Mary Poppins' Bag

 

When I researched for material to write the blogpost on the Hermès Ethos, I boned up on the history of the Hermès Birkin bag. 

In 1981, British-born, Paris-based actress Jane Birkin found herself on an Air France flight, seated next to then-chief executive of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas. She was carrying a basket like the one above.  The contents of Jane’s bag spilled out all over the floor. In reaction to the mishap, Dumas suggested she get herself a bag with pockets. Jane replied, "I will do so the day Hermès makes a bag large enough for a me."  The rest is history.

That really made me sit up. Jane Birkin was the other Brigitte Bardot. The 2 women were the sexpots extraordinaire of the swinging 60s. Together, they broke all polite conventions and kickstarted the 1960s sexual revolution. Both had extraordinarily successful careers at the forefront of cinematic art, and the 1960s sexual revolution.

Yet, Jane Birkin was a mother. She needed a large bag. Those of us who are mothers know that our handbags must produce anything and everything in any and every emergency. My bag used to contain nappies, water bottles, writing pad, a pouch of stationery (stapler, scissors, scotch tape, pen), wet tissue, dry tissue, antiseptic wipes, Handyplast,  nut bars, ponchos, hairbrush, wallet, handphone. So, after my babies arrived, I started to carry all sorts of large, sport backpacks.

When the children grew up, I began to carry small backpacks. Recently, I have had to make do with 3 bags:

- 1 bag for my knitting

- 1 bag for worksheets and the iPad

- 1 bag for wallet, wet tissue, hairbrush,

So, when I found out that the Hermès Birkin was designed for mothers, I became intrigued. I bought 2 fake Birkins, on Shopee. My fakes are so fake that they did not even bother to fake the Hermès logo. The design is exact, though. For all practical purposes, it functions as a Birkin would. It simply does not have the aura of exclusivity and class that a real Birkin would have.

I was very pleased with how much I could fit in there, and still have a handbag that looked sharp and held its shape. The design is very clever. It is actually a large tote bag, that looks like a handbag. Anyway, one thing lead to another and I ended up owning 3 fakes. I finally settled for the grey calf leather one at 35 cm because that one is big enough to hold 3 bags' worth of stuff in 1. Into it, I fit:

- 24 sets of worksheets

- 20 whiteboard cleaning cloths

- large wallet

- large wet tissue

- large hairbrush

- dry tissue

- iPad

- Kindle

- 1 large cone of woollen yarn

- half knitted sweater

- mobile phone

Man! I was impressed! This is like a real life Mary Poppins' bag!

Mary Poppins' Carpet Bag

30 cm fake crocodile leather.

35 cm grey calfskin leather and 30 cm khaki calfskin leather.