Look Inside Yourself, Not Your Handbag

Hello everyone!

Today's post is in collaboration with Hayley Miller, a British handbag designer who has recently started a documentary project about handbags and what they mean to us.

Obviously I was happy to take part as I love handbags! 

So here goes.

This is my favourite handbag, it's from New Look and I love it for a few reasons: first of all, it was a Christmas 2012 present from my lovely boyfriend, so it has a big sentimental value. Secondly, it's such a gorgeous bag! I love everything about it, the size, the shape, the different materials and textures and the pattern on the front. I also like the fact it has a shorter shoulder strap and a longer strap so I can choose if I want to wear it across body or as a shoulder bag. I'm not really a fan of "forearm bags". I mean they look nice, but I find them uncomfortable. 

Because my bag has such a big sentimental value, I don't like to use it as everyday bag: I don't want to ruin it, so it is my special bag for romantic days out and things like that.

I love fashion so I don't really have a style as such, but I have my own style, which consists of mixing all sorts of things that I feel like wearing, and I have worn this bag with so many different outfits and on different occasions. This doesn't mean that I think handbags aren't important as part of an outfit, but rather I believe that you can adapt a bag to the outfit, maybe by using another accessory that sort of matches the bag in some way (colours, materials, patterns). I am not too strict about matching shoes and handbag, but I do like swede shoes anyway so now that I think about it, I probably match bag and shoes more than I thought!

As much as I love handbags and the feeling of happiness that comes with the arrival of a new bag, I wouldn't say they affect my mood more than so much, although I find certain characteristics really annoying: the thing that absolutely drives me insane is when you have a double strap shoulder bag, and it keeps falling off your shoulder! I used to have a bag like that and obviously I don't use it anymore (but I can't bring myself to throw it away!). 

Another thing I dislike about bags is when they don't have a zip, because I am paranoid and I would worry that everyone would slide their hand in and grab my stuff.

My handbag collection is rather small, I'm more of a shoes girl, so apart from this New Look bag, I also have a Select bag that I use as a casual bag for going out in the evening, shopping etc, an Accessorize bag that I use for work, a New Look pochette for fancy occasions, a Michael Kors bag for summer, a New Look multicolour tribal backpack that I use for festivals, an H&M flowery bag for summer and that's it! Seven bags! I'm sure some girls will probably have dozens, but as I mentioned, I usually can't resists a new pair of shoes instead. Also as you have probably noticed, I'm not really fussed about designer bags, the important thing for me is that I like it and find it useful/comfortable, not what name is on it. The only designer bag I own (the MK) has only got a tiny logo on the front. I would never want a bag covered in logos.

If you too have taken part in doing this documentary, please let me know as I would love to see everyone's posts! And if you haven't, I would still love to know what you think about handbags, how many have you got, what do they mean to you? Leave a comment :)

Alex