The bag: a new symbol of women’s strength

March 2, 2012 0 By sonia.massi

The most powerful women of the world have given it new life: we are talking about the handbag, which is no longer just a fashion accessory, but also a symbol of power.

The bag: a new symbol of women's stregthIt is the one accessory from which women are almost never parted, a kind of protection that makes you feel right at home and contains everything you need: what else can be at once a symbol of vanity and power better than a bag?

Like the tie is for men, recently the bag has become the ladies’ scepter of command!

Christine Lagarde – the powerful and fascinating head of the International Monetary Fund –  made it perfectly clear at the World Economic Forum, where she showed her large and valuable bag, explaining that she would have liked to have it filled with enough money to save all those Euro-zone states: a gesture that went all around the world and will go down in history, just like all those legendary handbags owned by Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.

The sovereign has more than 200 bags, always carried in her hand and matched with pastel coats and pretty hats. British citizens have always wondered what those royal clutches could contain: a curiosity that was satisfied by a book released some years ago:  no money nor documents, her Majesty would always carry crosswords, mints, family pictures, some amulets, a powder-holder and biscuits for her dog. This is not all!! In fact it is said that the Queen uses her trusted accessory to send coded messages to her staff: if she lays it on the ground it means that she is bored, while if she puts it on the table during an official lunch or a dinner party, it means that it’s late and they must conclude things.

More mysterious are the contents of the Iron Lady’s handbags: Margaret Thatcher used to say, speaking of her fashion accessories, that they were the only “safe place in Downing Street” and often she gestured with them for emphasis at the tables of international summits to put across the British argument.

Big models and bold colors – these are the kinds of bags favored by the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, and they are never lacking in technological gizmos, in order to stay connected in any situation: some people even say she keeps a direct line phone to President Obama in them! The only concession to vanity…just a couple of very light lipsticks.

It is almost impossible to perceive signs of feminine weakness in the German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s handbags: monumental in size and energetic in tones – these are the symbols of her power.

Among the ministers of the Italian government, great attention is paid to Professor Fornero’s bags: the Head of Welfare has a passion for fashion accessories, but what she carries inside them is not for us to know.

The truth is, we have plenty of handbag models, from big shopping bags, to pretty and refined clutches,  to more rigid and structured designs: the important thing is to choose the model that best suits our personality and our needs, because afterwards, we take only a second to put our world inside it. Diaries, mobile phones, makeup, perfumes…for every woman her handbag is a rich and multifaceted universe, as well as interesting and mysterious.

Nowadays even men are convinced that this fashion accessory is almost indispensable and have started using and wearing it just like us: as a practical object where everything finds its place, and at the appropriate time, can jump out, as if by magic!

But what are the models of bag that best suit our dearest readers? Write your comment…we will be happy to share our various opinions with you.

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