Bulgari is boosting its accessories division with a little help from Isabella Rossellini, who presented the handbag she has designed.  Sadly I don’t know Isabella. Nor do I yet own this latest Bulgari bag!

So what does this bag say about the woman who carries her?… she will be a woman who flirts with confusion and secrecy yet remains positive!

…Gloriously suggestive don’t you think?

Anya Hindmarch has done it again!

This time I must also pay homage to House of Fraser for their stunning good will on price  reductions PLUS a pat on the bag for one very shrewd young female purchaser!

… The beauty in question is quite simply perfect!  She is full of courage (much like her youthful   purchaser of the day), she emits an energy appropriate to her size.  But this bag goes even further… she is suggestive of a loyalty that we ladies only dream of receiving from our men folk! If this weren’t enough, her proud Anya ribbon is strength on a stick!

For these reasons her beauty is unquestionable and unceasing. My only remaining wish is that she had been one of a matching pair!  If only bags were like conjoined twins!

I write as a bride to be and a somewhat baffled one at that!

Why don’t brides carry handbags?  Where do all the bags go?  What do women do with their lippi and comb on this the most important day of our lives?

As we stand, sit, stoop, dance, or eat – we are caught by a camera lense!  Everyone is expected to marvel at our beauty and appearance.  Yet how is this achieved without our trusty handbag?  Surely on this of all days our handbag needs to be at our side as much (some might say more)  than the newly acquired hubby!

As a ‘forty something’ first time bride-to-be, I will be dispensing with  matrons of honour, bridesmaids or any other variety of that species.  I won’t be dependant upon friend or mother to escort me to the loo every time I need to freshen up.  So, my search for something cream, silk,  vintage and expensive begins.  I’ll let you know what takes shape as I switch out ivy and lilies for Balenciaga or Bottega.

The summer of 2008 rang out loud to the sound of technology illuminating our handbag’s darkest corners!  There was the nicknamed Power Purse – a clutch using solar panels to harness the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity for your needey USB port supported devices!  The Power Purse was preceeded by the BREE company’s prototype bag with interior illumination – the first of its kind too!

So previews on the agenda in Germany and America were bound to be on the lips of the average woman as those of the  lovely Lulu Guiness!

So what happened?  Where did all the prototpyes go? Is there anybody out there with one of these reasonably priced (circa £150) wonders of modern day carrying?  If so, i’d like to know!

Is it me?

I don’t see the glamour in this Jimmy Choo latest boasting “no buckles, straps, hinges or tassels”!  I see two disparate halves put together without resonance or reason.

I know the days have passed when wearing your blue fox fur would result in insults or worse being hurled your way.  Maybe as a horse owner it’s the ‘pony skin’ that gets my goat.  Actually it just isn’t attractive! Not to me! Its top heavy and a miss match of textures.

Perhaps there is much to marvel at, in the absence of  hinges, straps, and zips- but last time I looked ponies aren’t zipped together, buttoned or dangling straps and tassles (that is unless its a boy)!

Is it me?

Many of us are financially independent.  We were raised with a healthy respect for money. Some of us even have a savings or pension plan!

Whether or not you tick these boxes, we have also developed extra-livelihood habits such as ’smuggling’ new handbag acquisitions into the house; cutting out the price tags on new clothes; or leaving new shoe boxes in the car boot for the next three weeks!

Are we bad? Misguided? Or, are we addicted to a little home-spun intrigue and espionage?  Life is never this simple and so perhaps the answer lies deep within the mud banks of guilt: a place we get stuck in!  A place so deep we can’t see reason – even when we are the earners of the very money we spend so illicitly.

What I still admire (in the murky depths of our wicked ways) is the honesty with which we operate: no solicitation of opinions on should we or shouldn’t we; no need for “sorry darling, it won’t happen again”  or empty promises of “paying it back “  in next month’s cash flow!  Now that surely has to be admired and nurtured – like a finely crafted Hermes finest!

I’d love to know your favourite explanations used in the case of allegedly ‘new’ accessories emerging from your wardrobe’s depths!

I’ve never considered myself to be at the height of fashion –preferring my traditional but trustworthy style of tailored and conservative. I have always preferred to let handbags and belts step up and represent this season’s must haves!  I’m certainly no expert in creating that coveted “IT” look’; in fact keeping up with the high rollers, high heels or  H & M ‘s latest fashion ‘coup’ usually entails a swift butchers through Grazia and I’m done!

However, thanks to an up and coming British designer and good old fashioned impulse purchasing I may at last be catching on!

For most women,  my big discovery isn’t big news! For many of you the art of mixing and matching last year’s ‘tit bit’ with this year’s ‘must have’ is a well honed profession!  However, being the novice that I am when it comes to all things experimental – ‘pick n mix’ with fashion for me  is akin to putting white mice and dolly mixtures into the same bag!

I must confess to not yet owning the ‘right sort’ of Falke leg ins; no crinkled Celine ankle boots (with gypsy skirt and bamboo stick legs to match); nor do I swagger about in obligatory cowgirl jacket with suede tassels silently jangling.  The extent of my daring ‘out there-ish-ness’ includes one new black leather tassel stroke Biker jacket (appropriately designed by Swagger and Soul), coupled with my first born Hindmarch handbag!

Do tassels work when combo’d up with leather weave? I’ll let you be the silent judge of that, but if this year’s look of  crochet bags, denim dresses and cowgirl jackets – is anything to write home about then I’m riding off into the sunset with harpsichord in hand!  Now where’s my Hermes scarf and Swarovski in-laid lasso?

Tassels and Weaves - Wonderful!

Anya Hindmarch Handbags do it again!

If ever there was a bag that stands for all things wise and sage – here it is!

Not a show stopper!  No circular zips, lacquered lizard skin, no spine chilling lining, or ‘don’t leave home without ‘– attachments.  Not a crystal, a stud or padlocked clasp in sight – and behold its beauty - for its simplicity.  Less is more! Shouts the interior designer within!

This is the mould for all to follow when designing a ‘bag for all seasons’: she makes her presence felt through qualities of endurance and steadfastness.  She’s hardy in the winter; soft and supple, in the spring; she exudes opulent antiquity yet with depth and quality of soul.  And, I wonder, is this the Nelson Mandela of bags?

Whatever tickles your fancy she is a bag not to trifle with. Built to last with her “take me anywhere” body she is the pick of the crop for taste and class! All I need now is one of those ‘grow it at home’ seedling bags, potting sheds complete with lolly stick markers and I too, will be rolling in clover!

“Shall I compare thee to a summers day; thou art more lovely and more temperate”

Thanks to Shakespeare I may have found a way to explain our love of handbags to  men dumb founded by the notion of  needing more!  So how can we help bridge the divide in understanding?  Simples!  Talk their language…

Does your man have an iphone, ipod, instant messenger account? A career in IT? A penchant for Saturdays spent in Apple’s latest store?  The latest set top box?  Then technology can offer the explanation so often needed behind why we never have enough handbags!  Here’s how…

The answer is Email!  …

• Most men have an email account. Well, in the same way we girls have a handbag!

• A man may have several, different email accounts, ladies too, may have several, different bags.

• A man’s email account is often used for transactional, perfunctory purposes – and a handbag may contain nothing more than that day’s essentials.

• He may use his account for wider purposes such as connecting with others,  keeping loved one’s informed: just as handbags carry memorabilia or tokens of affection.

• There are email folders within email accounts much as we have bags inside our bags!

• Keeping electronic email receipts,  travel documents and favourite photos is no different from the content’s of an average ladies handbag.

All of which goes some way to suggest that men and women do the same things after all, for the same reasons, and in a similar way – except men use their digits for typing and women use theirs for throwing handbags over their shoulders!

Journalists frequently ask me “why men ‘don’t understand’ a women’s passion for handbags”.  A range of plausible explanations spring forth – fear of the unknown instilled by Grandma proclaiming handbags sacred and hallow:  fear of a never ending expense habit; fear of an insatiable appetite for closet space!  Surely on some level men do ‘get it’- after all, don’t they too, have passions and collect things?

During a  recent Anglo American lunch we set about debating this hot topic with alarming realisations. Socks!  Yes, socks seems to be the answer, and to prove the point a brand new, left ankle of Tesco’s finest… black, edged in St Patrick’s day green, emerged above the lunch table -  “perfect man” delicately circling the ankle in matching emerald tones!

Yet socks hardly seem to be on a par with our IT bag or vintage arm candy: socks have to be stripped daily, washed, dried, even ironed!  No such chores for the latest Anya Hindmarch!   The lifestyle of socks is hardly aspirational – 18 hours a day in the company of other small ticketed items’ and never to see the light of day!  They neither boost confidence, nor make a fashion statement (unless you have x-ray vision). They dont even set ‘tongues a wagging’ about your recently found fortune!

Socks simply didn’t cut the mustard!  This left us with only one obvious male equivalent to a woman’s handbag obsession – the traditional English beer mat!

It is universally understood that beer mats,  (like bags) are stored in dust covers – well plastic bags!  They too, like handbags need a dedicated storage space -typically the loft, and like us, most men can swiflty lay their hands on at least one, when called upon to do so.

It seems, (like us girls and our bags)-  that no man can resist the feel, or fail to touch, play with, or bend in half – a beer mat! Like handbags they too have a functional purpose: they too come in a range of colour and decoration, they change in size and shape by brewery or pub – offering every man a never ending unquenchable reason to ‘do the rounds’.

Whether men ‘get a woman’s need’ for a new handbag or not – the good news for us girls is that Christmas just got easier!  Socks – will continue to be the ‘IT’ gift of the season, and if we need a back up – we can always slip down to the local, grab a handful of carefully chosen cardboard and soak up the local produce all in the name of  hubby’s collection!

I can’t wait to hear what the journalists ask me next time!