Bag Days by Miranda July for WELCOMECOMPANIONS

“There’s no way to do this that isn’t hard. You’re having to anticipate every need, the weather, whims you might have, past mistakes, who you want to be out there. I felt pretty good about this pack. (Later I would discover I had forgotten my pajamas. I had to sleep in a skirt on this trip.)”

Bag Days, a new online concept for WELCOMECOMPANIONS, looks at a-day-in-the-life-of their favourite women. Their most recent is of writer, film maker and artist Miranda July, who takes the Lips Tote with her on her New Society tour. As excepted, it’s full of her signature dry humour, and includes some of the most fantastic selfies!

I asked WELCOMECOMPANIONS Director Laurel Consuelo Broughton about the newly launched concept and how she is shaping her circle of unique and humorous women…

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Tell us about your concept for Bag Days.

The Bag Days concept comes from the original idea of the WELCOMECOMPANIONS name which was that sometimes our bags become like friends – accompanying us throughout the day as we go about our business. As a feature, Bag Days invites some of our favorite people to take us along with them on their day with their WELCOMECOMPANIONS bag. Our readers get an intimate perspective on what someone like Shirley Kurata or Miranda July’s daily life is like in their own words. Over the next year we want to feature stylish ladies with all sorts of careers who like a little play in their day!

Love Miranda July! Why did you want to work with her?

I chose Miranda because we are both big fans of each other’s work and Bag Days was an idea we talked about as it sprang from the collaboration we did last fall. The Miranda was a conceptual take on “the namesake handbag” — this one came complete with Miranda’s contents in it and a narrative about those contents written in labels on the inside of the bag. Bag Days became a fun iteration of that idea but allowed us to invite lots of different ladies to participate.

What do all of the Bag Days women have in common? 

I think all the women who have done/ will do a Bag Days want to maintain a sense of play in their day to day lives. Each one has had great success being the themselves and defining new roles for women in their fields. I would say the main difference is that each person is super unique – and what’s interesting is that they bring their personalities and strengths into their photos and narrative of their days. Both Miranda and Shirley have this dry humor that comes through.

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“About 25 minutes before show time. I’m nervous and can hear the house filling up through the backstage speakers. I do a meditation thing and get real calm. I stand in the wings and the crew guy named Doug whispers “lights at half”, “lights down”, then a spotlight appears and he says “you’re on.” I step out into the circle of light and it’s the greatest feeling in the world.”

“Flight is delayed. I spent a long time in the gift shop, occasionally straightening things or improving the way they were displayed. When I went to pay for my tiny replica of a Delta plane, the cashier asked if I worked there and offered me the employee discount. When I said I actually didn’t work there (I mean would I be carrying a rolly bag if I worked there?) he became suspicious. Rightly so. Suspicion is the correct feeling to have about me.”

See more from Bag Days [here]