designcat

Secret Agents

I love James Bond. Not in a romantic way, mind you, Bond is awful. He's lewd, lecherous, misogynist and violent. He's a bad boyfriend. Like Lenny Henry says, I don't trust James Bond. One date with Bond results a one-night stand at best but probably means losing that cushy job with Spectre.

What is compelling about 007 is the fantasy: visit exotic locations, have cool toys, kick ass, take names, blow stuff up, never get caught. Except maybe for Famke Janssen, Bond Girls never get to do all that.

Why don't women get to be secret agents? What does the quintessential secret agent have to do with handbags? 

I've often felt I needed a stealthy little bag. My everyday bag is a smaller Timbuk2 messenger bag in a light blue-grey tweed. The fabric reminds me of a Coco Chanel suit but for special occaisions it is too big, too informal and too heavy.

Whenever I've gone on vacation I've often ended up bringing along a second, evening bag for going out to dinner. The "little black bag" has taken on a number of different shapes over the years, sometimes vintage, sometimes new, sometimes a modified version of an existing bag.Usually they didn't fit in the luggage and had to be carried out special. 

This is part of the reason Danielle and I put together the Secret Agents. Small, compact, unobtrusive. The Secret Agent stows away inside the everyday bag and only comes out for her special mission. I just posted this little vintage number in my etsy shop. (Above.)

Our modern version is a little roomier by virtue of being a little less rigid. This gives it literal flexibility as to what can fit inside.  Perhaps also a tad less austere than its vintage cousin but the little velvet rose detail gives it a feminine touch.

 

 

Fab! Bags

I sat down with my friend Danielle in Mission Pie last October and rolled out the concept for a handbag line.  

All of the names for purses have connotations of servitude. The bags are hobos, messengers, clutches, satchels, totes. Girls are taught from a young age that they get burdened with bags and men get to travel light with wallets. Boys can play with guns, get dirty, climb trees and ride skateboards. Girls need to be ladylike. Even with the opportunities for equality in the modern world this stuff sinks in and messes with the psyche. Can we make handbags empowering?

I envisioned the women the bags belonged to being strong, powerful and having unique traits. The first pass was:

* Secret Agent
* Indie Film Star (changed to Royalty)
* Architect
* Rock Star

Since this was just before the holidays we focused on the first two which are intended for evening. They are essentially similar vehicles with different finishes, like the automobile platform shared between a Toyota Camery and a Lexus ES. The bag is the same shape and size but the materials for Royalty are a little richer, more ornate and even a little flashy. Both bags should be able to fit inside a day bag but Royalty might not want to mingle with common items that might snag on it. 

In addition the way we refer to our essential carry-alls I've never been completely happy with the functionality. I have either modified every handbag I've ever owned or at least wanted to. The bags had the wrong shapes or sizes for the items I needed to come with. Even if everything fit, there was always something that didn't work quite right.  Danielle had a similar experience and had recently made her own small bag for a trip up to wine country because "I just wanted something to hold exactly what I needed."

The size of the bag would be determined by what it had to hold. Features are driven by what the items or the bag itself needed to do. Nothing should fall out if the bag is dropped or laid down: zipper closure. Keys hang near the top of the bag so the don't get lost at the bottom: swivel clasp. Phone shouldn't be easy to reach: gets its own pocket. Everything should be lined with lighter fabric so that it was easy to see what was inside.

We agreed on construction methods, such as how the corners should go together and determined we should regroup later with our respective stashes of bag-making supplies. The design is just the start. For the way both of us work the process of making something is iterative.

1940's Prom

My grandmother carried this tiny little hand-beaded bag to her prom. Nevery seen anything like that quirky shape. The chain handle only provides about 2 inches in any direction, not enough to be a wrist-let.  Once unclasped, the mouth of the bag is about 3.5 inches. 

Flapper Chain Mesh Bag

In the 1920s my great-grandmother carried this mesh evening bag as a young woman. There are not many pictures of her from those days so one must imagine the rest of her outfit and the scene.

The bag itself is in fairly good shape, with only a few of of the jump rings at one corner missing. It could use a polish ... need to figure out which one. Inside the catch-frame it is stamped "gsilver" and "soldered mesh" (see close-ups below.) G-Silver is  not actually silver, just silvery in color. And since the handle-chain and the mesh are not quite the same color they may not be the same material.

 

Another puzzle: what do you carry in a slightly see-thru bag that you absolutely need for an evening out?

Sunrise Color Scheme

Things I'm working on today have very little to do with my usual color scheme.

Mandarine ORange Marmalade on Toast. Mixed greens with Lemon Vinagrette and Bok Choi Torta. That cocktail is cran-orange-tea.

• half a glass cranberry granita
• 1 shot Hangar One Qi Vodka
• Juice of one orange

The Queen Mum

One of the bags from the Holiday Trunk Show had this crazy scissor handle in clear acrylic (or lucite) with gold and silver glitter flecks.  Even thought I didn't have a plan when I picked it up on the internet years ago, I bought it because it was one of the coolest vintage handles I'd ever seen. There was no manufacturing info, only a vague set of instructions about it being interchangeable. An internet search reveals relatively few examples and those are usually macramé.

 We dressed it up in a paisley Danielle had and I added some beadwork and sequins. Something about the blue made me think of gin. She was immediately christened "The Queen Mum." The trunk show was a success so this bag is no longer available but her sister is.