Power purses: Making your statement is all in the bag

Lisa Tant loves the scene in The Devil Wears Prada when Meryl Streep, playing haughty fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, slams her fur coat and handbag on her assistant's desk.

And then does it again the next day.

And again the next. And the next.

In fact, Streep flings a fur coat and a designer bag on hapless Andy Sachs's desk about a dozen times -- every day a different coat and a different bag.

Tant, who is editor-in-chief of Flare magazine, says it's Miranda's way of saying, "I have arrived and I'm far more important than you and don't you forget it."

We may not all think we're more important than everyone else, but most of us would probably like others to know we've arrived. Carrying a great handbag is an easy way to go about it. (Although we don't recommend slamming it on a subordinate's desk; people in the theatre cringed even as they laughed during this scene.)

In fact, in The Devil Wears Prada, our first look at Miranda is a close-up shot of her Prada bag.

"It's a status symbol," says Tant in explaining the growing interest among Flare readers and fashion designers in handbags. "Your money is in it. It's the first thing people see. You put it down on the cash register counter when you're going to pay for something and right away it doesn't matter whether your clothes are from Zara or Gucci. You're making a statement with this bag that you're putting it on the counter with a bit of a thunk: I've arrived. This is what I stand for. This is the fashion tribe I belong to."

According to Tant, more of us want to belong to the tribe that invests in one expensive "it" bag each season. This fall, it's a Gucci 85th anniversary bag, or a Louis Vuitton, or Balenciaga's latest. Designers are savvy to the bag craze.

"Before, they would introduce an accessories collection that would include some bags," says Tant. "Now they are saying, 'Here's our it bag for the season.' So they're already telling the consumer 'this is the one you have to have from us,' and they're advertising it that way."

The other lesson Miranda teaches is that one bag won't do; to be truly powerful, you need a wardrobe of bags.

Tant has four designer bags for everyday use that she changes according to her mood and what she's wearing. "It helps you keep your contents current and clean, because otherwise your bag becomes like the inside of your car," she laughs. "If you have one bag that you never change and never clean out, you know you'll find an old piece of gum at the bottom of it."

We can't all afford a designer bag, but that doesn't mean we can't find something affordable that will polish our image. The most important thing is to make sure it will function in the way you need it to, Tant says.

Are there pockets for your cellphone and other must-haves? Will it hold everything you need to carry in a way that it's all easy to find?

Does it suit your body? "If you get somebody who is very petite carrying a huge bag, it's going to look ridiculous," says Tant. "I'm taller, so I can have a bag that's bigger and it doesn't overwhelm me."

Try to find something in quality leather with no soft spots ("that's where it could tear") and look for strong hardware. "Look at how it's put together. Do the zippers close properly? Do the clips shut with a good strong click? How flimsy is it?"

And buy something that reflects who you are, advises Tant. "The bigger, more structured bags (in style right now) are making more of a statement -- that you're organized, you're professional -- however you want to come across."

Source: canada.com