Bag Lady

If you made me choose any type of accessory to live with forever, giving up the rest, I’d probably say bags.

I know, what happened to my shoe obsession? I love shoes, but a bag will never cause you pain, or make you trip and look stupid, or make you look like you need the toilet. A bag will hold everything you need and will always have just what you’re looking for…well, as long as you packed it.

There were so many beautiful bags on arms at LFW this year, but I’ll limit myself to just two. One, I love the brand, and the other, I love the idea (and the design).

It would be remiss of me to talk about bags this week without mentioning Mulberrys most talked about design. The Del Rey was designed for Lana Del Rey, a singer who seems to polarise a lot of opinions. I didn’t actually realise who she was until a few weeks ago when I heard “Video Games” on Radio 1

I don’t hate the bag like some people do. I don’t really see the connection between the singer and this bag (but then I didn’t really see the connection between Alexa Chung and the Alexa until you saw her eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeverywhere with one. Does she still carry one?) and don’t really understand why Mulberry are attaching her name to the bag when all other bags are just random girls names (still waiting for a Hayley or even a Gina bag…) but its a reasonable shape, and I love the petrol blue in the top left (that one definitely would have been my mums choice just for the colour)

I’ll probably be having a look (and a stroke…wait…no, that sounds fine) at the bag when it appears in the outlet store or at my local concessions, but if I were to choose a Mulberry bag in this style, I’d rather go for the Neely or the Harriet.

From a well known brand to a designer who isn’t so high on the publics radar, I think I’ve fallen in love with this bag by Richard Nicoll. It was announced last year that he would be partnering with Vodafone for his 2012 collections, and this was part of the AW12 set.

From the outside, its a pretty but simple looking bag, but open up and inside you’ll find chargers for your phone – the bag itself can hold a charge to replenish your phone (or iPad I guess!). This is the sort of thing I love – and what I think should be included in a technology column written by a female: its technology being used in a non standard way but in a way that could really help so many people – perhaps its just for phones at the moment, but having a portable battery pack like this could be useful in many situations.

(Hey Vodafone, I’m a loyal customer coming up for renewal…if you can hook me up with the above bag, perhaps in silver or purple, then I’ll stay with you a bit longer ;))