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A few weeks ago I had lost my bag in the centre of York, and with it my keys and student ID were gone and our group night out ended with me in tears on our way home. Although I was quite fortunate in not losing anything irreplaceable I couldn’t help but feel like I had suffered a major loss. I lost my little materialistic sanctuary, I felt bare and exposed. The only other things I had in my bag were a jumper, my favourite lip liner and lip balm, some paracetamol, a lighter and a tampon. Items that my male friends thought were silly to be upset over losing. But it’s always more than that. They may not understand, but each woman's bag is a haven of their life contained into one carrying vessel, it represents more than just an accessory, but a representation of one’s life and what we cannot materialistically live without.
The bag has always been noted as a feminine accessory, but it has always been more than just a fashion fad. If we dissect the root of its role it - it represents the way women have evolved to carry all the items they are expected to carry, to fulfill the ‘mother role’ with her endless supplies to care for others. All our lives we are led to believe that we must carry our lives with us and to be prepared for any situation because no one else is there to nurture us.
Ergo the modern woman that we currently know, women’s purses have become less about others and more about themselves. About what we need, about what we want to carry and not what we have been expected to. As a result, bags became symbols of freedom, of individualism and of personality, and now what’s in your bag is said to represent you. And so the ‘What’s In My Bag?’ became a trend adapted by many fashion magazines and channels over the past several decades, whereby there is now an obsession with the contents of one’s bag.
More specifically, this trend has delved into celebrity bags and has often raised a question of authenticity and curiosity. We are intrigued to see what celebrities carry with them, who they actually are and how alike we are to them, all dissected through the contents of their bags. It’s a parasocial trend that is trying to make us feel more connected to them. This is what then pleads us to question the authenticity of it- are these their actual bag items or are they carefully curated to connect to us, or more likely, are they giving in to brand deals and promotional items rather than being true to themselves.
The most authentic clip I’ve seen so far of a ‘What’s In My Bag?’ video is Jane Birkin’s bag in the 1988 film Jane B for Agnès. V. After being asked “Now let the cat out of the bag?” she proceeds to empty her very full bag allowing a surge of filled notebooks, loose pages, ink and pens, pills, tape, books, makeup and just - if I can say so - utter crap to cascade down some Parisian steps. I feel as though at the end of the day - this is perhaps the truest female experience - a bag that remains untouched and unperfected, just filled to the brim with objects that have truly mattered all this time.
After emptying the contents of her bag, Birkin smiles at the camera and says in perfect French “Find out anything after seeing what’s in my bag? When you show it all, you reveal very little.” And I can’t think of a more perfect way of summarising this trend. A bag is a small indicator of one’s full life, we gain insight on some of their more useful objects, but we will never know the full reason for these objects, the full impact of these objects and we will never truly know the person. Our curiosity becomes amplified. In a way it reveals less about the person, but more about our connection with that person, it reveals the ways in which we are all alike and different.
As a result, I’ve asked some designated Hardzine members to share the contents of their bags to see the ways in which they are alike and different and consider how much we actually learn about each person. I had originally planned to ask them about the contents of their bag, as a quick explanation, but some images are better left to speak for themselves, and I want to see for sure if 'showing all' truly 'reveals very little.'
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