Issue 15: Hello Hello to Bao Bao
HANDBAGS AT DAWN // In a farewell to the late iconic Japanese designer, I bring you my love letter to the smartest bag that ever was.
Handbags at Dawn (@h4ndbagsatdawn) is a fortnightly newsletter that lands into your inbox every other Thursday – around lunchtime, London-time.
There’s a few different criteria that will make me crave a certain bag. It could be that it’s in the most gorgeous shade of sparkly pink, like the new Kiko Kostadinov exclusive Trivia bag. Or it might be just the fact that it’s worn by one of my favourite designers and it spurs an drunken forage through the realms of resale sites. And then there’s that rare moment when I, a self-admitted technophobe who rejects the idea of having a smart watch, fall in love with a bag for its ingenious engineering. One of those is the Bao Bao by Issey Miyake. A smart object that has previously been coined the ‘school bag of the design world’, the Bao Bao is one of those pieces whose influence transcends the fashion universe as it’s imitated in markets around the world and unknowingly worn by everyone from chic aunties to glam girlies with glitter extensions in their hair. Its simple-but-recognisable pattern of colourful plastic triangles put together in the most satisfying puzzle-like compositions offers a sense of ASMR relief – both when looking and touching it. And like one of the many people who started listening to Purple Rain on repeat when they heard Prince was gone, I finally got my hands on my first Bao Bao bag just a few weeks ahead of the news of Mr Miyake’s passing echoed the world.
The prototype to the Bao Bao was first released as part of Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please line in 2000, and was initially called Bilbao, after the architectural wonder of the Guggenheim Museum in the Basque city that was designed by Frank Gehry. Though it was admired as an object from the get go, the bag didn’t get its full moment to shine until 2010 when the Bao Bao line was launched as a separate entity in the wondrous portfolio of the Issey Miyake brand, standing independently next to Pleats Please, Homme Plissé, and the brand’s 10 other lines. It has never left the limelight since, as the Bao Bao became the kind of piece that defies place, identity or time. Marginally reinvented in new colours, silhouettes, materials and even the shapes of mini plastic pieces that are attached to the mesh background material, the bag barely changed its concept of lightweight, sturdy and foldable since the beginning. Yet somehow, it stayed permanently relevant in a world that’s constantly obsessed with newness. Amongst Bao Bao’s biggest hits, as shouted out by one of the readers of this newsletter Finn Delaney, is the Boston – a handheld rectangular shape that could easily double as a toiletries bag and a 1950s lady bag.
As Issey Miyake himself retired from design in 1997 and took more of a research role in the brand, it feels poignant that the last iteration of the Bao Bao in the designer’s lifetime is probably its most innovative. Just one letter off one of my favourite Marvel characters of all time, its name is Dazzle and it holds a series of totes designed like actual pieces of puzzle. Made out of a flexible polypropylene, each bag in the collection is imagined as one continuous piece of the poly material which can be put together in an infinite amount of ways thanks to its unique click-in methodology of individual triangles.
It feels very Judy Jetson-esque in its futurism, but even if you had no idea about the technology behind it, you could appreciate the flatpack, transparent nature of the textile that will let you embrace your kinky exhibionist habits of advertising the contents of your bag to the world. Over in Japan, the brand has even launched a dedicated site where you can play around and create your own colour combos of the plastic material in order to create a totally unique take on the Bao Bao Dazzle. Here in the UK, this collection is exclusively available in Selfridges where you can also spot an installation that shows you exactly how the bag is made and put together – see below.
Honestly, carrying this bag – as kindly gifted to me by the Issey Miyake team (Kerry <3) –made me finally feel that chic fantasy of a product designer/architect/design consultant whose only worry is channelling the kind of vibe that will intimidate the rest of the world. To my school teacher who told me I could never be a designer because my drawings were messy and that still life of a fruit bowl was shit… LOOK AT ME NOW! xxx
*PEEK OF THE WEEK*
The Bao Bao bag could easily be named a wonder of the fashion world, and so would my generous peek of this week. Harry Lambert (@harry_lambert) a stylist extraordinaire responsible for the shear fabulosity of Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and many others, was kind enough to honestly open his bag for a little cheeky look. I had first met Harry while I was working at 10 Magazine, and he was by far the kindest human to ever carry the title of a stylist. Never pretentious or needy and always with a smile on his face, Harry gives a good name to his profession. For the purpose of this newsletter, he spilled the tea (and the contents) of his spicy red Loewe Flamenco bag in a fluffy textile, which is now most definitely on my ultimate bucket list. Let’s see what’s inside, shall we…
What does the inside of your bag say about you?
Harry: “I would say this bag represents someone who’s in the middle of a mid-life crisis, trying to make themselves look presentable. We have my Pleasing pen for my under-eye bags and my dry lips. We have Carmex, just in case I need more stuff for my lips. We have a fragrance and deodorant to stop me from being smelly. There’s Imodium, to assist with my IBS, and hair tablets to help with my hair growth and stop losing anymore hair. And then there’s a notepad, to try and be organised, as well as a laptop. A par of sunnies too… I guess it screams I’m someone who is trying to hold on to their youth.”