It's my "get my life back handbag"

This is Mo Buck (age 39), her daughter Bette-Lou, her Furla handbag, Bette-Lou's straw handbag (more on this in future posts) and her diaper bag. They live in West London with Kevin, Mo's husband and Bette-Lou's Dad. Mo has works in fashion and is the Head of Production for Coco Ribbon, a small boutique in Notting Hill. Mo had Bette-Lou 15 months ago and has just returned to work 3 days a week.

"I've always loved Furla bags. Always. I used to gravitate towards the smaller, more sexy ones. Now that I have Bette-Lou, though, leaving the house is a military operation that requires more than one bag."

"This is the first handbag I bought since becoming a mother. It's my, 'I want to go out at night again bag'. It's big enough to carry all my stuff, but cute enough for me to take it out on the rare occasion that I get a night off."

"What I really love about it is that it is lovely, soft leather and the straps are shiney metal. And did I mention it's big enough to hold all my stuff?"


Mo is a classic example of a woman who is redefining herself having just had her first child. She is stuck somewhere in the middle of being a mother and being a career woman. Her choice in handbag has to be practical (big), but it also has to make her feel good (feminine, sexy, more than a mother).

Mo first saw this handbag in New York on a weekend trip with her husband before Bette-Lou was born. It was US$720, they were expecting and it just seemed like too much. However, on a recent trip to italy, she saw it again and felt that although it was a lot of money, she now NEEDED the bag for her own sanity. So, she bought it.

Inside the handbag are the following:
Wallet
Tax refund cheque (she's hoping to see a bank today to make a deposit)
mobile phone (of course, always!)
Apple-Juice for Bette-Lou (somehow migrated from the diaper bag)
long-sleeved tee shirt for Bette-Lou (there was no more room in the diaper bag)
Her favourite pen
Mirror

The contents of this particular handbag are quite telling. Mo's role as a mother has migrated into the space that was originally supposed to be just for her. No matter how much she tries to compartmentalise this 'Feminine and sexy Mo space', her role as a mother keeps creeping in...