The Things We Carry — And Why It Matters

Purses may be seen as accessories, but for most women, they’re essentials. Not just for style but for survival.

As a slow-fashion purse company, we believe fashion and function should never be mutually exclusive. Handbags in particular should be able to bridge the gap between style and its practical necessity.

The legacy of the purse since ancient times comes from the need to carry coins, especially when clothes lacked the functionality of pockets. They were necessary by design, not choice.

In today’s world, women still carry bags, not just because pocket inequality persists (though seriously, how have we not fixed that?), but because bags have evolved into quiet tools of survival, care, and resilience.

Now, they carry something more layered: protection, preparation, and presence. Whether you're packing a mini satchel, a work tote or the perfect carryall for your daily errands, the contents inside tell a bigger story.

Hygiene Products

There’s a quiet kind of solidarity in always carrying an extra tampon.

Period care products are a popular addition to many women’s bags. But it is quite often we carry more than just one, because even though we get visits from Aunt Flo only once a month, there are chances another woman will not have one.

Like the handkerchief once offered in a moment of gallantry, we carry an extra tampon — a quiet gesture in support of girlhood. Such an act is an example of communal care built into everyday routines.

It's an unspoken ritual — one of which turns something as mundane as a tampon into a symbol of how women softly show up for one another. 

Personal Safety

Personal safety tools have become very popular especially for women in the city, with items such as alarms, pepper spray, and sharp multi use keychains.

Although such products have always been on the market, they grew in popularity during the pandemic with TikTokers filming ASMR videos assembling and selling their bedazzled self-defense keychains.

They’ve become more normalized but not because we want them. They’re a reflection of the constant, often invisible, planning women do to feel safe.

 Does this popular purse item serve as a reminder of the unequal burden of threat? In many ways, yes. But they’re not carried out of paranoia, instead they’re carried out of lived experience.

Quiet tools that say: just in case.

Cosmetics 

Touch-ups after lunches, and on-the-go prep for evenings out after work. Lipsticks and compacts have been a popular carry-all stuffer that goes beyond vanity and leans more towards the personal ritual and reset before the next activity.

Makeup has always had a profound power to build confidence, presence, and highlight identity just from a single dabble, smear or spread. A dab of gloss or swipe of blush can be the moment you come back to yourself.

Even the most practical work tote or laptop bag ends up carrying far more than tech, but holds touch-ups, comforts, and fragments of identity.

Motherhood 

There is a polarizing change that your handbag goes through when you become a mother, as your bag not only is a vessel for your daily needs but also that of your child's.

A purse transforms into a caregiver’s bag — packed with snacks, meds, wipes, toys. These items that are snuck away become the physical signs of the invisible labor and love that is invested into raising children.

It carries not just her worldly essentials but that of her child’s at the same time; the perfect metaphor for what it means to raise and care for another person. 

The Necessities & Identities 

There is a theory that you can understand who a woman is based off of the miscellaneous essentials she carries.

Snacks, tissues and Advil might point to a caretaker, whether a real mom or the mom of her friend group.

A nail file, a tube of lipstick and gum might point to a woman who must always look presentable such as corporate workers.

And a crumpled receipt from a coffee date or a sticky note of affirmations might belong to a romantic or a creative, maybe someone trying to capture a life in motion. T

hey’re not signs of perfection but of foresight in small efforts to stay ready for what the day might ask. Each item is a small, intentional form of care.

They are gestures that proclaim, “I’ve thought about what might be needed, for me or for someone else.”

Our Life's Carry-all

Our bags are not just about stuff but they’re about self-preservation, empathy, and care.

Every item represents a kind of readiness whether that is for our comfort, our daily events, our safety or our identity.

Some of us carry more, and not because we want to, but because we’ve learned we might need to.

The purse and the many things we take with us can transform into an armor or emotional toolkit of sorts, or even the perfect caretaking companion.

In the end, our bags are more than accessories but are the blueprints for how we care, prepare, and move through a demanding world.