The Psychology Behind Why We Buy Handbags with the Lazy Thrifter | Jeremy Carr & Emily Blumenthal

Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons

In this episode of Handbag Designer 101, Emily Blumenthal sits down with Jeremy Carr, creator of The Lazy Thrifter and a school psychologist, to explore the

Key takeaways

• Handbags serve as psychological extensions of identity, reflecting who people are or aspire to be.
• Brand loyalty is deeply emotional, with logos like Coach triggering strong reactions due to cultural associations.

Main topics

• Psychology of brand loyalty
• Handbags as identity expression

Notable quotes

"Handbags are psychological — what we carry can reflect who we are and who we want to be."

Conclusion

The episode reveals how handbags are far more than accessories — they're

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Oh, I'm afraid of the death threats. Oh, my God. No, but like, I love the leather coach bags. But yeah, do I think that logo coach is tacky? 100 % I do. Do I think that people should buy lots of logo coach bags? I do not think they should. That is my opinion. You can like it or not like it. But when I say that- Hey, I Speaker 1 (0:19) think some people should be checked wearing a crock top, but you know, it is what it is. Exactly. You can't Speaker 2 (0:26) stop people. Exactly. You know, and by the way, I wear a lot of things that other people might not like. You do you. Speaker 1 (0:34) Hi, and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, Emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love from the iconic brands and top designers to the creativity, craftsmanship and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector, or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all. Welcome Jeremy Carr of the Lazy Thrifter. Speaker 2 (1:10) Hello, hello, hello. Yes, of the Lazy Thrifter. Speaker 1 (1:13) Yes. Oh Speaker 2 (1:14) my goodness. On Speaker 1 (1:16) TikTok Speaker 2 (1:16) and Instagram. Well, actually, other places too, but TikTok is my meme. You know, I love TikTok. I just love it. Do you? Speaker 1 (1:23) Yeah. I don't know. I hate blaming age because I feel like that's just an excuse because there are plenty of old bags on TikTok doing a lot of old baggy things. Oh, Speaker 2 (1:35) I love the old bag analogy. I get it. Yeah, Speaker 1 (1:38) no pun intended. Yeah, call them old vessels. But I don't know, man. I don't know. It's like one platform too many. Like I've had to retire Twitter X, all of that threads. I can't. I genuinely think nobody needs to hear what I have to say more than I'm already saying it. So subscribe and listen other than like scroll and find me. I don't know. People Speaker 2 (2:00) need to know what is nice, what is not nice and get it out on as many platforms as you can. Here's the thing. Okay. I am old. Speaker 1 (2:12) No, you're not. Speaker 2 (2:13) No, I am. Speaker 2 (2:15) And I don't know if anyone, if you can see me, you'll know that I'm sick in bed, literally sick in bed with the flu and COVID. Did not know that happened. Literally didn't know you could get both. But yes, I'm sick in the bed and I'm strolling on TikTok. And I realized that TikTok is such a good informational place. Do you know what I mean? Speaker 2 (2:40) Like, you can learn. It's not just stupid dances, right? Like, you can learn so much about whatever your interest is. Jeremy, what'd Speaker 1 (2:48) you learn? What did you learn? Oh, Speaker 2 (2:49) my gosh. Well, first of all. Speaker 1 (2:51) Talk Speaker 2 (2:51) to me. First of all. So I'm a psychologist. A school psychologist. Did you Speaker 1 (2:54) learn that you had COVID from TikTok? I just want to find out. I did not. Speaker 2 (2:59) I did not. I was doing my, I was doing a podcast last night, my own podcast. And I was like, I'm the lazy thrifter. There we go. available on, I guess, I don't know, Spotify, I guess. I don't know. And so I'm like, I'm feeling really sick. I don't know. And so I was like, if I'm still sick in the morning, I'm going to the doctor. I went to the doctor anyway. But what I've learned on TikTok is mostly a lot of psychological stuff. And I'm a school psychologist, so I know a lot about psychology. So Speaker 1 (3:30) you have Speaker 2 (3:30) a Speaker 1 (3:30) master's in psychology. Speaker 2 (3:32) I have a master's in education. A master's in school psychology. And I'm finishing. It's going to take a long time. My dissertation. You're Speaker 1 (3:42) going to Speaker 2 (3:43) be Speaker 1 (3:43) Dr. Carr? Speaker 2 (3:44) Yes, but it's Speaker 1 (3:45) going Speaker 2 (3:45) to take some time. Oh Speaker 1 (3:46) my God, I'm on a PhD so badly. I've been thinking about it. And then a guy in the faculty at FIT so hilariously said to me when I said, I really want to get that PhD just for, you know, shits, giggles and fun. He told me, are you ready for this, Jeremy? He said. This old professor at FIT. So there are a lot of people who teach at FIT that you can already assume the kind of people who they are. And he said, he said, honey, learn to play tennis. You'll get more out of that. And I'm like, wow. Speaker 2 (4:19) Wow. Here's Speaker 1 (4:21) the Speaker 2 (4:21) thing. Okay. So I did it really. And I Speaker 1 (4:23) don't know how to play tennis. So, you know, I got things to do. Speaker 2 (4:27) Yeah. I mean, who has the coordination? I never understand it. I did it for fun. because I, you know, I'm a school psychologist. I actually love education. But what I've realized is that everything is psychology. So, you know, what I do on TikTok is really all about brand psychology. And then I, you know, through fashion. So I'm talking about fashion, but really I'm talking about psychology. And so we could talk about, you know, handbags, which I do. and the psychology behind it, and even the personality type behind certain handbags. It's fascinating. The personality type of the person that buys the handbag. Speaker 1 (5:08) Oh my God. Well, I always categorize that into retail anthropology. Oh, yeah. Okay. You can call with Speaker 2 (5:15) that. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 (5:16) Yeah. Yeah. But designing into and determining. So this is, this is interesting. So, you know, we could get into the ins and outs of how you ended up doing this, but I really want to talk about how you decided, okay, I'm throwing myself into this fashion element, but let's talk bags. How did the bags content come to be? And how did you decide? Do you decide strategically on what to talk about? Or do you just say, okay, this is today's topic? Or do you just like roll with whatever topic you're on? I Speaker 2 (5:49) mean, you can probably tell that I'm very come as you are. Speaker 1 (5:52) You know, like Speaker 2 (5:53) whatever paps into my head, I just sort of go with it. I'm here for that. And so, yeah, I started talking about, you know, like brands that sold because I'm a secondhand drifter, you know, well, my name is the Lazy Drifter. And so everything for me is about buying secondhand. And so I started talking about good brands and bad brands and that kind of stuff. And that just naturally brought itself to handbags. Handbags are such a massive statement piece for most women and men too at this point now, which I find really quite fascinating. In my day, because I am old, men didn't wear bags. We wore like, you know, we wore like weekender or briefcases, but not quote unquote purses. And now it's changed. And I love that. Speaker 1 (6:39) Yeah, I mean, I have hardly touched upon the baggization, if you can call it that, of FIFA and all of the big players all carrying around their Hermes bags. And each one was a different one for a different, say, different vibe. Let's not forget the Swedish meatball guy that everyone's obsessed with. No, he's, is he Swedish? Speaker 2 (7:04) You're talking about the like vaguely black guy? Speaker 1 (7:08) The white black guy? Yeah. Well, I mean, I can say that because I'm white Speaker 2 (7:12) black. Yeah. I don't remember the guy's name. The guy whose Speaker 1 (7:15) head looks like he's out of Beetlejuice. That guy. Speaker 2 (7:17) Yes. Yes. Yeah. It's incredible how sports stars on the front line of mailbag culture. Speaker 1 (7:26) That's pretty crazy. Speaker 2 (7:29) Would not have predicted that. Speaker 1 (7:33) Actually, if you want to speak from an evolution perspective. a fashion evolution perspective if you want to go way back I believe, I don't know if it's a chicken or the egg, if the basketball players became the ones to get fancy or if it was Joe Namath from football. But I know Joe Namath was one of the first who came out like decked to the nines, wearing suits and expensive clothes and lots of jewelry. And then people started using him as an unofficial influencer of the time and making sure he was the one that was dressed up. So little by little. to show the means of your success and the fruits of your hundreds of years of athletic labor to now constitute, let's get dressed up when we go out, I think handbags would have eventually come because it's a flex like anything else. Speaker 2 (8:24) Absolutely. It's a status symbol and it totally makes sense, especially given the... Okay, so I say some outrageous things,