The Handbag in History

It hasn't always been so. A quick look at the history of the handbag reveals its very lowly roots. Depictions of handbags 2000 years ago show simple pouches fashioned from crude leather, usually carried by men. The first evidence of a handbag with any role as a fashion accessory came in medieval times, when wealthy women would embellish the simple bag they wore on their belts to carry their necessities, with lavish embroidery and even jewels, to reflect their status.

Little was seen of any sort of fashion bag for the next few centuries. Women wore voluminous layers of clothing and though fashions changed there was always plenty of room between skirts and petticoats to conceal ample pockets, which would have room for all the things you needed to keep handy and had the advantage of being attached securely to you.

Women's pockets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were usually separate from their dresses, made up of large fabric pockets suspended from a belt that tied underneath your skirts. A slit in your skirts and petticoats allowed easy access to your pockets, so that whenever you needed your scissors or smelling salts they were right to hand. The contents of a woman's pockets then were quite similar in use to the contents of her handbag today. The V&A Museum in London documents an assortment of practical sewing tools, handkerchief, notebook, money and beauty aids, scent bottle, keys and even an apple or orange as the contents of one lady's pockets. Just like the contents of today's handbag, a woman's pockets were a private, almost mysterious domain, swathed in secrecy under her skirts.

It was at the turn of the nineteenth century that the reticule, the forerunner of the modern handbag came into fashion. The wide skirts and hoops of the eighteenth century had given way to slim-line, even skimpy, high-waisted, figure-hugging dresses of filmy muslin. No fashionable lady wanted to ruin the outline of her shapely figure by suspending pockets full of bulky items underneath her petticoats. So the first fashion bag was born.

The reticule was a small decorative bag, with a similar function to today's evening bags. It held a few essentials, maybe a scent-bottle, or a needle and thread to sew up a torn ruffle, some smelling salts to revive a fainting beauty. It was a given thing that you would be accompanied by a gentleman or a servant to carry anything that was too big for your delicate bag. A lady would have several reticules to go with different outfits and fashion magazines advised on the latest styles and ways they should be carried. 

Pockets continued to be worn through the nineteenth century though, especially once wider skirts returned to fashion and for a period chatelaines were worn, decorative purses that hung from the belt and could be elaborate or simply functional.

The term 'handbag' first came in to use at the beginning of the twentieth century and was used for leather bags then carried by men. It was the 1920's that saw the first emergence of the modern handbag carried by women. This was another period with a fashion for light, skimpier dresses that weren't suited to pockets. It was also a period of growing independence for women, when women could go out on their own and travel without a man or a servant to carry things for them. The handbag was at once a fashion accessory chosen to match an outfit and a practical symbol of their new independence, women could now go forth into the world carrying all they needed themselves, self-reliant and fearless.

Handbags rose in importance as fashion accessories, until in the 1950's designers were giving names to the fore-runners of today's It bags, some of which are still sought after classics today, such as the Hermes Kelly bag, named after Grace Kelly whose favourite bag it was, and the Chanel 2.55 quilted shoulder bag, first produced in February 1955.

Handbag fashion went through a short slump in the early 1960's when the hip new youth culture rejected handbags as too formal for the new swinging style. Ever versatile, designers soon came up with funky new designs, using modern materials and bright colors and the handbag's new casual interpretation evolved with the times, regaining its special place close to the heart of every woman, young and old.

Today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, there is a handbag for every role a woman could wish to play, every image she ever dreamed of projecting. Our handbags can be our portable offices, complete with laptop, phone and papers; they can carry the beauty secrets that transform us from jet-setting professional to glamorous seductress; they are the trustworthy guardians of our identities, our pills and potions, even emergency rations. They can equip us for a weekend of activity with friends or bulge with the essentials of a young family.

Or like the regency beauty with her reticule, we can float out for an evening's entertainment carrying the lightest and prettiest of evening bags, unburdened and carefree, with our minds on nothing but the pleasure of dancing the night away.