Handbags are important and precious because they carry your things and your secrets, top designer Priscila Alexandre Spring said. The 43-year-old creative director of leather goods at Hermes sat in her office in Pantin, just outside of Paris, explaining what she liked about designing bags – in particular, the relationship between “your private life and your exterior life”.

Ms Alexandre Spring joined the Hermes leather goods metier in 2015, and in 2020 she was appointed to her current role. Hermes, which began in 1837 as a saddle maker, is a name that comes with intimations of money (bags often sell for more than US$10,000, or S$13,000), scarcity (if you can get your hands on one) and craftsmanship (each is handmade by a single craftsperson).