Decoding the office bag
Show me an accessory more loaded with social pitfalls than the bag you use at work…
It’s been a while since I thought in any detail about bags. But with the international world order crumbling around us, it was a welcome distraction to focus on something so trivial and uncomplicated. Or so I thought. Since writing this article, I’m now convinced that there isn’t a single accessory more loaded with class, gender, status, sector ‘coding’, and social pitfalls than the bag you take to work…
If you’re a female executive, you’re expected to own at least one designer handbag. However, some rules deserve to be broken (not necessarily the ones we’ve seen broken in the last couple of weeks…). For me, this is one of them.
I don’t own a designer handbag. This is partly a function of the sectors I’ve operated in. Labels are far more important as a status symbol when you’re a Big Four consultant or an executive in an FMCG corporate. I suspect some of my friends have it written into their contract that they have to have at least one LVMH product on display at any time, Monday to Friday.
However, my choice to not own one of these bags is largely because I’m not interested in paying thousands of dollars to advertise someone else’s brand. Call it ‘quiet luxury’ if you want. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the craftsmanship of a (genuine…) Louis Vuitton, but, for me, the weight, comfort, and overall practicality of a bag matters more than if it tells everyone I’m “the right sort”.
Then there’s the size of the bag. It’s difficult to be taken seriously when you have a bag that’s larger than a studio flat in Montmartre. This is the butt of a very well-known joke in hit TV show Succession.
What Succession is getting at here is that when you’re uber wealthy, you don’t need a large bag because you have staff to carry things for you. That may be true, but I work for a living and comfortable signalling that. However, I do agree that there’s no need for a bag of “ludicrously capacious” size unless you’re a professional magician…
I’m also, controversially, not much of a handbag person. I prefer a bag I can tuck over my shoulder so I can have my hands free for coffee, phone, wild gesticulations, and handshakes. This often means I end up with a ‘man bag’, small tote, or backpack. Finding a bag that fits my frame, doesn’t constantly fall off my shoulder, and is big enough for a laptop is an endless quest.
In short, bags are the accessory equivalent of clothes with pockets; the consensus is you can either be ‘fashionable’ or practical – but I don’t see why you can’t be both. Those are the unicorns I’ve featured below. Enjoy!
WithPockets x
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Backpacks and laptop bags
I’ve had a Bellroy Melbourne backpack in Limestone Looma Weave for about two years now and I’m delighted with it. So, naturally, it has been discontinued. It was about the lightest, smallest, most practical and attractive laptop bag (with bottle holder) I have ever found. Women still occasionally stop me on the street to ask about it (we’re all looking for this unicorn…). The replacement seems to be the Tokyo Totepack, which will may well be my next backpack purchase when mine expires (although Bellroys have a 6-Year Warranty so the Tokyo will probably be discontinued before I get the chance).
I also own a Crumpler laptop bag. Crumpler are not an obvious choice for an executive (as evidenced by their achingly hipster Instagram account) but their bags are terrific. They’re ergonomic, they come in multiple colours, sizes and shapes, and, when your pen leaks all over the inside of one during a board meeting, you can turn them inside out and wash them in the washing machine when you get home.
Leather satchels and backpacks
One of my favourite Japanese bag brands is Motherhouse. They do leather bags in all different sizes and shapes and colours and if you visit their store in the Kyoto arcades it’s a bit like being in a candy shop. Their website suggests there’s a way you can buy them from overseas by using a service called Buyee, but I have no experience with this service so I can’t vouch for it.
I bought a silly-size purse/handbag from there last time I was in town, which you can see below. The Roy family might approve of it but it doesn’t even fit my iPhone. I’m not 100% sure what possessed me not to get the next size up. Maybe I was seized with some kind of Succession-like ideas above my station.
On the other side of the world from Japan, Cambridge Satchel is a UK institution (although by the looks of their new Miffy collaboration, they have quite the following in Japan too). They do Legally Blonde-style legal satchels in pop art colours as well as ‘Chippendale sofa’ tans. The one below is called “The Brief” and would fit a 15” laptop and plenty more besides.
High end
If we’re doing Succession, let’s do it properly... Launer were the late Queen’s handbag supplier (and Margaret Thatcher’s). If you’re a handbag fan, you’d be hard-pushed to get a more pedigree bag than that. However, they’re not big enough for a laptop, so, for my money, Mulberry is a more office-worthy brand. A Louis Vuitton might say “rich” but, in the words of Chris Rock, one of these bags says “wealthy”. The Roxanne (shown below) is particularly lovely.
Aspinal of London is the other UK luxury brand you should know about. In particular, they do professional slimline soft leather briefcases with a shoulder strap (they’re also cheaper than Mulberry…)
Right now they have a Wuthering Heights collaboration going on… because why? I’ll be honest, I have no idea what one has to do with the other but if you’ve seen the movie with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordie maybe you can enlighten me (or maybe don’t if it’s something NSFW…).
Are you a handbag or a backpack person? Are labels de rigeur in your sector? Let us know…