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What Do You Keep in Your Purple Crown Royal Bag?
The iconic whiskey carrier has long been a staple in homes of Black folks everywhere
Crown Royal is beloved by drinkers for what’s in the bottle, as well as its packaging—a soft, velvet bag that has become iconic for the countless ways Black folks choose to repurpose it.
If you’ve ever seen one of these purple bags with gold drawstrings and embroidery, there’s a high chance that it's contained any of the following: loose change, a business card from a local restaurant, sunglasses, a flash drive from 2008, a few nugs of bud, keys, incense sticks, a half-eaten pack of Starburst. Oh, or maybe even a bottle of Crown Royal.
The possibilities are infinite, and they go beyond receptacle purposes—folks have been converting these into quilts, robes, and dusters. Hell, I’m about to order this face mask made from a Crown Royal bag off Etsy, even if its to-be-determined breathability damn near suffocates me.
In “Crown Royal on Ice: All the Ways to Love the Purple Bag,” writer afrobella celebrates everyone’s favorite fancy sack:
I have vivid memories of my first Crown bag repurposing… I was gifted a pink Barbie Cadillac when I was six or seven. My bedroom’s carpet was brown, my parents’ carpet was navy blue, and they always had their air conditioner on. So I would load up that purple velvet bag with Barbie’s stuff, tie the gold cord, and have her drive her pink Caddy from “the desert” to “Alaska,” where she would set up shop and unload her Crown Royal suitcase.
Read her essay in full over at ZORA:
