Books, Hot Sauce, and Tangled Headphones: Inside Dua Lipa’s “Chaotic” Birkin Bag

Hey Vogue, I'm Dua Lipa and this is What's In My Bag.

Good to go?

Okay. [cool music]

Car keys, very important.

Especially when I'm home, I love to drive everywhere.

My diary, which the outside is all really cute,

but the inside is just like a notebook

that's, like, falling apart,

and lots of Polaroids from tour.

My choreographer's assistant.

This is me and my band as we were doing Tiny Desk.

I feel like I'm on tour all the time, but I love it.

I have so much fun performing,

and I feel like a lot of the stuff that's in my bag

I just collect throughout my travels.

Like I...

Oh, it's like a little good luck duck.

Iron on patches, Donn's Depot in Austin.

Stickers from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Matches.

Hot sauce, very important.

Always carry hot sauce with me

'cause I feel like it makes every meal better.

I have books.

I carry like two in my handbag,

and then I have more in the suitcase, especially if I'm gone

for a long period of time.

This one is Hernan Diaz In the Distance.

This was in actually a gift from Hernan,

he came to see my show,

and then I guess this just came out in hard back

so he gave me this one,

which I'm really looking forward to reading.

Selva Almada, Not a river.

This has been in my reading pile for a little while,

and I'm really looking forward to getting into this.

It's a Latin American author,

an Argentinian author, actually.

This publisher, Charco Press,

they translate a lot of Latin American authors,

contemporary Latin American authors.

And so I'm always really interested in what they've got

and this is one that I'm looking forward to reading.

I get a lot of recommendations.

My friends send me books.

I do the book club, one, because I just love reading books.

Like, I wanted to share the experience with lots of people.

I started my company called Service95,

which I've thought of as like an online cultural concierge

where we have lots of different stories

from around the world,

and there's no kind of method to the book club.

It's just books that I've read that I love

that I choose for the month.

And we just see if the authors wanna join us

for a conversation.

What else?

I've got my laptop, which has some stickers on it.

My Spanish book.

When I'm away, I like to learn languages.

I have a teacher who I speak to on Zoom.

And so my laptop and my GCSE Higher Spanish is with me.

Notebooks for French and Spanish.

I think I'm gonna stick to French and Spanish,

and try and get good at those first.

And then if I can do it, then maybe Italian as well.

But I speak Albanian fluently.

Hey Vogue [speaks in Albanian], Dua Lipa,

[speaks in Albanian].

Okay, some life essentials for when I'm traveling,

which are really important.

My eye mask, bandaids, throat pastilles.

Oh, electrolytes.

I love these ones, I take them every day.

Oh, these $2, actually these are, like, good luck.

There's a guy called $2 Steve that comes to every good show

and he's like, in the backstage,

and he just gives out these $2,

and actually I'm supposed to pass it on,

so you should have one.

There you go.

Under eye patches, Augustinus Barder.

I can't live without them.

This is super important, especially with all my travels.

When I'm on a plane, I pop these on and I'm like,

Okay, maybe I'll wake up

looking a little bit more refreshed.

I've got Manuka honey drops,

just throat stuff that'll make me feel good on a flight.

My face cream.

Headphones, multiple headphones.

I have so many headphones because I probably...

I pick one pair up and I put them in my bag,

and then I take another pair and I put them in my bag,

and then...

It's quite handy actually.

'Cause when I need to make phone calls,

they're quite tangled.

But if one's tangled then I have another pair

that's less tangled.

It's handy to me.

I like wired headphones 'cause I don't have to charge them.

It's just one less thing to charge.

I feel like there's just cables everywhere

and there's cables everywhere but in a different way.

My wallet.

Nothing to say about that.

Sunglasses, sunglasses.

I think this is probably like the headphones situation.

It's like, I take one pair off and then leave the house,

and then put another pair on and I forget.

So I accumulate.

This is actually probably the least amount of sunglasses

I've had at one time in my bag.

But they're different.

Different for different outfits.

And also if my mood changes throughout the day

and I go, Actually I wanna, like, spice it up

with a different sunny, I've got that.

My passport.

Always with me 'cause you never know.

Oh, a favorite place I've been recently, Austin, Texas.

I went for the first time in 2016.

I did South by Southwest and I hadn't been back since then.

And so it was just...

It's amazing.

I love how vibrant the city is, it feels so alive.

The people are really nice, the food's really good.

I love going dancing at the honky tonks.

All of it, really, really fun.

This is Minnie, she has a name.

I use this for everything.

It's a little janky but it's great.

It takes really good pictures.

This is like the perfect party companion.

Oh yeah, this important SD card, straight to my phone

so I can get the pictures immediately.

'Cause although I've got patience

written on my hand, not that patient.

I like things done really fast.

Yuzu Matcha.

I like to have a lot of, like, condiments, electrolytes,

sweets, matcha that I got in Japan, that I love.

You never know when you're gonna need

a little boost of energy.

It's getting quite busy here.

Furikake.

This is herbs and nori, and stuff that, again...

Like, if there's only, like, rice,

you can make it really fun.

These chili flakes, also very important.

Tarot cards.

I love to pull out a card every day.

Sometimes if I feel like I wanna make a decision,

I'll pull one out and see what it tells me.

Yeah, I'll pull one out now.

See.

Watch it be something insanely terrible. [laughs]

I'm not sure what kind of energy I just put into it.

It says The Flute.

Connection to spirit, understanding and education,

ritual and celebration, life is magical.

[Dua Lipa clicks tongue]

We'll leave it at that, let's not do more.

Okay, I'll put those there.

Compression socks.

Flying, they're always...

There's always something at the bottom of my bag.

It's good to have.

What else do I have in there?

Trail Mix.

Just a lot of snacks, it seems.

Glass protector.

It's for the phone but it's also got, like,

a privacy screen on it as well.

So it's, like, make sure that I'm not gonna smash my phone,

but also just feel safe.

My phone, I'll move that there.

My LoveShine, I love this.

I actually needed some of that.

God, there's so much random stuff like pens, hairbands.

More vocal jellies for my throat.

Singing straws.

But I can't tell you as I've never used them, [laughs]

but they're in my bag in case I need them.

But you're basically supposed to, like,

blow into it, and try and hit...

This is how you, like, warm up your vocals.

I much prefer going upscales and warming up like that,

but these are supposed to be quite good.

So if anyone wants to try them, you're welcome.

And these are my charms that I've collected.

These I've collected in temples in Japan and in India.

And this was a gift from my friend Ray on my birthday.

What does my bag say about my life?

Very deep, chaotic.

It's fun and there's a lot of flavor.

I know that no matter what, I'm covered.

[cool chill music]

Thanks for watching, that was what was in my bag.

[cool chill music]