Two Bags
Ivy Winfrey
This past NBA season, you might have noticed a purse that I’ve been carrying. One half is green. The other half is blue. It is two bags in one.
This isn’t just a fun accessory I’ve stumbled upon, but it is the expression of everything I’m learning in this new chapter of life. It is what I’m hoping to share with other women who are balancing and juggling two bags just like me.
For a long time, I’ve felt the weight of being known for just one thing. My work with the Dallas Mavericks has been a blessing, but over time, I started to sense that people only saw that version of me — and expected me to stay there. But I’ve never fit neatly into a single box. There’s more I carry. More I care about.
I’m passionate about fashion. I’m committed to encouraging ownership, especially for women. And I’ve grown into someone who values personal expression just as much as performance. Stepping into that truth hasn’t always been easy, but it’s necessary. Because who I am isn’t changing — it’s expanding.
My green and blue bag is more than a purse, it’s a lifestyle and a movement. I’ve been processing this sense of duality for quite some time now and I’m realizing the layers that I have in my own life.
I’m a mother. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a daughter. I’m a friend.
Nobody does one thing and nobody is one thing. We all juggle and balance the various aspects of our identity in a daily expression of self.
I came to appreciate my many layers because I am in a season of deep reflection. I recently didn’t get a job I was hoping for, which left me disappointed. And I am living at my mother’s house, which has been humbling, but healing.
My mother, who was an immigrant from Kenya, truly did her best for me. I always knew I was loved. Sometimes it was just a matter of resources that my mother couldn’t provide for me and I had to grow up fast.
When my daughter, Kyani, was born, my life changed forever. It gave me motivation to break generational cycles and give her a better life than the one I had.
Two Bags is my battle cry that when I leave the house, it is my responsibility to get two bags. I have two mouths to feed. I have two people to put a roof over our heads.
Mother’s Day often flattens motherhood into a Hallmark moment. Motherhood is simplified into flowers and brunch and then we go back to our complicated, messy lives.
But Two Bags honors the full, nuanced spectrum of modern motherhood. My company acknowledges the beauty and burden of carrying everyone else while trying not to drop yourself. It embraces the ambition that doesn’t end when you become a mom. It holds space for the quiet reinventions that happen between pick-up lines, prayer closets and boardrooms.
For me, fashion has never just been about clothes. It’s been a timeline of my healing, rebellion, survival and reinvention. I’ve gone through every phase imaginable: bold hair colors, big chops, braids down to my hips. There was a season when I had 19 piercings in my face — yes, 19. That started as a way to release pain after a breakup, but it turned into a love affair with jewelry, identity and expression. Every switch-up was my way of saying, “I’m still here. I’m still me.”
When I lost a significant amount of weight, an entirely new wardrobe was expensive, so I started reworking old sports apparel — cutting, sewing, flipping pieces into something custom that actually fit. That’s when I discovered a deeper love for bespoke fashion and a realization: There are so few stylish options for women like me in the sports world.
I didn’t just want to wear clothes. I wanted to claim space in them.
And then life happened again. My body changed. I gained weight, lost it and gained it back. But instead of spiraling, I embraced the process of it all and built a new relationship with myself. Fashion became a way to honor my body in every season, even when the mirror and my mind didn’t match.
Now, I wear all white. Not because I want to be seen, but because I want to stay grounded. White is my armor. It’s my boundary. It’s a declaration that I’m in my clarity era — disciplined, intentional, at peace. And I’ll protect that peace with everything I’ve got.
Two Bags by Ivy Winfrey is me taking ownership of my passion and my story. It’s my platform to offer other women space at the intersection of art meets life meets fashion.
In fashion, your handbag is your statement piece.
Two Bags invites you to ask yourself: What is your statement?
My statement is that I am enough. I am capable. I am creative and I am valued. Not just because of my gifts and talents, but because I am a woman fearfully and wonderfully made to live in this purpose that is just for me.
We’re all carrying something.
I ask you: What’s in your bag? What are you carrying?
I am carrying the legacy of my family. The burden of breaking generational cycles. The need to provide for myself and my daughter. The vision of a brand and movement to express myself and inspire other women to live as their true selves.
Continuing the metaphor, the bags we carry as women can get heavy. We toss our wallets, keys, sunglasses, phones, and lipstick into our purses. But then also a children’s board book, a bottle of medication, a notepad and pen to brainstorm ideas, a crumpled napkin with hearts drawn on it for a love interest that didn’t pan out.
My brand invites each of us to unpack our bags and analyze what we want to keep and what we want to leave behind. Then may we repack what we find most essential.
The idea that Two Bags is a call for us to live in love, power and soundness of mind makes the brand a marker of emotionally intelligent luxury.
So often, it’s considered ignorant or greedy to spend money on luxury goods. But I want to change that narrative. It’s not bad to purchase something nice for ourselves, especially when that purchase reflects our growth, our healing or just our desire to feel good in our skin.
I’ve always been fine spending on experiences for massages, trips, memories. But when it came to buying something for myself that I could see, wear or carry? I hesitated. Maybe it’s how I grew up. In my culture, treating yourself to “things” was seen as taboo — almost gluttonous. Pricey purchases weren’t about self-expression, they were seen as wasteful or extra.
That’s exactly why I created Two Bags.
I wanted to design something that merged the emotional power of experience with the timeless beauty of a physical object. When I finally invested in the first Two Bags prototype, it changed something in me. It wasn’t just a purse. It was proof that I could honor the woman I’ve become. It gave me permission to take up space, walk taller and feel seen… by myself.
I want other women to value themselves and feel this same strength. Two Bags is here to remind us of that inherent worth. There are affirmations throughout the lining of each handbag and on the packaging. I want each customer to have an unboxing experience more than what you see on YouTube, but a ritual of speaking truths to self.
The Two Bags movement will include a podcast, workshops and opportunities to build community. This is an invitation to connect with your whole self and your legacy while connecting with others. May we each be reminded we are not alone.
The burden is a little lighter when we carry it together.
