Image: Protoype 1
The Handbag concept evolved as a response to an emotional outpouring; a ‘spill your guts’ moment followed sharply by deep regret and remorse akin to the embarrassment of a stumble and spill in a public space.
In the midst of my shattered ego-mourning shame I began to consider ideas of contents, containment, emotion and a certain propriety governing my gender as a handbag bulging with undisclosed truths hidden from the public sphere of judgement then suddenly and unceremoniously dumped in full view.
I had always had an issue ‘containing’ myself within the required space of acceptance yet ironically fought with myself to be ‘contained’, to be a good girl: Aren’t we supposed to live in a post-feminist era where these things don’t matter/have been resolved?
The Handbag as object and performance tool had the potential for me to speak of these spaces and this conflict.
I wanted to create a handbag that would discomfort slightly by shifting and manipulating norms regarding the female form, fashion and functionality. I wanted to use this object as performance piece, symbolically re-enacting my ‘spill your guts’ moment over and again by spilling the contents of the bag in various public spaces to see what response I would get, if any.
Image: Layered Handbag Patterns
My desire was to challenge the idea of containment, the feminine façade of smiling sweetly with a wave of the hand in demurring sweet virtues of ‘oh it’s nothing’ over the war raging within: spilling my contents would become an act of defiance and strength rather than an admission of weakness and vulnerability.
The handbag would have the capacity to attract and repel in its state of beautiful ugliness revealing the contradictions inherent in ‘woman’ by drawing out people’s personal, societal and generational values and beliefs in response to it.
Crafting
Image: Handbag Draft Pattern 1 (above)
In designing and creating the bag I considered a variety of materials but the form stayed consistent: in the shape of two large pendulous breasts.
I designed several different bags from calico, old tea-towels, faux fur, lingerie and lace before deciding that animal skin would be the most impacting and powerful material to use as it resonated with my intention to speak of the hidden layers of woman.
Image: Handbag Trial (Empty Socks, below)
Fur and leather spoke of her basest form; her animal instinct, her hairy flesh, her form as function, her skin of the beast that is desperately clipped, snipped, burnt, waxed, sliced, trimmed, injected and manipulated to hide. And hide she does: deep within the beast lurks like a ghostly apparition of our pre-‘civilized’ past.
Image: Recycled Fur Handbag with Pocket
The process began to take over as the crafting of the bag became the point of focus as ‘origin of the species’ commenting upon the continuous and cyclic nature of the fashioning of the female form and identity. I have amassed various patterns, bags and process documents that detailed the crafting process that became of interest in and of themselves as spokes on the wheel of the process cycle.
In revealing the construction of a handbag that replicates the female form as beastly I hope to draw out some of the hidden values and assumptions lurking below the Skin of the Beast that quietly insist upon appropriate feminine behaviour and appearance.
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