Unbagged Confessions: The Spaces We Ocupy
A bag that fits all life: is going extra large the incarnation of spontaneity or perhaps a bit of gluttony?
By Sabrina Roman
Admittedly, I have packed an obscene amount of stuff over the course of my life, there were the customary book bags, flat nondescript things that accompanied me over the course of junior school. Before they became the nondescript yet customary Jack Wills shoulder contoured design of 2011 that seemed to speak of a graduation from bright-eyed year seven with a perfunctorily organised pencil case to a somewhat comfortable ‘newbie’ perfectly comfortable with defying the parameters of skirt length, homework deadlines and the cleanliness of loose change. Particularly when the latter was sacrificed for the pursuit of 50p salt and vinegar chapsticks. The situation, unfortunately, only deteriorated from there, loose folder pages crumpled underneath the weight of jumpers haphazardly shoved in at the last minute, magnum opus belonging to Ian McEwan (Atonement) and Nathaniel Hawthorn (The Scarlet Letter) were infiltrated by the scent of a punctured packet of hastily brought pasta salad and a lone ballpoint pen floated somewhere in my bag’s depths. On the other hand, or more appropriately, in this circumstance, as school became college, college matured into university and university found its nexus in work, bag packing presented itself as less of a chore and more of a renaissance, an opportunity to look backwards and forwards simultaneously.
Although, there only seems to be enough room for either progression or reflection after a slew of runway presentations by the likes of Balenciaga, SS Daley as well as Ferragamo and with measurements of 41 cm in height, as spectacled by Loewe’s XL Puzzle fold design and 30cm for Isabel Marant’s Wardy large tote silhouette, the present is certainly large, whilst the future is only getting bigger. To unpack this seamlessly, we’re going to be having a series of necessary conversations alongside the likes of Ryanair at some point. Particularly after designers including Bottega Veneta and Chloé styled bags, purposefully overflowing with rolled-up tabloids or bulging at the seams; you don’t even have to guess whether one individual may need to catch up it’s already out in the open, unzipped, unclasped, unfettered and enlarged for the world to see. Or, at least, the person who happens to be hustling it alongside them down an already cramped pavement. Almost but not quite devoid of tiny handbags that proliferated throughout previous seasons and catered towards those who’d happily emancipated themselves from back aches and shoulder pains.
So what’s with the growing inclination to go big or go home, to throw it out there? In carrying more objects, can we succeed in opening up do we choose to shoulder more possibilities? Think about it this way: Joan Didion hauled around all sorts of everyday frivolities and necessities that are on a bullet-pointed packing list, think Tampax and aspirin, but also bourbon and face cream. It’s in her novel, ‘The White Album’ that she goes on to unpack these same commodities and before giving them a life of their own as they accompany her over the course of hers; “notice the deliberate anonymity of costume: in a skirt, a leotard and stockings, I could pass on either side of the culture. Notice the mohair throw for trunk-line flights (i.e., no blankets) and for the motel room in which the air conditioning could not be turned off. Notice the bourbon for the same motel room. Notice the typewriter for the airport coming home: the idea was to turn in the Hertz car, check in, find an empty bench, and start typing the day’s notes.”
An epochal purveyor of the messy, extroverted bag, Jane Birkin also proclaimed that “girls like to have masses of things in their handbag, and so - although I would loved to have been a neat person that would fit with the (Hermès) Kelly, I never thought you could get enough things in it.” Perhaps the latter was onto something ahead of her time in espousing the life-imitating untidiness that an XXL bag so often brings; after all, there’s more room for things to move freely, unobtrusively, whether they be a cardholder or eyewear, particularly as they are otherwise not confined to a relegated side pocket or front pouch. To put it seamlessly, whereas a last-minute bag may encourage you to pack considerately, a big bag is the incarnation of spontaneity and, perhaps, a bit of gluttony. Both are inevitable consequences of people being presented the opportunity to pack whatever they want, the thick sweater that most likely won’t see the light of day amidst warmer months. Go for your life. And as for that spare pair of comfortable trousers you swore you wouldn’t need? Don’t hesitate, I wish I hadn’t. Just be warned that when stuffed to seam-splitting capacity, this piece of design easily equates to the weight of a toddler on a bad day and a small elephant on a worse one,
Nevertheless, the weight that both sexes ubiquitously select to pick up is altogether different; in one article I read, the writer seemingly exuberantly proclaimed, “Of course men carry bags. But in recent decades, the received wisdom has it that men glide through life with a wallet in their back pocket and a spring in their step while women carry cart around the weight of the world on one sore shoulder. So, as someone with a sore shoulder, it feels worth noting this moment.” Regardless, I’ve come to find that the burdens we feel we have to carry and the possibilities we hope to pack are entirely different, although the shoulder pains we are inflicted with when we carry both are universal. Be that as it may, it certainly seems like there’s more room for the latter in this gargantuan accessory.
