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Bag Stories from Italy

From symbiosis to flirt
This is the story of ten Italian women – six from a focus group discussion, and four from one to one depths interviews– living together with their bag(s), and in love with them.
Is a bag separate from its content or myself, or is it a whole?
Should a bag just contain, or show something of me?

From a “zen” perspective, the whole is the sum of its parts, and each part contains the whole. And so is for many respondents, experiencing a symbiotic relationship with both their bag and what it contains .
“A bag makes your style… One may understand who I am from both my bag and its content... I feel lost without it, it’s me… It protects me, is a reliable companion”
From a fashion perspective, a bag may instead be a “flirt” of the moment, just a “here and now”, where to put your paraphernalia of the day.
“ It keeps everything I need…An accessory enhancing my dress”

Bags & intimacy
Other people peeping in or borrowing one’s bag are accepted but not encouraged, but for a few rejecting “fundamentalists”, rejecting this very idea. But only intimate friends/relatives are allowed to do it, for the most part, and under the owner’s control.
“It depends on the relationship with the person…I am not usually eager to share… I am the one who allows people to peep in…I keep my bag close to me, but I’m not jalous”.
Overall, being stolen (either the bag or its content) is experienced as a shock, an offence against one’s intimacy.
“It’s as if they’ve stolen my memories, from that moment I compulsively use to check my bag at every time”.
According to individual propehension, a bag is now perceived as a mother, a sister, a daughter, now as a protective or sought-after father, or as a husband/lover dependent on you.
“An ornamental husband, angry with me…A pampering daughter…A trusted friend, a point of reference…A son to cuddle…A passion of the moment…A protective father”.

The “dramatis personae”: the bag
Who are the stars? Basically: the bag, the contents, the owner.
A bag is a bag, but each one is considered as unique per se:
“a second home where I put everything.. A little world where everything I need is stored”.
Each respondent owns from 20 to 60 bags, usually stored – empty - in a (dedicated or family) wardrobe.
These are changed according to season, basically summer and winter. But also to occasions, day and evening. Bags for the day are large for the most part - seen as “playful containers”- because these have to keep, in addition to personal belongings, also job documents, computers, or children “first-aid” items, like water, cakes, toys, cleaning tissues. Bags become as larger as the age grows: a “very small bag” would make these women feel almost “naked”, or wish to need… a “XL coat full of pockets”!
Evening/special bags are small, keeping just the necessary – such as documents, wallet, mobile, keys – accordingly looking either “serious” or “shining like a bracelet, a jewel”. This kind of bags, together with the “vintage” ones, are accurately stored in hard-paper boxes.

The “dramatis personae”: the bag and its backstage
There are either skin bags ( basically used on winter), cloth/fabric ones ( on summer), or mixed bags combining more materials.
Someone cleans her skin bag with detergent milk or by using a spray and/or a cloth, someone puts the fabric bag on her washing machine. Or washes it by hand, either filled of rags in order not to shrink, or by using Marseille soap. Buff requires special brushes. Bags are cleaned “when necessary”, or seasonally.
Buying a bag may either mean to follow an irrational “coup de foudre”, “to get a kick” from details such as sewing, colours, quilt, paillettes; or a more rational strategy, that is “studying other women or a shop window for days”, selecting the brand, or…“driving your partner’s gift”.
A bag matches your dress – or some of your accessories, i.e. the mobile pouch, a belt – and viceversa. You may either take care of it, or easily “badly treat it”, or both. But first of all a bag matches yourself.
“It fits me, I do not care the brand…In the morning, first I choose my bag, then I combine the dress…It’s a mirror of myself, where everything is put in order…It is similar to me, it may look audacious by a scarf knotted on it…A total chaos, old candies everywhere”

The “dramatis personae”: content
The content of a bag may be as “standard” as subjective, matching either individual needs or personal idiosyncrasies.
Everyone brings “standard” items such as, for the most part:
house, car and job keys; wallet(s) for money and credit cards; eye and sun glasses; purse(s); small bags for everything; make-up pouches; mobile phone(s); personal & job documents; pens; diary; lighters; refreshing towels; candies; cigarettes… cigarettes … and cigarettes in reserve! These basics are suitable to season changes.
Personal items might be either on view or hidden to an indiscreet viewer. The owner never removes from her bag of the day such items as:
talismans, amulets, objects bringing “good luck”, pictures of saints, fans (in summertime), family pictures, (old) lovers’ letters, one’s own favourite footbal team’s souvenirs, pocket knives.
All these things are either kept in a chaos, or put in order in the many bag pouches, according to the holder character.

The “dramatis personae”: owner
Let me now play with my favourite toy: semiotics!
Among so many tools and trifles in the qualitative research, semiotics are on my opinion an useful toy when you have to gather and explain so many “signs” from the consumers’ world.
And this happens in our situation, since so many attitudes and behaviours emerged towards the bag(s).
I put all of them, including some sensorial - synaesthetic stimuli, in a semiotic grid. The owners may be divided in characters, according to their relationship with bags, through the following parameters:

• Continuity: a bag contains = aesthetics & functionality. Character: predictable-repetitive.
• Discontinuity: a bag shows = personality & representation. Character: extrovert, unpredicatable,creative.
• Non-continuity: a bag shelters = intimacy & light-heartdness. Character: variable, but submitted to trends/other people style
• Non- discontinuity: a bag changes = entertainment & capriciousness. Character: Intimate, but original.

Semiotics: Characters
The respondents’ characters may be therefore described as follows:

Gallery: continuity
PREDICTABLE-REPETITIVE

Anticonfirmist-Director
Ilenia, 28 y.o. - independent professional
Non-conformist, her own’s life director.
A Bruce Chatwin in a domestic key.
Exuberant, self-oriented, aiming at dominating.
She treats her bag as a property to be maltreated, but not to get rid of: in psychologycal terms, it is a transitional object.
“My bag has to fit me, and not viceversa”.
It looks like she puts inside it both her attitude to command, and an apparent innocence, built-up in order to smooth aggressiveness.
Her bag is seen as an ornamental, dependent husband, silently angry because he feels maltreated by his authoritative she-male.

Mary Poppins
Lena, 45 y.o. - mother
Comfortable, maternal.
She describes herself as a “Grandma Duck”.
As Mary Poppins’ one, her bag contains everything able to describe her to other people as a either fancy as a protective mother/nanny.
It is as if all other people’s needs are contained in a symbolic womb, eager to satisfy all of these.
Her bag is a container independent from its content, suitable to attract one’s attention by showing her as a flexible and favourably disposed person.
It is like a son to be cuddled and pampered.

Gallery: discontinuity

EXTROVERT, UNPREDICTABLE, CREATIVE

Fashion-driven snob
Flavia, 36 y.o. – employee
She looks for prestige, brands and “vintage” bags, seen as stereotypes of well-being and success.
Her bag has to both keep her owner at distance from other people, and to show her elitism, as well as to hide her insecurity.
Feeling her own style as “classic” is her goal.
“Bon ton” must be found at any cost, as “the” icon of an “adult” behaviour.
She needs to feel reassured and self-controlled by taking care of her appearance through the “harmony” of either dress, bag, and accessories.
She sees her bag as a both protective and pampering father-husband.

Extrovert narcissistic
Silvia, 50 y.o. – housewife
Bag is for both keeping and showing her exuberance. It is in fact colourful, shining, and any kind of stuff is stored inside it.
She needs to appear brilliant, cheerful, so she usually adopts funny and non-conformist bags.
But she feels as well her own cultural roots, and is fond of them, so she uses to adopt unusual bags.
Her bag is like a dependent and non-demanding younger sister, amused and satisfied with their relationship.

Organized creative
Monica, 42 y.o. – manager
My favourite one: I married her!
A bag is like a second nature for her. It shows her as both original, and with a childlike sense of innocence, property, and gratification.
It has to trigger either the signs of her personality, and her mood of the day.
She experiences a both instinctive and detailed care for coupling: fashion is something to re-write, not to be dogmatically reproduced.
Bag means entertainment, communication of a her own style. It is her first choice when she dresses herself : the rest will be coupled accordingly. Her motto is: any bag at any time.
She has many: each one of them is like a loyal, accomplice friend, she will ever support her.

Organized creative
Rita, 55 y.o. – interviewer.
Extrovert and original, she likes to share with her bag her feelings and emotions.
She decides to combine on the spot: a dress can be changed if it does not match her bag, nor her mobile’s neck-bag.
Her bag has to fit her enthousiasm and sensuality, making her “the only one” able to hold it. She has many bags: the more are the characters she wants to play, the more the bags she needs.
A bag both contains and shows either her emotions and passions.
It is an old time friend, a point of reference.

Gallery: non-discontinuity

INTIMATE, BUT ORIGINAL

Frisky chaotic
Tiziana, 43 y.o. – employee.
Her bag is twofold: an intimacy container and a mobile home.
Either inside or outside it, one may find caring and fondness: everything is like a movie of personal reminders. Items from her daughters, useless objects, talismans, all in a chaotic whole. She threw her bag content straight on the table, giving the other respondents a thrill of both excitement and curiosity.
A sober but frisky person, looking for self-reassurance, fearing for people peeling on her bag, needing intimacy and comfort.
Her bag is like a daughter to be cuddled, but both of them are each other dependent.

Disordered perfectionist
Patrizia, 39 y.o. - inteviewer
Bag as a whole of both personality and functionality. On the one hand, she takes care of any outside detail, from sewing to handles. On the other one, she puts inside it in a chaotic order her own “little world”, a diary with a tied-on pen, lost candies, useless pills for slimming. Each bag out of the many she owns has to trigger a detailed side of her personality. She lives an emotive symbiosis with her bag: she prefers “colonial” style bags (khaki rough cotton, white sewing). These stimulate her imagination towards a “Victorian” esotic atmosphere, “travel around my room”- like. A sought-after father listening to her and telling her his fascinating stories.

Gallery: non- continuity

VARIABLE, BUT SUBMITTED TO TRENDS/OTHER PEOPLE STYLE

Trend-fan ephemeral
Francesca, 30 y.o. - independent professional
Creative, trend-oriented, a “carpe diem” phylosopher, but dreaming about important moments.
Introverted, she looks for long-lasting passions: love is forever, not for just for one day. Thus, she is aloof from her bags, seen as just a superficial “flirt” of the moment.
Candid on one hand, on the other hand she needs “her” moment of glory and success.
Her bag is seen as just an accessory to combine with other ones, i.e. a mobile, a belt.
It shows and keep her sobriety, and evokes a here and now enchanted moment.
It might be a partner of the day…but she does not like flirts!

Light-hearted
Marina, 52 y.o. - housewife
Imitative, apparently refined but insecure.
A bag is seen as an ephemeral item, suitable for increasing her phantasy. Her sense of intimacy might therefore be excited by a sudden passion, pulling her to change mind on her bag or its content.
She is a compulsive buyer, a bag compensates for her lack of self-confidence.
Light-hearted as a reaction against dismail, she looks for things making her happy, or able to show her like that.
Her bag is like a dependent lover of a week, likely under her control.

Conclusions
Every bag has an its own character, and at the same time it reflects its owner’s one. Its content is likely a kind of third partner on this relationship.
Buying is a kind of encounter, even when programmed, because a bag is seen as a oneself mirror.
Also when it is considered as just a flirt of the moment, a bag reflects your personality of that very moment. Very often, it helps you on performing an your own plot, or character, on the spot.
The many bags in a woman’s wardrobe are perceived on the one hand as a whole depicting the owner personality. On the other hand, they are like a multi-faceted kaleidoscope of many personal idiosyncrasies.
A bag is and keeps its holder’s world: it is seen in fact as a playful container whom to play with, or whom to face any event with, either hiding or noticing yourself.

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