appointment book Hhumm that can be a little embarrassing sometimes and the knickers too if they entwine themselves around my pen as they have done on a few occasions. But this is the modern day woman. She is prepared and armoured for every eventuality. And at the bottom of all of this is what l like to call bag herbs. A collection of lip pencil shavings that fall out from my make-up bag, sand from a pretty shell or pebble l found on a beach, tissue bits from my Kleenex and crumbled up receipts. So if a bag speaks volumes about the owner l think lam well on my way to being an eccentric bag lady or modern day woman ready for anything.

Advertising companies have picked up on the personal importance of a woman’s bag and are personifying the inanimate objects by giving the new editions endearing names. In 1956 Hermes bags named one of their models after Grace Kelly ‘‘The Kelly bag’ somehow it attributed the bag with more elegance. Later followed another renaming of a Hermes design, the ‘Birkin’ named after Jane Birkin. Today the trend is for launching a handbag with a name chosen from a list in a soulless marketing meeting major design house Chloe are milking the 50s comeback by naming their designs ‘The  Gladys,’ ‘The Betty’ and similarly Louis Vuitton’s recent edition called ‘The Shirley’. As ridiculous as this may seem marketing executive know that the new must have item will sell more quickly with a trendy name than without lt’s easier  to the specific name into fashion articles and girlie chit it’s the same with Alco-pop drink or cars specifically aimed at women. There are women who will be charmed by the Suzuki cappuccino or Mulberry’s new range of handbags ‘The Roxanne’. Woman are  increasingly buying designer shoes and bags to console themselves and provide an alternative comfort than devouring a giant galaxy chocolate bar, and advertising executive know this. Women do become attached to their handbags and adorn them with sentimentality.

It is however a very calculated and infantile trend that ruthlessly targets women. It is strikingly patronizing and silly, but l know intelligent and hard nosed business women who are happy to part with 2,000 Euros and make an emotional investment to own their new friend ‘the Shirley’ l remember some years ago when my friend {a director of a successful recruitment company} want into a panic searching her car calling: ‘‘Looey, Looey, where are you?’’ l wondered if she had bought a poodle until she pulled out her new Louis Vuitton bag with a big smile on her face

I can’t decide if the advertising companies are friend or foe to the ‘bag ladies’ of the world but l don’t really have to worry about it as my Birkin bag is a copy and cost we 50euros and l will keep on filling it to the brim, because you never know what you or anyone else will need and it’s always better to be prepared.