Every morning, as I travel into the office, I notice that most women carry two bags: One handbag and the other is almost invariably one of those cardboard bags from places such as Harrods or Kookai.

“Well, that’s just stupid,” I thought. “Why don’t they just get one bigger bag and that will leave one of their hands free? What’s the point of having two little bags when one bag will do the job?” (I realise that having one large backpack will leave both hands free but it will also crinkle my shirt.)

And so, I have always scorned the victims of the “Two Bag Phenomenon”.

This morning, I was trying to organise myself to carry an extra pair of shoes to work. You see, I have a lovely new pair of heels, which go nicely with my black skirt but I can’t walk very quickly in the silly things. The plan was to wear comfortable shoes to and from the office and change into the heels when I got there. However, just by looking at it, I knew that the shoes would not fit into my satchel.

Luckily, I had won a L’Oréal giftpack a week ago and it came in a handy dandy flat-bottomed cardboard bag with “L’Oréal Paris” emblazoned on it. I poured out the make-up, hair and skincare products and dumped my heeled shoes into it.

“Don’t worry,” I reasoned to myself, “I’m not really carrying two bags. I’ll get rid of my shoe bag as soon as I get to work. It’s like carrying a gym bag to school when you have Phys Ed. I’m really carrying only one and a half bags.”

My mum handed me my lunch. It was noodles. It had sauce in it. Instead of putting it in my satchel, it only made sense to make use of the flat bottom of my non-bag. (Remember the incident with the water bottle?) But I hesitated. Oh no. Putting my lunch into the non-bag would make it too useful, too functional, too necessary. My shoe non-bag would be verging on second bag status.

Closing my eyes, I quickly placed the lunch container in and rearranged my shoes on top. And then — “To hell with it, I’ve gone this far, I might as well put my jacket in there too.” Now there was no denying it — the bag was completely integrated into my work uniform.

And that is how I fell (fashion) victim to the Two Bag Phenomenon. We’re all doomed.