WOMEN’S HANDBAG

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1938, Page 4

WOMEN’S HANDBAG

BIG CHANGE IN FASHION. • When women first began to carry handbags, a century ago, men scoffingly called them “ridiculous”; and so the word "reticule” for a small bag came into the English language, states the London “Daily Mail.” It was certainly a startlingly big change in fashion which introduced the handbag. For hundreds of years women had carried their belongings in pockets hidden in their voluminous skirts, or in little purses strung on belts round their waists. But the new style gowns demanded a pencil slim line over the hips and so bulging skirt pockets were forced out of fashion.

Some of these old purses and early handbags are on exhibition at a famous handbag shop in Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. It is interesting to compare them with those in vogue today and to trace the handbag from its earliest beginnings to 1938. NO POCKETS FOR MEN. The oldest purse displayed is made of red velvet finely embroidered in metal thread, and is dated 1450, thirty years before the Tudors came to the Throne. In those days men had no pockets in their suits,- so they wore purses round their waists, like their womenfolk, and it is probable that this exquisite little purse was made for a gentleman of fashion. The Elizabethans combined several purses in one big bag on their waist belt. One bag of this period in the exhibition is very modern in inspiration. It is a large double bag in natural coloured leather, containing five little drawstring purses ornamented with leather rosettes. When the crinolines came into fashion, after the days of slim skirts and reticules, skirt pockets returned and the handbag was not seen again until 1911, the year when narrow skirts came back into vogue. Since then the handbag has remained an essential part of every woman's wardrobe.