What Are You Carrying National Handbag Day?

 

Celebrated each year on Oct. 10, National Handbag Day honors one of our most practical and personal accessories: the handbag. Yay! But I can't wait until Oct. 10 to celebrate!

What began as appreciation among handbag enthusiasts, like me, has grown into a day when people share favorite bags, handbag memories, fashion tips, and the stories behind the items they carry.

So, what are you carrying?

The day was created by the fashion website PurseBlog and first celebrated in 2013, giving purse lovers a chance to appreciate handbags as functional necessities and expressions of personal style.

Handbags aren't just fashion statements, there’s also sentiment. Some of my very favorite purses belonged to my mother, and some to her mother, and some to her grandmother too. And some of my favorite purses were lovely gifts. And some are gifts I treated myself to.

Purses are portable treasure chests filled with everyday necessities, keepsakes, forgotten receipts, and sometimes surprising secrets. As an author, a handbag can reveal so much about its owner, which is why amateur sleuth and Purse Designer Katherine Watson, along with her handbags found their way into the heart of my novels Kat Out of the Bag and Don't Shoot the Messenger Bag (It’s the perfect accessory to murder).

A handbag can be a mystery all its own. Somewhere inside mine are keys, reading glasses, a shopping list, three pens that may or may not work, and enough mysterious receipts to fuel a detective novel. Handbags make wonderful story starters.

Esse Purse Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas tells women’s history through the purses they carried through the decades. Beautiful stories. One of only two purse museums in the world — built on the idea: what a woman carries tells her story.

Esse Purse Museum praises my In Purse-Suit Mysteries –

“Inside every handbag are artifacts – pieces of personality, glimpses of the past and often the deepest secrets. Vintage purses have a story to tell and for Wendy Kendall’s mysteries, these stories unveil more than just purse-sonal history; they’re the clues to catch a killer.

 

Irresistible to want to write Don’t Shoot the Messenger Bag

Whether it's displayed in a museum case or sitting on a chair beside you right now, every handbag has a story waiting to be told.

As a writer, I'm fascinated by ordinary objects that turn out to be anything but ordinary. A handbag can reveal a great deal about its owner. Why carry that style? What's tucked inside? What has been forgotten? What mystery is waiting to be discovered?

That's the beauty of storytelling. Sometimes the most exciting journey begins with something as simple as opening a purse.

Happy National Handbag Day! This week, enjoy the handbags and fashion that make a statement, whether they're carried on the street or found in fiction. Who knows where they might take your imagination?

The accessories carried by the characters of the In Purse-Suit Mysteries reflect personality traits . . .

Katherine Watson’s favorite bag. Here she’s on site in Los Angeles on Rodeo Drive with her adopted stray cat she named Purrada.

Carried on the other hand . . . Moonjava delights in the joys of the flower child era, in her meditations, clothes, purse and lifestyle. A definite contrast to her daughter Katherine’s tastes.

Katherine’s grandmother Pam is a tea-toting Brit living in the midst of Bayside, a Seattle suburb. She’s surrounded by wonderful friends, the Ladies of the Round Table, who know all the going’s on in town. At times Pam carries her favorite England souvenir.

If handbags tell stories about the people who carry them, what about the packs carried by working dogs, like Hobbs who is partnered with Officer Jason Holmes? A police K-9's "purse" might contain water, first-aid supplies, tracking gear, and treats earned for a job well done. A K-9's bag helps a four-legged officer do important work.

And what does Hobbs' Partner Jason Holmes carry, including when he's romancing Katherine?

Where does Bayside buy their purses? Of course at the gift shop of Katherine’s Purse Museum in town. It’s run by college student Amber, who is definitely not a big bag girl. She wears a wristlet when she’s not, ironically, just carrying her phone case.

National Purse Day is coming, October 10^th, but no need to wait. Celebrate every day!

What are you carrying?