HANDBAG VANITIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 42, 12 May 1927, Page 5

HANDBAG VANITIES

* BY JOAN ROSSITER Like a seasonable wind, the sales have cleared last season’s handbag* from the shops. Judging by the hundreds of new designs with which the shop windows are now blossoming, one’s handbag is to be the most important part of one’s attire this season. The handbag must harmonise with one’s toilette. It may match the lizard - skin shoes, the beret-toque trimmed with real ostrich-skin, or the predominating colour note of one’s toilette, if that be blue, green or a bright red. Unless the bag is intended for dance use, it will be a very roomy affair. Perhaps, the very largest of the new designs are those of supple leathers, displayed in a fashionable store. These are made in light beige tones, and mounted on composite frames, of the same colour, which are no less than 12 inches long. EXPENSIVE TYPES

Imitation crocodile skin is being given a great deal of prominence, sonA of the more expensive bags being marked with the “lines” of the animal down the centre, and a claw is affixed on either side. But such novelties arccostly. Pigskin is also largely used for bags of a high quality. In the big pouchettes, all manner of strange divisions are discovered, both inside and out. Some of the pouchettes are mounted on deep frames, allowing the bag to be opened on either side. A slit pocket on the outside may contain the ever-necessary mirror, and the lifting of a small flap will reveal a division for other essentials. TO CARRY A “MACK”

But it would be difficult to find a bag more commodious than the underarm one recently designed, which is an affair of some 18 inches long. li. opens book-like, to show divisions for writing materials and stamps, a pocket for the folded mackintosh,. with a dumpy umbrella fitted into a slot at the back! ! Among the smaller designs are made in the bolster shape. The colourings of these wrist-bags will probably endear them to the fastidious "woman. The linings are particularly delightful. Yet of all the medley of colours seen in the wrist-bags, it is the black patent one, with a lining of bright red leather, which is viewed by the manufacturers with the greatest hope. For the dance, I have seen many lovely jewelled envelopes and Dorothy and perhaps the prettiest of all these tiny creations is that seen in a Queen Street shop. It is made in white, embossed velvet, drawn up in the “Dorothy” style, and encrusted with brilliants. Such a dainty affair would, of course, “go” with any frock.