Bags Defined Blog

Our precious handbags aren’t like seasonal clothes (i.e. throw out anything you haven’t worn in the last six months) – who knows when we might need a needle and thread, dried up highlighter pen or empty tissue packet? Here are a few handbag organisation tips to keep your shoulder bags, cross body bags and clutch bags (how many old ticket stubs and lip glosses do you have in there?) tidy, ordered and 100% useful!

Use Storage Properly

Most handbags come with wonderfully helpful little pockets and fastenings – use them! A handbag full of a thousand little loose items is far more difficult to keep on top of than a handbag containing a thousand little pocketed items. It might take an extra three seconds to zip your travel pass away or clip your keys to a catch, but you’ll soon get used to the relief of things being where you put them!

The Weekend Rubbish Trawl

We’ve all done it – flung an old tissue, receipt or snapped hair band in our shoulder handbags – which is why we recommend a weekly blitz of your handbags for rubbish and detritus.

Seasonal De-Cluttering

The winter season – most of us have a spare pair of gloves, a hat, maybe spare socks, hand-warming pads etc nestled in our shoulder bags, ready for action at a moment’s notice! Through the summer season – sun protection cream, sunglasses, anti-allergy pills and so on. A seasonal clearout is a great way to keep handbags free from items that are frankly useless once the leaves change!

Purse snatching used to be the way a damsel in distress met her hero in 80’s movies, but those of us who’ve been on the receiving end of such a crime know it’s anything but romantic, and can leave a victim frightened, shaken and usually very, very angry! Here are our top five tips you can implement easily to help guard yourself against crime.

•    Use fastenings. Keeping your clutch bags closed, use the zips on your favourite Kipling bags etc. Most pick-pocketing and purse snatching is committed out of opportunity.

•    Try not to carry too many unnecessary valuables. Great aunt Muriel’s diamond drop earrings are gorgeous, but do you really need them in your handbag?

•    Body language can make you an unattractive target. Most purse snatchers don’t intend to hurt their victims. Keeping your bag towards the front of your body, holding the strap, a confident demeanour – all these things could warn off a prospective attacker.

•    Use your instincts. You wouldn’t cross a road when a HGV is careering down the road, so don’t use a cash machine next to a person who unsettles your instincts. Better to feel a little silly later on than to be a victim of crime because you discounted your instinctive reaction to a situation.

And above all, just enjoy wearing your handbags and shoulder handbags.

When we shop for clutch bags, most of us have a particular event in mind. So, for argument’s sake, let’s say we’re heading off on a fabulous evening of fine dining, theatre, cocktails and dancing! Creating a curious dichotomy, the diminutive size of clutch bags is perhaps their greatest failing (how many amongst us have longed for the space to fit an extra warm jumper in on a chilly winter evening!) and most pronounced strength (light, chic and a welcome relief from our weighty daily shoulder bags!) Here are a few organisation tips to help you make the most of a clutch bag’s limited space!

Say Goodbye to Small Change

Be realistic – do you really need your gym membership card, department store discount cards and a year’s worth of old train passes? Leave the wallet behind, and instead opt for a thin silk purse, big enough to fit your bank cards, paper money and driver’s licence only.

Dissect Your Keys

The key to the garden shed padlock is unlikely to be a clutch bag staple. Clutch bags from the likes of Fiorelli and Kipling handbags tend to include a few stealthy zip pockets – perfect for a single key.

Mini Make-Up

Go for tester samples of your favourite make-up essentials. If you can’t get hold of trusted brand sample, this might be the perfect reason to indulge in a little luxury brand department store make-up testing!

Perfume

Bottles of perfume can take up space and add weight. Tear perfume samples out of a magazine to top up your scent through the night.

Et Voila! The perfectly organised clutch!

Our bag style of the day here at Bags Defined is the cross body bag – comfortable, practical, and a must-have for next season’s laid back looks. Obviously, we have a fascination with bags and like to think about the way they look, the way they feel, and the impact they can have on the rest of our fashion choices. Which leads us on nicely to our question of the day – what’s your cross body bag style?

Dainty

Clutch bags no longer hold reign over the court of dressed-up occasion bags. Embellished little designs from the likes of Fiorelli are some of our most popular smaller bag styles. Welove the Fiorelli Maida Vale in Midnight.

Midsize

In our opinion, Kipling handbags win out every time in the chic, practical, midsize cross body bags run. Their Corinne design is an office favourite (it has pockets for everything!)

Large

For the lady who really does need everything plus the kitchen sink, Fossil have created some of our favourite large cross body bags. The key-per in Blue Floral is one of Fossil’s brightest, most practical designs – we adore it!

Cross body bags are versatile, handy and generally a lot easier to run for the bus in than an overloaded shoulder bag.

Clutch bags, shoulder bags, leather handbags – whatever your poison, it’s fair to say we ladies are rather attached to our handbags! And for good reason – the contemporary woman needs to be organised, resourceful, quick-thinking (even the day after the night before – who do you think they’ll all come to for pain killers?), caring, nurturing, commanding – we could go on, but you get the point.

Our shoulder bags are a trusted life jacket amidst the daily squall of life, a bottomless source of tissues, boredom-relieving diversions, medical supplies, snacks, organisation tools, a needle and thread kit you got in a cracker three years ago, umbrella, car keys, house keys, office keys…just about everything that could be needed to counteract the potential maladies and calamities of the average day!

So, what’s the driving force between ladies and handbags? Cosmetically, few of us enjoy a night of cocktails in a slinky LBD whilst carrying our purse, mobile phone, keys and make-up in our bare, naked hands. Clutch bags complete the outfit (we love them!) In terms of daily use, it’s really practicality which has the latest season’s handbags turning our heads as if we just saw James Franco jog past wearing only a pair of Calvins! To carry a handbag, be it shoulder bag, clutch or tote – is to carry a little bit of ourselves in a gorgeously designed bubble.

We’re ready for anything, whatever happens through the next hectic day of life, we’re prepared! Imagine if we had to just use our pockets….we shudder at the thought!

Function or fashion? FUNCTION OR FASHION? We’ve all been there – clutch bags are perfect for an evening of cocktails… but our work PDA doesn’t fit! Giant tote bags are versatile, fitting all our daily staples inside, but what if we don’t fancy carting one about the place with us all day (we usually head to the gym for that kind of exercise.

Let’s assume that a great number of us ladies have to carry the world – not on our shoulders – but in our handbags… every day! Purses, mobile phones, plasters, tissues, media player, book, hairbrush, make-up, map (who cares if we’ve lived in London for five years, it’s a big place!), notebooks, pens (some of which even work), pain killers, magazines, work diary, home diary, travel pass (which we KNOW we should keep in our purse, but it’s so much easier to just fling the thing into our handbags alone – perhaps we secretly love the thrill of approaching the turnstile whilst manically foraging for it amongst handbag debris?), and whatever else we deem necessary parts of our day to day life handbag arsenal!

Living in or visiting any city requires a certain level of organisation and resourcefulness to get by. And our favourite solution for those like ourselves (perhaps lacking the natural discipline to keep their handbags organised) is simple – pockets.

Kipling handbags are our brand recommendation of the month for easy, well organised city chic hand bag options. The likes of the ALVAR, CORINNE and FAIRFAX Kipling bags come complete with tons of useful zip-pockets, and are available in a fabulous palette of shades.