Help! I’m Obsessed With Seeing What Crap Is in Celebrities’ Bags

Few push notifications actually have the power to make me stop what I’m doing to pay attention. I’m, unfortunately, notorious for accidentally ignoring direct messages from my friends on social media. But I will drop everything to see what Troye Sivan posted on Instagram, or what my favorite Twitter account that aggregates new vinyl for sale has just dug up. Oh, and Slack notifications, I swear!

Despite my unintentional reluctance to respond to my loved ones in a timely manner, I never miss when a new video in British Vogue’s “In the Bag” series goes up on their YouTube channel. I’ve gleefully left people hanging when they’re trying to make plans with me to watch Kate Hudson dump out the contents of her Fendi handbag. Feature-length films have been paused in their most crucial moments so I can get a gander at what perfume Helen Mirren totes with her to set.

So it’s no surprise that when I saw the notification for a new installment of “In The Bag” featuring one of my favorite pop stars, Charli XCX, I lunged toward my laptop. I was already late, as my phone had been set to Do Not Disturb and I missed the push from the YouTube app. Who knows what kind of crucial information hadn’t crossed my doorstep? Charli’s favorite mascara? A wacky snack? Some sort of witticism about her perennially underrated career?

As expected, the video is a joy. Like most of the series—and the phenomenon of plopping celebrities in front of a camera to make digital content for flailing powerhouse publications trying to transition into online media—it has a strange and preternatural watchability. It shouldn’t be this enthralling to see celebrities run through the most mundane shit that they keep on their person at all times, but it’s absolutely my favorite thing. Seeing what’s in a celeb’s bag is both aspirational and the ultimate comfort food. And one that has been single-handedly keeping me sane for years, at that.

Charli’s video, in particular, is a fabulous yet concise example of why “In The Bag” is such an effective creation. On one hand, it’s a chance to get a glimpse of what products a beautiful, successful, talented public sensation uses to maintain those three descriptors while on the go. And on the other hand, it’s an opportunity to peek into the wilder side of a celebrity, or one that might be more relatable than your preconceived notions had initially suspected.

Either way, it’s the ideal vehicle for nosy snoops like myself to get their freakish, sicko kicks.

Snooping is my favorite pastime. It’s a dastardly one, I’ll admit it. But it’s natural! I am snoopy. I have to know what people use. Your medicine cabinets are getting opened if you invite me to your party. I won’t take anything, I just want to gander. One peep! That’s not a sin, at least not in my eyes. I suspect people will do the same when they visit my apartment, and I welcome it. Anything that I wouldn’t want someone to see and/or steal is hidden away already, anyway.

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“In The Bag” allows me to live out my most meddlesome fantasies. The secrets that are being revealed by these celebrities, on some couch somewhere in Britain, are nothing that they wouldn’t share with the public. They’re already doing it on camera, after all. But it still feels so intimate.

When Charli XCX starts her video by pulling out a braid of fake hair snatched off the top of her head after a night out, a wall has come down. There are plenty more invisible barriers, fortified and standing strong to protect the real person beneath the pop star extraordinaire before us. But at the very least, we’re seeing something exciting and unusual, further from the unreachable heights of fame and closer to us peons here on earth.

If you’re unfamiliar with these kinds of YouTube series (and there are a few) you might be thinking, “Well, doesn’t that remove some of the mystique around celebrities?” That’s a great question! You’d think that, but not necessarily. In recent years, as we’ve all become more cripplingly online, the call has come for celebrities to start maintaining some secrets. For the most part, I’d have to agree. I don’t particularly care about what Selena Gomez had for breakfast, or what Taylor Swift’s new cat’s name is. Rihanna could’ve never shown us her baby and I could’ve—somehow, some way—managed to live another day.

But “In The Bag” is all about simply skimming the surface of revelations. The kinds of secrets that are revealed here are so inconsequential that they’re barely enough for a tweet, much less a headline. In fact, Charli pulling her freshly inked record contract out of her Mugler bag might’ve been the biggest “news get” the series has had to date. Even with that revelation, all viewers were told was simply that it exists, before Charli moved on to pull a banana out of her purse.

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Yes, these people are all rich, but their bags often introduce a sense of total practicality to their glamorous personas. Supermodel Linda Evangelista carries a USB to USB-C converter cable in her Birkin bag. Drag Race host Michelle Visage and model Kristen McMenamy both carry Poo Pourri, the noted essential oil bathroom spray, with them at all times. Proof that there is still no wealth bracket significant enough for science to figure out a way for rich people not to have to shit! If that’s not comforting, well I’m not sure we have the same ideas of comfort.

In all seriousness, most of the products plucked out of these already-expensive bags are pretty pricey. For instance, Charli’s favorite Byredo perfume starts at $200, and her preferred moisturizer goes for $180 in the size she’s toting around with her. Despite that, I never feel bad about what I carry along with me when I go out. We regular folks have our own standby versions of blush, perfumes, sunglasses, and the bags themselves. But for anyone looking for new product recommendations, or gift ideas for their next birthday, “In The Bag” episodes are essentially shopping lists.

I must physically restrain myself when watching these videos. If I’m lucky, I can clock out of a five-minute long installment without a significant dent in my checking account. But I must confess, rewatching Kim Petras grab the Tom Ford Lost Cherry perfume that I’ve been coveting out of her bag almost made me black out. It’s a miracle that I don’t get a British Vogue push notification and come to, drooling, in the middle of the Sephora fragrance section. I’m not ready to rule out the possibility, entirely, though.

These videos even manage to do the impossible: make even the most boring of celebrities interesting. Or, at least, likable. Well, tolerable for a few minutes. I had no idea who Nicola Peltz Beckham was, other than the wife of one of the 20 children in the Beckham dynasty, until her “In The Bag” episode. Now? Well, I still don’t particularly care, but what a wild one. I’m enamored with her seeming disdain over having to say even one word out loud. And seeing her explain how her dog’s name is “Label” because her husband likes to fiddle with clothing labels? Forget about it. My new favorite famous person.

Occasionally (and maybe ashamedly), you might even discover that you and a celebrity have the same taste in products. What could be a sweeter feeling than aligning yourself with the rich and famous? Probably reading a book cover to cover, but that’s not why we’re here. Kate Hudson and I share the same Bose speaker. I don’t tote mine along with me everywhere I go, but I like to know that we both probably play “Cinema Italiano” through it.

Across the spectrum of blonde Kates, supermodel Kate Moss and I both swear by our trusty Theraface tool. Except, she refers to hers as “a new toy.” I paid for mine in four installments, feeling a singeing pain every time I got a notification from my bank to tell me a payment had been processed.

But despite our vast differences (I am more beautiful than almost every one of the people in these videos!), “In The Bag” really does provide me with the utmost warmth and comfort. I am a devotee of the silly little series that publications churn out on their YouTube channels—other great ones include GQ’s “10 Essentials” and Cosmopolitan’s “Expensive Taste Test”—and none more so than this one. These videos are the epitome of the highbrow-lowbrow balance. Margot Robbie might be flying on a private jet instead of economy class, but she too brings a wealth of reading material in her carry-on that she tosses aside to drink half a bottle of chardonnay and watch movies. How would I know we have that in common if the intrepid people at British Vogue weren’t asking her bag-based questions?

The contents of our bags are extensions of ourselves. They don’t just speak to our taste, but to what’s important to us. Famous parents might have snack wrappers or iPhone wallpapers of their kids. Some, like Charli XCX, may just have loose potassium. But no matter what’s in the bag, I couldn’t be more enamored. To steal a phrase from Lydia Tár, “In The Bag” is where celebrities stand in front of the public and God and obliterate themselves. It might just be the most honest thing famous people have ever done.

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