetres wide, 19 tall and 5 deep, with a zip across the top and a zip pocket on the front. A plaited strip runs across the front with two little round studs under it, and the strap adjusts from over the shoulder to right across the body. It weighs 130 grams. It comes in a warm tan brown and a black. Pam got the brown, because Pam wears white to bowls and brown on white looks like it was planned.
The five reasons
- It is small enough that she cannot call it a fuss.The problem with a woman who wants nothing is that anything big feels like a lecture. This is the size of a phone with a little room around it. It does not sit on the bench asking to be admired. It just gets used. Pam, opening it: "Oh, Wendy. That is not nothing." Then she put it on.
- Both hands are free on the green.For eleven years Pam has left her handbag on the bench at the end of the rink and walked back to it between ends to check her phone for the grandkids. Now the phone is in the front pocket and the bag is across her, and she has a bowl in one hand and her cuppa in the other at afternoon tea. What Maureen said at the club: "That is the first Tuesday Pam has not done the walk back to the bench."
- There is no size to get wrong.Pam has views on sizes. She is a 14 in one shop, an 18 in another, and she will tell you which shops are telling fibs. A bag has no size. Nothing to guess, nothing to exchange, no receipt tucked in the card in case. What I worked out: the last present I gave her with a size in it came back to me in January.
- Brown or black goes with everything she owns.Whites on Tuesday, navy to the RSA, the floral she wears to her grandson's prize giving. The brown sits against all of it. If your woman who wants nothing lives in black and navy, the black is the quiet one. Pam, at book club, holding it against her navy cardi: "I suppose it goes."
- It is a present that does not embarrass anyone.At $58.95 it is a proper present without being the kind that makes a woman feel she owes you one back. That matters with a friend like Pam. It also means, if you have more than one woman on your list who says she wants nothing, you can do the lot. Graeme, when I told him three women at the club had asked: "So that is Christmas sorted, then."
The bench at the end of the rink, where Pam's old handbag used to live on a Tuesday. The thermos is mine.
Side by side, honestly
| What she usually gets | The Celeste |
|---|---|
| A box of soaps, returned in the cellophane | A bag she wears every Tuesday |
| A handbag big enough to lose the phone in | A front zip pocket, the phone has one place |
| Left on a bench at the end of the rink | Across the body, both hands free |
| A size, a box and a receipt | No size, 13 by 19 by 5 centimetres |
| Too much, so she feels she owes you | $58.95, a proper present and no fuss |
Pam's old navy handbag next to the Celeste on my bench, the day she brought it round to swap everything over. Most of it went in the rubbish.
About the price
$58.95 at the moment, from $126.95. Take two or more and the stack discount comes off in the cart. Free NZ Post delivery, usually seven to ten working days, and thirty days to change your mind. I ordered Pam's in black first, changed my mind that night and emailed, and a woman called Susan swapped it to the brown the same day, before it went out.
The honest bit
It is small, and that is the point of it. It holds a phone, keys, cards, glasses and a lipstick. If the woman on your list carries a book, a water bottle and a cardigan everywhere, this is not her bag. And the brown is the one going first, so if brown is the one, do not wait on it.
Order by Friday 4 December
If it is for Christmas, order by Friday 4 December. NZ Post usually takes seven to ten working days, and the week before Christmas the courier vans are full, so I would not leave it later than that.
What I would tell you if we were friends
Every list has one. The woman who says she wants nothing and means it. Give her the brown, or the black if she is a black and navy woman, and watch her put it on before she has finished saying you should not have.
If you have ever stood in a shop in December holding a box of soaps and thinking "she will give this back," this is the present she will keep.
— Wendy
The Celeste Crossbody Bag
- 13 by 19 by 5 cm, 130 grams, a zip top and a front zip pocket for the phone
- A plaited front, two small studs, a strap that adjusts from shoulder to crossbody
- Brown or black, no size to guess, the present for the woman who wants nothing
Stack and save: buy 2 save 15%, buy more save up to 30% extra.
See the Celeste in brown and black