V&A, London
This sumptuous new show proves that a handbag is much more than a place to put a phone, lippy and Polo mints
In the past, I have sometimes criticised the V&A for the way its blockbuster fashion shows have a tendency to make visitors feel as if they’re in a shop, albeit a vast and extremely upmarket one – a deadening effect that may, or may not, be attributed to the influence of their big-label sponsors. But it seems that the months of lockdown have taken their toll not only on its latest exhibition, Bags: Inside Out, which has finally opened, having been delayed twice by the pandemic, but on me, too. Wandering its seductive displays, my fingertips tingling with covetousness, I rather enjoyed the sense that I’d unaccountably stumbled on the world’s best accessory store. In my notebook, I found myself carefully cataloguing the names of the bags I most longed to own – a game that became so dangerously real to me, I half considered asking the exhibition’s curator, Dr Lucia Savi, for a price list.