Your bag says more about you than you think

Every Tuesday we take a peek in the bag of a fun, well-known woman in the column My Life In A Bag, because the inside of someone’s bag says more about you than you’d like to admit. We drag that thing around with us all day long, stuff it full of things and always think it’s a great idea to buy another one, even though we secretly know inside that we have enough of them. Anyway, it’s always been about the contents, but what does the bag itself say about a woman?

I have not yet come across a woman who manages to fit all her daily things into a clutch, but it is the bag to use for an evening on the town. Though even then, nothing fits into it. The woman that dares to carry a tiny clutch is therefore a hugely organised type, has a perfect skin (she obviously doesn’t need to carry powder around), does not smoke, has a tiny bunch of keys and naturally smells good so no perfumes need to go with. Are you this woman? Call me up please and explain HOW you do this.

An enormous bag that is always full of the most outrageous things, extra clothes and stuff. I am that woman. A chaotic, who regularly loses something or forgets something and I always have way too many things with me because I have ten appointments throughout the city, and I need something different for each one. The distinctive characteristic of this woman, is that her keys will always be right at the bottom of the bag so she will always need to tip everything out before unlocking her bike.

In essence, the same as the woman with the shopper, only this one is slightly less vain and chooses the comfort and ease of a backpack. And it has to be one of those hip, slightly hipster bags. She knows what she’s doing because carrying things on your back is a lot easier than on your arm, but it has to suit you and that is the reason that I’m a shopper bag girl. Just like sneakers, backpacks are not my thing.

This woman is busy and important, but very fashionable and hip. She crosses (do you get it, do you?) town from appointment to appointment and has everything she needs in her compact cross-body. Everything is ordered, there are no strange items lying on the bottom of the bag and she hangs it up in the same place at home everyday. Or this woman comes in two varieties, the bag is a small old thing that she’s carried around for the last 100 years and has not yet found a decent replacement so she takes it from festival to shopping spree and back again. Always, and you can count on a thick layer of mess at the bottom.

The woman who has many things, but not as many as the shopper type and who would never be seen walking around with a backpack. She has a large hobo bag, which seems glued to her arm and goes everywhere. There must be stuff in this one, but then again that’s what it’s for.

The missing bag. The essence of chic, not having to carry a bag. You are so important that you have people who do it for you or you are so organised that you don’t need anything. You must be Anna Wintour, or another editor at Vogue.