To The Bold, Iconic & Stunning Woman - Nice Bag.

A purse is an extension of your iconicity.

Photographer Alasdair McLellan

At the end of this post, I’m going to talk about how to get these bags. You can skip to how I borrow bags here. Use my Vivrelle membership code REBECCAROSE for your first month free.

It takes design, craftsmanship and the maker’s name to make a bag great, but truly to inscribe a purse in the Book of Legendary Bags, it is not the item itself but the woman who carries it that makes it iconic.

A quick shuffle through my memory’s catalogue of bags, developed over years of dedicated T.V. and film hours, and I can quickly whip out a few honorable mentions. 

Carrie Bradshaw’s Fendi baguette. (The SATC girls all have an endless parade of memorable bags, but Carrie truly has some standouts. I mean, her name is literally ‘carry.’) Elle Woods and her pink Bottega Veneta bag that screams ‘here I am!’ amongst the staid and boring Harvard students. (I love Legally Blonde for many reasons, but a major one is that she never sacrificed her personal style to fit in. This is why she’s iconic in any era.) Mary Poppins’ magical, bottomless carpet bag. 

Perhaps this last mention shows in very literal terms what a woman’s bag truly is. It is an item of mystery, full of our enigmatic items of feminine powers. An iconic bag is not just utilitarian - it’s so much more than that. It is a seductive wink to the passerby. It catches your eye, and tells you something about its carrier. It is both giving out a signal and keeping your secrets. God, sometimes I love being a woman. 

Why should you care about handbags? 

I used to only care about utility. This bag had to do everything; fit my laptop, have lots of pockets for my keys, wallet, chapstick, phone charger, passport… It needed to be okay with being thrown around, crumpled up, tossed into the washing machine - basically be my punching bag masquerading as a fashion piece. But as time goes by, I’m appreciating the fact that life is much, much, much more than doing things the efficient way. Accessories are the flowers of personal style - they are there simply to be beautiful. That is meaningful enough.  

Your handbag is an extension of yourself. 

A still from “The Postman Dreams” by Autumn de Wilde, starring the Prada Galleria bag 

I recently met up with an old friend, and like all girlfriends in their 30s, psychoanalyzing what’s wrong with us is the natural theme of conversation. 

It’s an open point of discussion that she allows people to disrespect her because she doesn’t respect herself. So when I saw that she was carrying a lovely little black Louis Vuitton purse, I pointed it out. 

“What a beautiful purse!” I exclaimed. 

“Thank you,” she said warmly, “I finally bought it for myself.” She sat down, then dropped the bag on the floor. 

Aghast, I said, “here, just put it next to mine on the chair.”

“Oh,” she said, “that’s alright, it’s fine there.” 

My sweet, wonderful, self-belittling darling. Remember this cardinal rule: Respect yourself. Respect your bag. 

I grew up with this vague and uncomfortable feeling that liking pretty things was silly. I was teased for wearing flamboyant clothes or trying out different hair styles. Whether spoken outright or not, I synthesized from my environment that I shouldn’t be loud or draw attention to myself. Over time, these ambiguous messages calcified into beliefs, like: 

I can’t wear heels because I’m too tall. 

All black is the most flattering on me. 

Heavy makeup (subjective term) is trashy.

Don’t waste money on things that aren’t useful. 

There needed to be a strict correlation between how much use I could get out of something and the cost of the item. To be further maddening, there is no hard and fast rule to what the line is, and it has kept me from buying things that would have made me happy simply because I couldn’t justify the utility to the invisible fashion judicator who lived in the back of my head. 

Over the years, I have had the honor of befriending many women from all over the world with different backgrounds, and learning about beauty in all its forms. The most important lesson I’ve absorbed is that you can never truly shine unless you love yourself first. It doesn’t matter how much money you have; a beautiful woman will be beautiful regardless of her circumstances if she loves and cares for herself. Accepting this has been like watching a slowly brightening dawn, the realization spreading over my whole life in brighter colors, sharper haircuts, ever bolder makeup looks, higher heels, louder patterns.

And yes, the final frontier - handbags that do nothing but make me look as iconic as I desire to be. 

I occasionally model for the luxury handbag designer Judith Leiber in New York. Every handbag is more ridiculous than the last, and I adore it.

I do not follow trends, as I don’t believe trends are truly style. They will come and go, and are often shaped by moneymakers and capitalistic ambitions. True style is developed from experimentation, taste, culture, and experience. Discovering your personal style is the whole fabulous and fun point of fashion. 

So when it comes to handbags, I’m all about experimentation. No handbag is off limits. No design is too much. I’ll grant every bag the privilege of being carried on my arm and shown off to the world. Quite literally my arm candy.

How to Experiment With Handbags

If there is a will, there is a way, and there are a few ways. Buy used. Share with friends. Or do what I’m doing and borrow from Vivrelle. It’s “a members-only club providing access to coveted designer handbags, jewelry, watches and diamonds for a monthly membership fee,” as they say on their website. In less corporate terms, it’s basically a closet where you can borrow luxury items. There are different tiers, and an impressive collection of luxury handbags.

If you’d like to feel out luxury bags without breaking your wallet, I highly recommend Vivrelle. I’m eyeing everything, and have my list ready for when I can swap out my next bag; a Fendi baguette a la Sex and the City, a classic Chanel reminiscent of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the chessboard Christian Dior because my nephew has recently been challenging me at chess and I can’t let him win so easy. This bag reminds me to stay sharp.

Shoutout to the Louis Vuitton pet carrier from White Chicks.

Look, everything you wear is a choice. I’m choosing to be bold, iconic and stunning. My handbags say what I am.

Use my Vivrelle membership code REBECCAROSE for your first month totally free. 

My gift to you, fellow beautiful woman making her mark on the world. Sign up here.