“Normal People” star Daisy Edgar Jones sits on a blue leather couch in a green silk button-down shirt, taking viewers through her Chanel handbag. iPhone, bottle opener, ibuprofen—those are the first three items she pulls out. My purse—a black faux leather Fossil bag I got on clearance—contains the same things, and yet I am enamored by Jones and this candid look into her life.
Nothing in the nearly seven-minute YouTube video is particularly groundbreaking. I learned that she carries around a mini avocado-shaped heating pad and claims to journal regularly. She uses wired earbuds and brings an electric hair-removal tool everywhere she goes. Maybe it is because she gets to make out with “Normal People” costar Paul Mescal regularly and I am jealous, but with every mundane item she grabs, my attention never wavers.
Vogue’s “In The Bag” series has cracked some kind of code that keeps me enthralled. For 238 minutes and 29 seconds, I sat on my bedroom floor and watched the 50 most recent releases. To a sane person, this task would quickly turn monotonous, but I genuinely enjoyed the nearly four hours spent binging the second half of the series. Of course, there are some celebrities who I do not know or care for (sorry, Katy Perry), but with every dull personality, next comes someone I adore.
The series kicked off in 2016 and opens with then-20-year-old Victoria’s Secret model Taylor Hill taking viewers through the contents of her AW16 Miu Miu Dahlia bag. It’s all very scripted—Hill is sitting in an empty cafe, one surely rented by the Vogue team, and it’s apparent that a glam squad went to work on her hair and makeup—yet, I feel like I’m getting a private, almost candid look into her life.
Nearly a decade later, this setup remains. A celebrity sits in an empty cafe, art gallery or stunning hotel room and presents the contents of their bags to an audience on the opposite side of a screen. Watching someone take their thousand-dollar handbag and literally dump its contents (which are also frequently thousands of dollars) on a table just scratches an itch. When Julia Fox pulls out a cracked cell phone and half-eaten Snickers bar, I’m not thinking “Oh my God, she’s just like me,” it’s something else.
There are 102 of these videos so far and I’ve watched every single one. They range in length from two to eight minutes and have amassed upwards of 14 million views. A new episode of the series typically comes out once a month and every time it feels like Christmas morning.
Through my binge-watching of the series, I have found that I am not necessarily invested in the celebrity of the videos—hell, I would sit attentively for anyone on the street who wanted to dump the contents of their bag out. So why do I care enough to willingly sit through the hundreds of these videos? Am I a voyeuristic freak?
Julia Fox takes a bite of a Snickers bar during her In The Bag episode. British Vogue / YouTube
Probably not—at least, hopefully not. Sure, "In the Bag" lets me indulge in this curiosity without any guilt. The “secrets” these stars share are not private—after all, they are willingly revealing them on camera, but it still feels personal. I am well aware that these bags are specifically curated for the video, and that more often than not, someone is trying to sell me something in them.
But, I have never bought a product after seeing it featured in one of these videos, or been swayed to change something about my life or own bag organization. Instead, I have recently found that I love these videos for the same reason that I love incessantly scrolling on Pinterest: the aesthetics.
When 34-year-old Fox takes a bite of the half-eaten Snickers bar, I would conclude that she’s not trying to be relatable. Instead, it’s part of this “365 party girl” aesthetic created following the release of Charli XCX’s recent album, “brat.” Fox stars in the music video for a song on the album titled “360,” where Charli references her by name in the chorus by saying, “I’m everywhere / I’m so Julia.” The album is a marriage of hyperpop and club tunes and covers an array of topics like grief and maternity, and also how cool it is to have a bump off of the club floor. It’s complex and occasionally messy, just like the persona Fox presents to viewers. Speaking of, Charli prefaces her own episode by saying, “This is really more what’s in my bag after a night out.”
In watching these videos, it seems less like the celebrities are there to exclusively sell an individual product or appear relatable to the general population, and more like they are pushing a vibe. “Clean girl,” “dark academia,” “old Hollywood”—these popular social media phrases are represented here, overtly in these videos and with great attention to detail. And I think that’s why I love it.
There’s something about the careful curation that appeals to my love for order and presentation. It’s the combination of utility and beauty—these objects, handpicked for the moment, are arranged to be visually and aesthetically pleasing as if the inside of a handbag could be a work of art. Even when it's obviously staged and somewhat sterile, like Hill's setup, or a deliberate attempt at obscurity, like Fox, I’m here for the theater of it all.
Victoria's Secret model Taylor Hill sits in an empty cafe for the opening scene of her In The Bag feature. British Vogue / YouTube
And maybe that’s the allure of these videos—the artistry. Each item, however standard or attainable, tells us something about the person holding it. A glimpse of their inner world, carefully edited and polished for the screen, yet still a reflection of their personality. It’s not just a phone or a tube of lipstick—it’s a prop in the play of their life, a way for them to communicate who they are, or at least who they want us to think they are.
It’s a tiny, consumable story told through objects, and there’s something fascinating about that narrative. What people choose to reveal—and just as importantly, what they don’t—says more than the items themselves.
I have started to notice this storytelling everywhere: on Pinterest boards, in Instagram posts and even in the way I arrange my belongings on my nightstand. I do not actually need a hardcover copy of Frankenstein (which I have never read), or a candle that I have no intention of ever burning, but there’s something satisfying about knowing those items are there, about creating my little aesthetic moment. It’s not about the functionality of the items, but the sense of control, the ability to shape a narrative—even a private one—through the things I carry.
Realistically, I know that I have limited control over how people perceive me, but I still want to try. Even if it’s only my roommates and the occasional drunken hook-up that see the books carefully placed on the shelf above my bed, I am satisfied to know that I did something to promote a certain aesthetic.
At the end of the day, I think that’s what draws me to these videos and images: the idea that through the smallest details, we can tell stories about ourselves. And in a world that often feels chaotic and overwhelming, there’s comfort in being able to curate those stories, in turning something as mundane as the contents of a handbag into a tiny, controlled universe of beauty and meaning.
The following quiz is intended as lighthearted entertainment for readers. The contents of the quiz are unrelated to British Vogue.