Thursday, October 21, 2010

It's in the bag with everything else

That there is my brown silk '40s handbag with the Lucite clasp. It can hold with quiet grace my phone, some lippies, a hankie, a biro, my ipod. wallet, sunglasses and maybe some jellybeans if necessary.
This is the most recent addition to my vintage bag collection. Many of you will recognise it for what it is - a Coach saddlebag from the early 80s. It can hold roughly the same quantity of stuff as the brown bag.

These bags indicate roughly what I carry around on the weekend. Basic stuff.

You've seen my work bag. Here is the edited content's of said bag's stomach.

I say edited because frequently there will also be a couple of newspapers, a magazine, some shoes if I've changed from my heels, spare pantyhose, a piece of fruit, teabags, a cardigan, a bottle of water, several biros of dubious heritage and probably some more lippies in amongst the partly digested contents.

This morning I sat mooching on the bus, crushed under the weight of my handbag, admiring all the women I could see standing at the bus stop down in Annandale. And then I saw her, a tall woman wearing a wonderful combination of black, grey and cream, artfully fossicking for her bus ticket in a handbag. A plain black vintage handbag of modest dimensions, a bag like any number of bags I have stashed on shelves and in cupboards. Ms Black-Greycream was carrying a regular sized bag as her handbag.

After all these years of lugging my giant bags, it occured to me right there that I want what she's having. I want to carry a regular sized bag to work. A smallish bag with the basic necessities. No newspapers, no pantyhose, no freakishly large apples, no extraneous lippies.

I plan to do it tomorrow. I will be the unencumbered cool drink of water up the back of the bus, neat handbag on her knee, travelling on her bare necessities. What could possibly go wrong?