Low-Key Cult:001

A Love Letter to the Bag That Carries My Sanity. A dispatch from Gate A3, where I have for once, arrived at the airport with time to kill…

Let’s start with a confession.

Despite being a lover of beauty products, I am not a handbag person. I am, at best, a reluctant vessel wrangler. Someone who has, more than once, tried to leave the house with her phone, wallet, lip balm, keys and reusable coffee cup loosely grasped in two hands like a raccoon hoarding shiny objects. I’ve overinvested- thinking that perhaps dropping $2000 on a fabulously perforated leather Alaia box tote would chip away at my resistance. A generous friend gave me that trendy Celine crossbody for Christmas. I attempted a small Prada clutch-type-thing as a birthday gift-to-self. Nothing…

but then, my friend Alli gave me The Caraa Sling Bag (in Medium, and yes, size matters).

Now is not a paid post, but it should be, given the evangelical fervor with which I now preach about the ‘Sling’ to anyone who will listen. It is - and I do not use this term loosely- life changing- particularly in airports.

The Caraa Sling is the architectural lovechild of a stylish bum bag and a nylon multipocket filing system—if Marie Kondo and a professional climber had a baby and let it be raised by a Scandinavian industrial designer. It’s somehow minimalist anddeeply neurotic. It is bag greatness.

Let’s talk pockets.

Nine of them. Nine. That’s not a number- it’s a philosophy. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a tacit acknowledgment that yes, you are the kind of person who travels with two sets of AirPods, maybe over-ear headphones, lip balms (one tinted, one Spf), gum that expired six months ago, foreign currency of many types, a Tide pen, and a mysterious USB that you haven’t dared to plug in since 2019. Also glasses, sunglasses, a mini ring light, hand sanitizer and 4 different shades of Beauty Pie Shine Up Lip Crayons. And sunscreen.

In this bag? There’s room for all of it. Actually not just room- assigned seating.

But the best thing about it is, it doesn’t scream, “I AM AN ORGANIZED HUMAN.” It says, “I might be flying to Milan. Or therapy. Or both.” The nylon is water-resistant, the straps are adjustable, and the shape is that rarest of unicorns: ergonomically functional and chic. You can sling it cross-body, around your waist, or—as I do when I’ve officially given up—stuff it inside your other bag because the airline won’t allow two personal items.

Is it technically a sling bag? Sure.

But it’s also a portable control centre for modern chaos. It holds your tech, your toiletries, your trauma. It is the quiet MVP of every airport dash, every overhead bin scuffle, every gate change announced at the worst possible time while you’re already mid-bite of an $11 croissant.

So yes. Join the cult.

Or don’t. But just know that if you do, you’ll start noticing other members in the wild. Caraa slingers nodding to one another in mutual recognition. Silent appreciation passed like a secret handshake, one zippered, mesh-lined compartment at a time.

Bag: Caraa Sling Bag, Medium

Pocket count: 9

Capacity for keeping you emotionally intact: High

Style rating: Quietly smug, in the best possible way.

get it: https://caraa.co/products/sling-medium