Every woman carries handbags of all shapes colours and sizes, we collect them in the latest style or proudly wear vintage pieces, but does every woman know the language of handbags or their functions?
Every few hours of the passing day requires a certain size of a handbag. The large bags are appropriate for mornings, inside of which anything can be added for every need of the day; the medium sizes are for the afternoons and the smaller bags are for the evenings’ affairs. An evening bag might be added inside the daytime bag for convenience ready to come out at night together with an elegant pair of shoes.
In today’s time is no longer necessary to match the colour of shoes to the colour of handbags, unless one has an invitation to dine with the nobles and the upper class. Today we feel free to combine colours and styles interchangeably with shoes and bags and make creative combinations with the two items. Colours and texture determine the time of the day and the seasonality of a handbag. A yellow handbag is great for daytime but not for an evening event. A black leather handbag is perfect for winter but not for a hot summer.
Like garments, a handbag can embellish or break the body and the whole look. If you are a petite woman avoid carrying large bags, but if you are a tall woman don’t carry the smaller bags, it’s all about the body’s proportion and harmony. The shape of the body also comes into play when choosing a handbag. If your body is sinuous and curvy, choose square and rectangular handbags and vice-versa.
Does the hardware of a handbag matter in the making of your body’s architecture? Does it go with the colouring of the outfit and jewellery? Let’s look at a building designed in classic architecture. We will see a line of rounded top windows on one row and the triangle top windows on another row, then we see repetitions in the same order as musical notes in a refrain. If the hardware of the main door is brass, all the hardware of doors and windows will be brass. There will be people who argue that rules are made to be broken, I agree with that for certain things. However, if harmony in our look is what we want to achieve, those details that make us feel good and make others feel at ease when they look at us, following some basic rules is the way to do it, everything else is fantasy.
Portable bag hooks are a good solution to keep the handbag off the floor when in public places, a pochette or a clutch can always be placed on the lap or in a little space between the butt and the back of the chair.
I found it fascinating how the longest-reigned Queen Elizabeth II spoke with signals using her handbags.
I saw a documentary about her interesting language. The Queen shifting her handbag from hand to hand meant she was finished with the discussion and her aide’s job was to rescue her out of that situation promptly. If Her Majesty placed the bag on the floor, it meant she was not enjoying the chat with the interlocutor, the lady in waiting had to intervene. A handbag placed on the dinner table was a sign that the dinner had to finish in the next five minutes. How an elegant way to say to people “I have had enough of you”!
The handbags featured here are all custom-made by me and sold in my Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions
They are made of various materials: macrame’, metallic fabric cloth, metallic string, worsted cotton and much more. The language they speak is the language you attribute to them. Ciao,
Valentina
Copyright © 2024 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved
Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
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Valentina Expressions 