This issue’s shoots explore fantastic purse worlds, one in which we can be beautiful, feminine, daring and creative all at once. While Lucretzia conveys the gentle and vulnerable inner world of the purse, Purse celebrates its ability to empower us to convey our most fantastic and bombastic self.

This issue is also an exploration of the purse as a space for external representation of self, in both its adornment and contents. The purse can also be considered as a space of performance.

At its best, we can claim the purse as a vessel to carry the tools for our ideas, dreams and aspirations. At its worst, it’s a vessel to best prepare ourselves to present favorably to the world and align with its expectations. I encourage our readers to imagine what a purse might look like as a container for the ingredients of joy, and more generally how gender-coded accessories and clothing can be reclaimed.