Evolution of Handbags

The key purpose of handbag is to carry personal belongings. Earlier purses are used to carry coins, made of leather or soft fabrics carry by both man and women’s, earlier clothing doesn’t have pockets until 17^th century. Now days there are different types of bags according to the shapes and utility.

The handbags and its style evolved and adapted by the society, the handbag as a utilitarian item has adapted to their changing circumstances.

Purses, pouches, or bags have been used since humans have needed to carry precious items. While “handbags” as a term did not exist until the mid-nineteenth century, ancient pouches made of leather or cloth were used mainly by men to hold valuables and coins, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs show men wearing purses around the waist, and the Bible specifically identifies Judas Iscariot as a purse carrier. A handbag is also purse or pouch, Sizes medium – to –large and handled with one or two. Often fashionably designed, typically used by women, to hold personal items, such as wallets, keys, cosmetics, hairbrush, mobile phone etc. In the UK however a 'purse' would not refer to a handbag, but that similar to a man's wallet, containing money, cards etc.

American English typically uses the terms "purse" and "handbag" interchangeably. The term "handbag" began appearing in the early 1900. Initially, it was most often used to refer to men's hand luggage. Women's accessory bags grew larger and more complex during that period, and the term was attached to the women's accessory.

From the ancient beaded bags of African prints to the haute couture tote of the Morden lady of leisure, a handbag have been carriers both secrets and signifies of power, status and beauty. As the keeper of the equipment of daily life, handbags have been strongly influenced by technological and social changes, such as the development of money, jewellery, transportation, cosmetics, cell phones and the role of women in society.

Medieval bags: - In the 13th century, western Europeans carried small purses called almoners; alms bags used to give coin to the poor.

                                            Handbags used by the working people, artisans, pilgrims and peasants. During medieval time most common mode of transport was by foot, in that time bag provide a continent way of carrying goods from place to place.  Poor man’s bag was made of recycled leather and heavy fabrics. More sophisticated version of bag used by the royalty and the aristocracy in their pursuit of love.

14^th and 15^th Centuries (Girdle Pouches)

                            In the 14th and 15th centuries, both men and women carry attach pouches to the girdle, is the most important feature of medieval garb: the girdle. Because pockets would not  invented for several years, wearers would also attach other valuables to their girdle, such as a rosary, Book of Hours, pomanders (scented oranges), chatelaines (a clasp or chain to suspend keys, etc.), and even daggers. The drawstring purse would hang from the girdle on a long cord and would vary according to the fashion, status, and lifestyle of the wearer. Women particularly favoured ornate drawstring purses, which were known as “hamondeys” or “tasques”.

 
 Medieval purses were not strictly used for carrying money, but were also associated with marriage and betrothal, often depicting embroidered love stories. Purses, known as “chanceries,” were also used for gaming or for holding food for falcons. Ecclesiastical (belonging to a Christian church) purses were highly significant and were used to hold relics or corporals (line cloth used in mass). The most important bag at this time was the Seal Bag (a special purse or burse to hold the Great Seal of the Realm, the Lord Chancellor's symbol of Office, The purse is solemnly carried before the Lord Chancellor in procession on State occasions), which was made for the Keeper of the Great Seal, later known as the Lord Chancellor.

                                  The origins of the purse are as varied as the bags themselves, but the oldest evidence of purses date back more than 5000 years. Depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphics and referenced in the bible, purses were used to carry seeds, religious items and medicine and were worn by both men and women. Early modern Europeans wore purses made of soft fabric or leather to carry coins, rosaries and valuables. Their drawstring purse would hang from the belt on a long cord and would vary slightly according to the status, and lifestyle of the wearer.

The first mention of bags in literature was in the 14th century; Egyptian hieroglyphics showed pouches carried around the waist. Different jewels adorned these pouches which were used to show the person's status - the higher the wealth, the more elegant the pouch.

16^th and 17^th Centuries:

Pockets and "Swete Bagges"

                                     During the Elizabethan era, women’s skirts expanded to enormous proportions. Consequently, small medieval girdle purses were easily lost in the large amounts of fabric. Rather than wear girdle pouches outside on their belt, women began to wear their pouches under their skirts, and men would wear pockets (called “Bagges”) made of leather inside their breeches (A garment worn by man covering hip and thigh and usually length just below the knee). Peasants and travellers might wear large satchel-like leathers or cloth bags diagonally across the body, as in Peter Brueghel’s painting, “The Elders Two Peasants”. 

                 

               In addition, in a time when personal hygiene was lacking, many aristocrats in the sixteenth century would carry what was called “swete bagges” or bags that were filled with sweet smelling material. Just as pomanders hung from the girdle in the fifteenth century, these Sweet bag were filled with powder from sweet-smelling herbs and spices, such as lavender, or with perfumed balls of cotton. Sweet bags might also be stored with clothes and linens or set among sheets and pillowcases.

                      Like their immediate predecessors, both men and women in the seventeenth century rejected the obvious use of bags and preferred to hang long embroidered drawstring purses under their skirts and breeches. Purses were not only functional but they were also often used as decorative containers for gifts, such as money, perfume, or jewels. Toward the end of the century, purses became increasingly sophisticated, moving from a simple drawstring design to more complex shapes and materials.

18^th Century:

The Revolt against Underwear and Pockets

After the French Revolution, the full skirts of the ancient regime became less popular in favor of a more slender and narrow dress. By the 18th century ladies' side dress pockets became so large and so useful for carrying a multiple items that they were often made separately, and attached singly or in pairs onto a band which tied around the waist. Access to the pockets was provided through slits in the skirts.

Many of these separate pockets have survived in museum collections across Europe, though not all are correctly identified as such! These were effectively bags under the skirt as opposed to visible accessories, and as such are often plain and unremarkable, and look rather like peg bags (which is perhaps what many became). In the 18th century there were flat pochette purses, beautifully embroidered for love letters and bank notes.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the silhouette of female dress was so figure hugging with the Neo Classical Empire and Regency line, pockets in a garment or beneath it were almost impossible, and would certainly have spoilt the hang of the skirt, so ladies carried delicate little drawstring bags or purses called reticules, or 'ridicules'. These could carry a handkerchief, fan and dance card, a scent bottle, some face powder and rouge, but nothing too weighty. They were traditionally of some lightweight fabric such as pale coloured silk satin, prettily embroidered, or knitted silk. There are clear parallels in style and decoration between reticules and the somewhat larger needlework bags which had emerged to carry wools and tatting and embroidery threads. These are the origin of the Dorothy bag. Later there were drawstring shoe bags and dressing bags and the idea has persisted in P.E. bags and laundry bags.

In the Victorian period an extraordinary variety of types of bag appeared, in fabrics which matched or co-ordinated with different outfits, and which suited different fashionable styles of dress, and demonstrated different needlework and knitting skills. In the 1830s and 1840s flat square or circular bags were quite literally canvases for a range of decorative designs in wool work and chenille, beadwork and ribbon work, and ladies' magazines described how to make them.

Small knitted, netted or crocheted silk or cotton coin purses are also characteristic of this period and were known as stocking purses, or 'miser' purses. By mid century these had metal fastenings and the whole was often made of a delicate metal chain, which supported sovereigns and half sovereigns, hence the term 'sovereign purse'. Chamois leather was also used, together with metal rings to secure the coins. Sovereign cases were of circular metal design, with an internal spring to release a coin at a time. It is worth noting that in North America handbags are still called purses, which may refer back to their introduction there from Europe after1800, when they will still primarily coin purses. In the 1870s there was a novelty knitted jug purse, of which Hampshire Museums has an excellent example.

In the 1870s, with the slim figure hugging skirts of the princess line of the 1870s, chatelaine bags were introduced which were suspended from the wrist or the belt respectively. They sometimes had a little pocket inside for a coin or ticket. These were often made of plush, a thick velvet pile fabric. The same material is also seen on the larger holdalls, which women used for travelling. Then there were carpet bags literally made of canvas embroidered with wool, sometimes known as tapestry, which were immortalised in the story and film of the Edwardian Mary Poppins. Leather portmanteaux, with a flat bottom and expanding sides, on a metal frame with a metal catch, are often called Gladstone bags, named after Queen Victoria's Prime Minister William Gladstone. Portmanteaux means literally 'carry mantle', and certainly they could be draped with the silk capes popular in the 1840s and the large shawls worn by Victorian women in the crinoline period. A travelling parasol could be popped inside or an umbrella placed lengthwise across the top between the handles. Muffs might also have an integral purse or small handbag incorporated from the 1880s to the 1910s.

19^th Century:

The Rise of the Handbag

           

The term of "handbag" first came into use in the early periods of 1900's and they were generally referred to as hand-held luggage bags most usually carried by men. These became an inspiration for new bags that became popularized for women, including handbags with complicated internal compartments, fasteners, and locks.

The purse as an essential feminine accessory came into prominence in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century when the line of dresses narrowed and the waistlines rose. Prior to that time, women had worn pockets under their skirts. These were large flat bags with long vertical slits, which were tied around the waist and sat atop the petticoat. They were reached through a slit in the skirt. The width of the skirts allowed room for any number of bulky items to be kept in the pockets. As the skirts narrowed, however, bulging pockets ruined the elegant line and became unfashionable. The reticule developed as a result: a bag carried outside the dress.

Reticules soon became an essential accessory, and in as many varieties as a modern handbag. Many were as large and bulky as pockets had once been, but these were generally considered unwieldy and awkward for evening wear. The tiny, flat coin purses — called sovereign purses in England — often kept inside the larger reticule or hung from a chatelaine were sometimes pretty enough to double as an evening bag. These are the purses represented in this collection. 

A carpet bag is a travelling bag made of carpet, commonly from an oriental rug, ranging in size from a small purse to a large duffel bag. Such bags were popular in the United States and Europe during the 19th century. They are still made to this day, typically as women’s decorative small luggage and purses, although typically no longer out of old carpets. The carpet bags of the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War were given their name from this type of luggage which they carried.

1900-1920s:

The Swinging Pochette and Egyptomania

           Women could choose from small reticules, Dorothy bags (now called dotty or marriage bags) with matching robes, muffs, and fitted leather bags with attached telescopic opera glasses and folding fans. Working women often used larger handbags, such as the Boulevard bag, leather shopping bags, and even briefcases which could be worn around the shoulder. Handbags also included folders for the newly invented pound note which replaced the gold sovereign in 1914.

                                    After WWI, more activities and travel opportunities became available for women, the long constricting layers and rigid corseting disappeared. Perhaps the most important development during this period was the “pochette,” a type of handle-fewer clutches, often decorated with dazzling geometric and jazz motifs, which women would tuck under their arms to give them an air of nonchalant youth. Rules for color coordination grew lax and novelty bags, such as doll bags, which were dressed exactly like the wearer, became popular. The discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1923 inspired Egyptomania and purses began to reflect exotic motifs.

1930s:

In the 1930's was more conservative than that of the optimistic 1920's. Another contrast in fashion, more feminine look for ladies, Women's curves were no longer being de-emphasized, skirts became longer, and clothes returned to being near the natural waistlines. The 1930 was also the decade of the introduction of bra cup sizing. 

 New synthetic materials became increasingly used for the manufacture of fabrics. Rayon, wool, silk, and cotton were common materials for women's fashion in the 1930s. But, by the end of the decade, nylon would be introduced as a replacement for silk. Dresses were bias-cut to emphasize feminine curves. By the 1930s, most of the bags used today had been invented, including the classic handbag which had a handles and a clasp frame, the clutch (a variation of the pochette), the satchel, and the shoulder bag. Handbags of the early thirties looked like those of the twenties. Beaded bags were abundant, as well as enamelled mesh bags. During the later part of the decade, leather became very popular. The 1930 bag reflected the Art Deco style which highlighted abstraction and celebrated new industrial materials, such as plastic and zippers.

1940s:

WWII and the Rise of Shoulder Bags

                                                    The war saw the smooth contours of the 1940s fashion change to a more military look. Bags became larger, squarer, and more practical, reflecting a desire to appear self-sufficient. As zippers, mirrors, and leather became scarce, designers turned to wood or plastic for frames and employed new synthetics such as rayon. The drawstring bag reappeared and was often homemade. Bags in Great Britain were made both to carry gas masks and to match an outfit. In France and America, as more women entered the workforce, they turned to shoulder bags.

In addition to the changing materials, handbags were also changing shape. Bags became more rectangular and sharp in appearance. This look served as a reflection of the new level of independence experienced by women as they entered the workforce during the war.

                                              In 1843, there were nearly 2000 miles of railway lines in Great Britain. As more people travelled by train and more women became more mobile, professional luggage makers turned the skills of horse travel into those for train travel, and soon the term “handbag” emerged to describe these new hand-held luggage bags. Indeed, many of the top names of today's handbags got their start as luggage makers. For example, Hermes bags were founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermes, a harness and saddle maker, while Loius Vuitton was a luggage packer for the Parisian rich. Modern handbags still allude to luggage with their pockets, fastenings, frames, locks, and keys.

Manufacturers and retailers introduced coordinating ensembles of hat, gloves and shoes, or gloves and scarf or hat and bag, often in striking colours. For spring 1936, Chicago's Marshall Field's department store offered a black hat by Lilly Daché trimmed with an antelope leather bow in "Pernod green, apple blossom pink, mimosa yellow or carnation blush" and suggested a handbag to match the bow.

Due to the shortage of foreign supplies during the Fascist dictatorship in Italy, Gucci began experimenting with typical luxury materials like hemp, linen and jute. One of its artisans’ most subtle innovations was burnishing cane to create the handle of the new Bamboo Bag, whose curvy side was inspired by a saddle’s shape. An ingenious example of “necessity as the mother of invention”, the bamboo became the first of Gucci's many iconic products. A favourite of royalty and celebrities alike, the bag with burnished handle remains a huge favourite today.

Gucci Bamboo - - hands down, it is the iconic bag from the sexy Italian label. With the official opening of the Gucci store at Marina Bay Sands, the Bamboo Retrospective Exhibition held from 30 October 2010 till 4 November 2010 at MBS, then 12 till 21 November at the Paragon store.  The traveling exhibition traces the 64 years of the Gucci Bamboo and its rich heritage featuring “vintage products from  Gucci‘s own archives, together with archive photography of personalities, including Ingrid Bergman and Vanessa Redgrave, carrying the Bamboo throughout the years”. Today, the Gucci Bamboo has been reinterpreted by Creative Director Frida Giannini into the “New Bamboo”.

1950s:

Handbags Reach Cult Status

The post war economic boom of the 1950, give handbags into cult status. Major designers such as Vuitton, Hermes, and Channel enjoyed a culture where accessorizing and color coordinating were held to an almost moral standard. In addition, Christian Dior’s new style, introduced in 1947, emphasized long skirts and tiny waists. As the antithesis of the military style, this new looks signalled a new decade of femininity where a very small bag implied beauty and sophistication. The tiny handbag, like Cinderella’s tiny shoe, represented femininity and submission. Indeed, a woman holding a smaller handbag sends a different sexual message than a woman carrying a huge shoulder bag. Bags in the 1950s were the handbags and usually held by the hand or over the arm in the fashion followed by Grace Kelly who used her Hermes bag to hide her pregnancy.  Many handbags had side pockets, or even grip clasps or rings for a woman to keep track of her gloves. Larger bags to hold belongings were also popular between women who travelled using public transport in towns.  They could keep all their essentials with them as very few women realistically had regular car access in those days in UK. 

Ladies in the fifties used a variety of decorated baskets and boxes in all sorts of unusual materials for informal occasions.  Plastic, raffia, carpet brocade, straw, wood, Bakelite and Perspex were all used and then decorated with beads, faux jewels, shells, sequins and plastic fruit.  The most famous box bags of the fifties are the Bakelite and Lucite bags.  These clear or slightly tinted bags had matching square or curved handles.  Some had carvings on the handle or around the edges of the bag.  They may have had metal strips, glitter.  These elegant bags sometimes even had leaves or butterflies embedded in them. 

The Hermes Kelly bag, inspired by the equestrian world, was modelled on a traditional saddlebag.  It gained its name from Grace Kelly, who in 1956 was spotted holding a large one to conceal her pregnant stomach.  These popular bags were made of calfskin mostly but were also available in ostrich, lizard and crocodile.

In Anna Johnson’s Handbags, The Power of the Purse, Johnson points out that a 1956 Hermès Alligator Bag took 2 alligators to make a Kelly, with the exotic skin culled from the reptiles’ jowls and the belly. Johnson details the finer points of the making of a Kelly bag; the fact that it takes a single craftsman around 18 hours to produce one of these beauties.

Once the hand-cut skins (selected by personal customer order) have arrived, they are laid out; resembling a mini-dress and the lining or the bag is hand-sewn in. The base of the bag is then created, using waxed linen thread and a tough double-saddle stitch, where perforations are painstakingly made into the leather. The following step is the creation of the handle and then the front flap is stitched and added to the body of the bag. The clasp and the four feet at the base of the Kelly are then fitted and the famous padlock added.

The inside of a Kelly bag is as beautifully and as painstakingly made as the outside, an honoured tenet of Hermès, according to Pendersen. The bags seams are smoothed, dyed and waxed.

Interestingly, the penultimate finishing touch involves the Kelly being ironed, to get the wrinkles out the skin. The very last touch is to christen the bag with the famous Hermès Paris logo, and another Kelly bag is born.

In 1955 a little quilted bag from Chanel made its way into shops.  In an era when clutch and short handled bags were trendy, its braided shoulder strap was unusual.

                                        

1960s-1970s:

The Rise of the Youth Culture

                                                               During the 1960s, rules of “appropriate” dress relaxed in response to the women’s’ movement and the rise of the youth culture. As the rules of correct dressing began to breakdown, the narrow long clutch was one of the earliest types of handbags to make the transition into the age of informality and youth fashion because it had always been thought suitable for a youthful look. The small and dainty shoulder bag with long chains or thin straps also began to dominate because it kept with informal child-like qualities of the miniskirt. Such handbags highlighted the 1960 “swinging” fashion that was in stark contrast to the posed 1950s models.

                                                          Influenced by young travels to India in the late 1960s, larger satchels and fabric shoulder bags began to be popular. As opposed to machine-made goods, Afghan coats and bags, patchwork and embroidery, and former army shoulder bags also became popular. In less than a decade, individual expression became popular and psychedelic patterns and later “flower power” introduced a romantic and ethnic look to fashion. By the end of the 1970s, slung shoulder bags returned with lots of buckles and zippers, suggesting that women were equipped for anything in the new age of feminism .

1980s-1990s:

Conspicuous Consumption and the Unisex Bag

                                                    The 1980s' handbags became associated with conspicuous consumption--and for the first time, a concern with health and fitness sports bags and shoes were an additional group of accessories that influenced high fashion. In addition, as technology introduced the calculator and filofax, work bags were designed for order and control.  

Twenty-First Centuries:

Anything Goes...Even a "Man Purse"

                                                                   
Handbags are currently made in a bewildering array of styles and materials, such as waterproof canvas, space age synthetics, and faux reptile skins. Designers continue to play with the paradoxes inherent in the handbag with transparent materials that both expose and conceal the contents of the bag. And handbags, which for so long had been associated with the feminine are now becoming more popular with men. Both the modern man and woman can strap on or sling over a hands-free bag and go. Its variety and adaptability highlight the handbag’s extraordinary potency and staying power.