So who was this lady, why she is so important for France and why she is even a symbol for equality and feminism?

Starting with the French revolution

The Marianne is a symbol of the French Republic since the French revolution in 1789 to 1799. She is the figure representing the slogan “Liberty, Equality et Fraternity”.

In the 18^th century the names Marie and Anne have been very popular. What though her real name was stays unknown.

Marianne symbolizes the change of regime. Her appearance is highlighting the symbolism of the “mother of the country”, of the foster mother who protects the children of the Republic. Under the Revolution, Liberty and the Republic were women, often warriors. Just to add: this is as well how the statue of liberty in New York, which was given as a gift from France is a women.

The Marianne is a woman wearing the so called red Phrygian cap. This hat is a symbol for freedom as the first ones have been worn by slaves in Greece and Rome.

The designs and representations change over the years. Open hair, breast naked, different looks and expressions- over the years the symbols evolves. From very calm with decent look, hair attached and no weapons to the symbol of a fighter with open hair.

The Marianne is the symbol of the French republic

The face of the Marianne is omnipresent in France. Since 1870, time of the Third Republic and then with the arrival of Republicans in government until the beginning of the 20th century, the Marianne started appearing in form of statues in the government, town halls and schools.

The Association of French Mayors commonly chose the models as for example Brigitte Bardot in 1968 to represent the Marianne. Mireille Mathieu 10 years later, Catherine Deneuve, Laetitia Casta or Sophie Marceau as have been the symbol of the Republic. They do not all look alike, it is not each time the same outfit, but the goal to represent the Republic and France is the same.

Together with the blue-white-red flag and the slogan «Liberty, Equality and Fraternity» her head is on every official document from the government like fiscal statements.

In Paris a big statue of the Marianne together with the slogan «Liberty, Equality and Fraternity» is installed at the “Place de la République”.

The Marianne as symbol of feminism

The Marianne is also called “the committed”, she is a symbol for strength, youth, a determined women representing as well feminism. 

As her appearance changed over the time, the stamps are changing as well each for a period of 5 years. The last new stamp was released 23^rd of July 2019. This new Marianne was designed by Yseult Digan, YZ the artist name. She said “I wanted this Marianne to be strong, proud and determined, with a frank look that leads to the future”.

For the feminist community the Marianne represents a lot. Mélanie from the association “Nous Toutes” said: “Never mind the President. We see the freedom of women and this character is very important.”

To have a woman as symbol on official documents but as well occurring in daily life like on coins or stamps is a clear and strong message. France always claimed equality and feminism is nothing else. Same conditions for men and women this is what feminism asks for.

Symbol for the new Made in France collection

Bag Affair choses the Marianne as symbol for new collection entirely Made in France. A woman for a brand made by women for the empowerment of women at the workplace just seems perfect to us. We want equality and we want to produce local.

To empower means as well to pay decent salaries and assure good work conditions and even if there is still a lot of work to do overseas and in other countries we feel that we need to support first of all locally.

Production in France, as Bag Affair is a French company sounds like the logical next step to us. And we are not in Paris and have no link with the Eiffel Tower, we are a vegan brand and feel a rooster does not fit. We are not claiming patriotism but equality and feel the Marianne as symbol for feminism fits better than the blue-white-red flag. We hope you like the new collection as well as this symbol we did choose to easily signal our Made in France products.

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Looking back, and you should as well- there are for sure things you wanted to move on faster, go different or which you hope for and which did not happen. But look back on all positive things which have happened and maybe write them down to realize that 2019 has been a great year. 12 events, moments, and things we are thankful for- in chronological order:

1- Fashion Revolution – April

April 24^th each year is fashion revolution day to remember the tragical event in Rana Plaza killing more than 1200- a negative event, a horrible event, nothing positive. But what is great to see is that each year there are more and more people asking what is behind. More and more not just buying but asking “who made my clothes”. The reason behind will forever be negative but isn’t it awesome how many of us are now looking for more information about ethical fashion, asking more questions and searching for better alternatives. This movement as well as Fridays for Future or other events trying to save animals, humans and our planet are a sign- a sign towards change!

2- Seeing the cork harvest in Portugal – Mai

We work with cork as truly sustainable material since the brand creation of Bag Affair. We love to design and manufacture business bags with this light, resistant material. And we learned so much about cork the last years. We travel regularly to Portugal, know people, places and the trees. But what we are very proud of is that end of May we got it to travel to Portugal with our photographer to bring back with us pictures and a video showing the cork harvest and the process from the tree to the bag. You can watch it here. We want to share a maximum of the process and the way we do things with you and we are happy to be able with this video to show also this part of behind the scenes.

3- The launch of the new homepage – June

One thing we never talk about is our capacities- we can do a lot our own and this is part of the force of the company and at the same time probably a problem of female entrepreneurs. In June we launched our new homepage in French, English and German- and believe it or not: We did it all on our own.

Taiseer and Ronja – both of us did study business, we are not web developers, but we had a vision and a goal. We knew what we want and what we do not. Step by step we learned how to create a homepage, how to set up an online shop, create content, design the layout, etc. And let’s self-praise- the result is pretty good! 🙂

4- Our first professional tradeshow with Bag Affair, Neonyt – July

Bag Affair has been created with export and international sales in mind. We are a French brand of business bags but we want to get these bags out in the world to empower business women around the planet. We want the bags to be in stores so that you can see and touch them, we want to support local stores and retailers. And like this it was natural that we need to start doing tradeshows. We did choose well and started in July 2019 in Berlin at the Neonyt tradeshow, specialised in ethical fashion. A great event and only positive feedback to our products as well as new retailers.

Following we did IMPACT, the first sustainable fashion show in Paris, held in September during the show Who’s next in Paris as well as ILM, a traditional leather show in Germany, Offenbach. – More shows in 2020.

5- Joining SloWeAre – July

Producing fair, working only in Europe, knowing all people working on the bags and always searching for the most sustainable way is in the DNA of Bag Affair- because if is the only way we want to do it.

But we also want you to assure that all what we say is really done, that the brand is really ethical and that the promise we give with Bag Affair is true: ethical business bags in best quality.

We are happy that we joined in 2019 SloWeAre and that we passed the audit. We are truly certified to be an ethical fashion brand and proud to share it!

6- First client in the USA – August

Yes, we wanted to sell in exports, but we have been overwhelmed of the demand of American clients for our business bags. In August we started to work with How Cork in the USA and are happy to now have a reliable partner on our side to deliver clients in the US fast and easy.

7- First time on TV – September

Yes ok you will tell us that our Sassy bag has been already in TV (2018 on Canal Plus), correct. But this year we actually have been invited the first time for a TV interview, not just to show the products. This was the start of a list of events, TV, radio and media and we are thankful for this possibility to spread the vision of Bag Affair.

8- Launch of new products – October

Classy, Bossy and Sassy- if you visited our homepage or blog before, these names are not new. We did launch some accessories like tablet sleeves and wristlets this year, but we have been proud as well to launch Classy and Bossy in black in October. The pre-sales have been great and ever since sales are assuring that it was the right choice to add these to our bags.

9- Of two make three – November

No, we did not get a baby 🙂 But we are super happy that we grew our Bag Affair family with our first employee in November: Welcome again to this crazy, loving family Ugo!

If you are a French customer you might have been in contact already as Ugo takes care of the French speaking market- but he also helps us for events and daily business.

10- No to black Friday- November

Already in 2018 we did not take part in the crazy sales of Black Friday. But this year we went a step further and asked our colleges and students in the Brest Business School (we have the office in an incubator in school) to reflect on their consumption, learn more about ethical fashion and even to give what is not used anymore to a local association helping refugees.

11- Winning the price of Innovation as female entrepreneurs – December

We are so proud and so thankful for this event: We did win the Innovation prize in the category of female entrepreneurs of the region of Brittany as well as the Caisse d’epargne. This prize was dedicated to sustainable development and innovation- fitting perfectly into what we have in mind and on what we are working on each and every day with Bag Affair.

But further the prize we won was dedicated to female entrepreneurs: It could not have been better. Bag Affair has been created to offer business bags for women, to empower them in the workplace and to fight for equality between women and men!

To win this prize was just the perfect end of 2019 and we would like to thank the jury and all supporters again.

12- You, you and YOU !

Right, you the person following Bag Affair, you our supporters, fans and clients. Bag Affair would not be possible without you and we are proud to have you with us in this adventure.

Happy new year to all of you and again THANK YOU from the whole team Bag Affair!

And now we are looking into 2020, a New Year and new decade to come. 366 days (use well the additional February 29^th) which will bring new events, moments, meeting of people and of getting to know things- we did set our personal resolutions already which you can find on our blog on Jan 1st, but further to these we are also working on new products, a backpack and wallet, new materials, new innovations and new actions for equality between men and women at the workplace! – How about an idea for you for 2020? – Subscribe to our newsletter to stay tuned and get the information first of how 2020 goes for Bag Affair!

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