International student design competition

Category: Design*

This project explores the intimate and often symbolic relationship between women and their bags — objects that go beyond utility to become extensions of identity, memory, and daily ritual. A bag is not just carried; it is worn, inhabited, and relied upon. It is part of a woman’s everyday ‘uniform’, both practical and deeply personal. Central to my design process was an engagement with the language of leather craft — a discipline rooted in precision, patience, and touch. Traditional techniques such as hand-stitching, edge finishing, and structural reinforcement informed not only the aesthetic but also the methodology of my making. I was drawn to the discipline of leatherwork for its sculptural qualities and its ability to convey strength, elegance, and history through form and materiality. Through experimental pattern cutting, I deconstructed and reinterpreted classic handbag silhouettes — the tote, the clutch, the satchel — transforming them into garments that evoke the presence of the bag without literally replicating it. These trompe l’oeil forms blur the boundaries between clothing and accessory, body and object. They invite the viewer to reconsider the bag not as a separate entity, but as something woven into the physical and emotional architecture of daily life.

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