‘WHAT COULD I BUY WITH THE MONEY MY NANA LEFT ME? A CHANEL BAG, OF COURSE’
my ever sophisticated nana. Oddly, I did not inherit one iota of her style – as a lover of all things bohemian, I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum. But I wanted to honour my nana’s passing (and the money she had left me) with an investment piece that she would have been proud of. It could only be one iconic bag: Chanel [right]. Some days even this hippy chick needs to channel timeless class and a bit of posh. So much more than a bag, it’s a piece of fashion history that I intend to pass on.
Handbags are an extension of us and our style, and often capture a moment in time. My most heart-wrenching bag moment came recently, following the death of my beloved mother. Mum loved beautiful well-made clothes and had created the perfect capsule wardrobe way before the fashion press started using the term.
She was very much of the generation where different outfits had specific bags to ‘go’ with them, so when we came to the poignant task of clearing her wardrobe I wasn’t surprised to see she had amassed a collection of more than 30 bags. What I was taken aback by, however, was the emotional effect their contents had on me. Each bag presented a time capsule of their last use, giving me another moment I could share with my mother. From the ‘all needs covered’ selection of necessities, including tissues, a nail file and headache pills, to treasures such as a cherished pair of diamond earrings we had long thought lost, safely hidden away in a lining pocket. An older bag retrieved from the depths of the wardrobe was the resting place for forgotten love letters in the scrawled hand of my father.
Precious things kept somewhere she knew was safe, the heart of many a woman’s wardrobe – her handbag.