Ligie the Mermaid velvet bag

A stunning, high-quality velvet bag by Voglio Bene, featuring the elegant Ligie the Mermaid print. The same design appears on both sides. Finished with a zip closure and lined interior.

• Voglio Bene, made in France
• Size: 22 × 30 cm
• Weight: 83 g
• Gold-coloured shoulder strap rings
• Note: shoulder strap not included

This art-illustrated velvet bag is both striking and practical. The luxurious velvet fabric, refined craftsmanship, and exquisite artwork make it a distinctive and elegant accessory.

Symbolism

The legacy of Venus: The pose of the depicted mermaid is based on the ancient Venus pudica iconography, in which one hand covers the breast and the other the lower body. This gesture has been known since the Hellenistic period and was transmitted to the Renaissance particularly through sculptures and paintings of Venus. It does not signify shame in the modern sense, but rather a controlled withdrawal into oneself. The gesture refers to the power of beauty, vitality, and fertility that is not openly given but protected and held inwardly. Venus’s mythological allure is a life-generating, world-moving force that manifests as natural attraction and balance. This idea remains present in the figure, even though the classical goddess has been transformed into another form.

The mermaid is an ancient mythological figure, known already in classical sources and medieval bestiaries. Unlike later fairy-tale interpretations, early mermaid symbolism is ambivalent. It combines seduction, danger, and transgression. The mermaid exists between two worlds: the depths of the sea and a liminal zone that touches human reality. Symbolically, it represents the unconscious, instinctive wisdom, and an attraction that can draw one into profound depths but may also lead astray if approached without awareness.

Combined meaning: In ancient mythology, Venus’s allure is a life-giving force that sets order in motion, whereas the mermaid’s attraction belongs to a threshold realm, where the call leads toward unconscious depths and may also result in disorientation. The union of Venus and the mermaid brings together the archetype of love and desire with a deep, non-verbal layer of the psyche. Beauty here is not merely harmonious or oriented toward light, but also deep, enigmatic, and oceanic. The figure carries both attraction and warning, reminding us that true allure arises from a connection to one’s own depths and the capacity to remain conscious within them.

Symbolism is always multilayered by nature and opens up to a variety of interpretations, each enriching one’s understanding of its many dimensions.