We’ve all heard – “the devil is in the details”. This is true in so many situations. One of these situations would be women’s purses, especially in the work force.
This is so noticeable when watching the news and seeing women lawmakers or their staffers.
The picture above is of the new IMF president, Christine Lagarde, very polished, very finished, very feminine. She isn’t trying to look like a man.Nor is any element of her outfit screaming for attention.
Its must be some kind of blindness or style amnesia with some women. They spend all this money and time on their suits and shoes and maybe even the bag they are carrying but no one seems to look at the whole picture.
Under full disclosure, I don’t like slouchy bags. They are very popular now. The thing with a slouchy big bag is you end carrying the kitchen sink. Not only that but the bag looks casual, which in some situations is perfect. Slouchy bags and flip flops to me are in the same casual category. If I wouldn’t wear flip flops then why use my big oversided slouchy bag.
In my last job, I traveled a lot. A big bag was great. You carried you ipad (and every attachment that goes with it), pashmina, a snack, maybe flat shoes, everthing! Even taking the train to work I used a large bag, again ipad, lunch, high heals and my purse were all in that big bag. Why the purse? Because for business meetings and lunch meetings that last thing I wanted to have to do was find a place for the bag, worry about the bag, carry the bag. I had more important things to deal with.
I’ve been at a meeting where the women actually misses a call because she cant find her phone in her bag. The whole phone at the table thing has been covered in many blogs. What it does do is show that you are unorganized and maybe indecisive because you got everything in the world in your bag.
Consider what you do need at a business meeting – ipad, wallet, phone, business cards, maybe sunglasses. Yes, you’ll need some make up, some make up not your whole paint palette. A finish powder and lipstick maybe a brush. Nothing more than that. You primp before you leave and with good quality make up you’ll be fine for 8 hours!
It always amazes me to see women in the bathroom primping, primping, primping. Hair, make-up, hair again. But they neglect to see their shoes are scuffed or the heal is torn or the sole is lose. The never check to see if there is a VUwL (visible underware line) be it bra or panties or snags in the nylons. Then to top it off they have this bag that could carry their dog that it is self is scuffed with pen marks. If they spent 10% of the time primping to look below their cleavage they might see the whole picture.
Funny to put it this way, but would you carry such a bag to the opera? I hope not. Would you carry that same bag to the club? Again, I hope not. Why do you spend more time concerned how you look outside of work then going to work. You’re look really can become a detriment to you career. You’ll need the money to do the fun things.
And don’t you dare say “Oh the man will pay”. You take care of your needs.
My husband has a funny saying for me “She is high maintenance but she is self maintaining”. Yup I bought my Lady Dior bag, for business, not my understanding husband.
We talk about buying quality, but there are times that fashionable items can update an outfit that don’t have to cost so much since they are not classics. Enjoy your big bags, but like everything else, at the correct time.
