Fashion: Going through

"It's your whole life - all of your identification, your
money, makeup if you carry it," says Dallas PR consultant Sheila Brenner.

Jennifer Eakin, owner of the Girlybot salon in Fair Park,
has a revolving quartet of purses.

"I have my mainstay purse that I usually use," she says. "What I do when I change purses is, I leave all the junk in the previous purse. That way, you have a cleaner purse. So all the old purses in my closet have junk on the bottom."

Her definition of junk: "Paper, change, tobacco," she says.

But she's loathe to change out unless the one she's using really clashes with her clothes.

Predictably, Marcy Bruch, editor of Accessories magazine, owns a whole wardrobe of purses.

"I've changed handbags four times already this week," she says. "I'm not crazy about doing it, but it's just a mindset. Yesterday I was wearing gray, so I had gray flannel. Monday, I wore zebra calf hair. Now I'm back to my black pony bag."

Kelli Bush, an employee at Emeralds to Coconuts, the Henderson Avenue boutique, carries a checkbook, wallet, brush and a separate little bag for her makeup.

"I tried to be hip and get a small little bag, but it just didn't work," she says.

That doesn't count the extras at the bottom: gum wrappers, change, ballpoint pen caps, old deposit slips.

"Switching to a new purse is exciting - it's like wearing new shoes," she says.

And then there are people like image consultant Krs-T Filgo of Dallas. Egads: Ms. Filgo does not carry a purse.

"I give my stuff to my boyfriend," she says. "Or I'll put it in my boot. Or my bra."