If the public had to associate one fashionable item with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it would likely be her jabot—the neckpiece (most often made of lace) that became an almighty accessory of hers, akin to Poseidon and his trident. But what about her bags? thought director Jennifer Callahan, whose short film Making the Case debuted last week at the DOC NYC film festival.
In a 2009 interview with the Washington Post, RBG uncovered the origin story of the jabot. To put it simply, the swath of fabric created sartorial equity between her and her fellow male justices. The other sex, she explains, had the advantage of scooping their tie out from underneath their judge’s gown, “So Sandra Day O’Connor and I,” said Justice Ginsburg, “thought it would be appropriate if we included as part of our robe something typical of a woman. So I have many, many collars.” Is there an intentionality and a deeper meaning behind all of the late, great justice’s accessories? That’s what Making the Case tries to find out in its brief 10 minutes.
Callahan’s preoccupation with purses came after a week of receiving unsolicited comments about her handbags from friends and strangers. “I started thinking about the role of bags in my life and in the lives of other women. In talking about bags with friends and family, so many stories emerged—eloquent and riveting stories,” she says. “Looking around further, in observing women with power, it looked like, in the United States at least, most women in powerful positions, when seen in public, do not carry a bag.” Justice Ginsburg, however, consistently did. So, because the two had once met through a mutual acquaintance, Callahan asked RBG to participate in a short film all about her bags.
“I told her I thought bags were meaningful in the lives of women…and that it looked like they were meaningful in her life too,” she says. “When RBG agreed to sit down for [the film], I felt she was acknowledging the fact that even the most distinguished of women need a bag to organize a day.”
The film opens on RBG, her tiny but mighty frame bundled up against the bitter New York winter. She’s ascending the steps of the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse downtown. She’s wearing shades that, together, would blend into a periwinkle. Her signature mesh gloves are mauve and the pashmina swagged around her shoulders is a powder blue. Hanging from the inside of her elbow is a satchel the color of putty. There’s an attendant by her side who is carrying a tote bag. As viewers later find out, it’s filled with more bags, which RBG has neatly wrapped one by one in protective plastic sheaths.
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Now seated in her office, she begins: “My name is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I am an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is an overwhelming job; it is the best and the hardest job I have ever had. It’s an extraordinary privilege to be one of the nine judges who sit on the highest court in the United States.” And then she gets to talking fashion.
The first bag she presents is the one she wore to work that day, a daily bag she has carried for the last several years. “It’s got a zillion pockets,” she says, rotating the accessory back and forth and opening up various compartments for the viewer’s comprehension. It appears to be ruched nylon with leather straps; it looks, improbably, like early Prada. Within the bag, she notes where she keeps what—there is a place for everything, and everything is in its place. It would seem RBG prized order in all aspects so her life.
She goes on to elegantly unearth some of the objects kept inside, handling them with a care that could only be matched by Marie Kondo. “What I carry with me almost everywhere I go in the world is the Constitution of the United States,” Justice Ginsburg says. The document is printed into a pocket-size booklet, and hers features tabs on several pages. “For one thing, if I get a question, I can quote the exact passage.”
She moves then to several other handbags. It feels like story time, but in lieu of a book there are bags with their own tales to be told. Her favorite evening bag is a jet-black and silver beaded purse made for her by the sister of a dear friend who lives in China. “It’s beads,” she reiterates, delighted by the whimsy of the subtly sparkly number.
The next one she believes is an antique, a bag of red brocade and gold jacquard swatches that she picked up in the gift shop of the old Metropolitan Opera House on 39th Street. “The different patches are from costumes from different productions at the Met.” (A theatrical thread runs through her wardrobe, it seems—one of her jabots was created after a version worn by a performer in Verdi’s Stiffelio.)
The following bags she showcases are a combination of gifts and purses collected on her travels. RBG speaks fondly of how each came into her life without ever mentioning a brand. For RBG, it’s about an item’s provenance, the backstory, and the feelings they evoke. She recalls the noises made by her mother’s kiss-lock bags: “Click,” she says for the camera just before the credits roll.
Yet other details emerge, too, among all the purse-talk. “Judicial robes, academic robes,” Justice Ginsburg says, “are designed with men in mind. They have slits on the slides so the man can reach through the slit to his pants pocket. My robe doesn’t have slits…I asked to have deep pockets sewn into the robe. I think that both Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan, who have had robes made for them, also have robes with pockets.” RBG’s legacy is a robust one, but let’s add trendsetter to it, shall we?
To watch the film is to witness her grace and staunch dedication to her appointment, and also to be reminded that she was just like many of the women she fought for; someone who enjoyed a bit of glitz in an evening bag. Callahan tells me that RBG did not rehearse her responses, and “seemed perfectly at ease and happy to talk about the selection of bags she brought with her.” Filmed in the winter of 2016, Making the Case now assumes a more poignant place in all the representations of RBG. “It feels even more precious,” says Callahan. “I’m reminded again how it's the privilege of a lifetime to have had this opportunity.”