Fashion history stories: How purses became handbags

Learning about the history of fashion will give you a whole new perspective on your wardrobe. Today: Handbags.

Chelsea Shopper

Whether you call it a handbag or a purse, the accessory every woman owns began not as a bag at all–at least not for women.

While men, traditionally the keepers of money, carried coin purses, the female version started as a decorated pocket tied around the waist under your dress; you accessed it through the placket hole. Women didn’t carry purses until the early 19th century; as the neoclassical Empire style took hold, slim bags with wrist straps, called reticules, became popular.

(Interestingly, around the same time men’s trousers began to incorporate pockets and so they had less need to carry money purses as separate items, almost the same process in reverse.)

The term “handbag” originally referred to a small travel bag and handbags as we know them didn’t arrive until the 20th century. The first status bag was the Hermes Kelly bag, so named because it was made famous on the arm of Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco in 1956. (I wonder if she carried it when she was wearing Capri pants?)

Now we have handbags in every imaginable shape and size for a variety of season and occasions. As Tim Gunn says: “The smaller the handbag, the more evening it becomes. The bigger it is, the more daytime.”

• Fab mamas: How many bags do you own? What kinds do you have?

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