From the humblest pouch to Birkin bags to Louis Vuitton luggage, a new exhibition in London will explore the function, design and craftsmanship of the accessory that carries our stuff, but can mean so much more.

A Bao Bao Issey Miyake Lucent Metallic tote bag during a press preview for the forthcoming exhibition Bags: Inside Out at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum in London, the UK on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Bags: Inside Out at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London features 300 bags, including former British prime minister Winston Churchill's despatch box, and the Fendi "Baguette" carried by actress Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City.

Delayed eight months by the coronavirus pandemic, the show will open on Saturday, with all the original exhibits.

"The whole world has been affected by this pandemic and the lenders have been really amazing about giving us permission to continue displaying their [objects]," said curator Lucia Savi.

The exhibition will show the function, symbolic meaning, design and manufacture of bags through the centuries, Savi said.

Iconic items such as the first ever Hermes "Birkin" bag, and Mulberry handbags from the private collections of models Alexa Chung and Kate Moss are on display.

Savi said she hoped the exhibition would show visitors how bags have become a "symbolic expansion of ourselves" and something that people have used "throughout history and across the world."