Handbags and purses have been around ever since people needed to carry their precious items around with them. They have been fashion accessories for hundreds of years, and only the items we carry inside have essentially changed. The earliest date all the way back to the 1300s, and some more primitive waist pouches were mentioned by the Egyptians in their hieroglyphic writings. For example, they attached their bags to their waists, using fastners called "girdles." To distinguish status, wealthy women adorned their purses and handbags with jewels and embroidered designs.
In the picture at the left, the woman has a drawstring
handbag. You can tell she is very rich because of the scissors
and gauze in her other hand, which were expensive items
in those days.
Picture courtesy of www.lclark.edu
In the next two hundred years, women began to use handbags and purses to carry more practical items, such as the things you may carry around in your handbag today. Bags started to be made more out of cloth and were strung diagnally across the body. The next century, both men and women wore fashionable purses that were small and in assorted shapes and styles. In large due to the popularity of handbags and purses, young girls began to learn embroidery for making artistic designs on handbags.
The 18th century brought about the popularity of handbags known as "reticules," which went well with the style of clothing at the time. Also, most women had several bags for different occasions and matched their bags with clothes and events that they attended. Magazines of the day published articles explaining proper use of handbags. The word "handbag" was actually first used to describe luggage carried by men in the 1900s. An unknown fashion designer was inspired by the design and style of these bags and soon women's handbags were called by the same term.
Not much happened until the 1940s when the war caused a shortage of metal (used for military at the time), so they creatively improvised and made bags from wood and plastics instead. The next few decades gave rise to handbags and purses by people such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Dior, Gucci, Hermes, and etc. designers that have become household names.
Picture courtesy of www.about.com
By that same standard, the popularity of sheepskin in recent years made a similar mark in history with the induction of brands such as Ameribag, UGG, Emu, and Laurel Burch. In the past few years, many celebrities have sported these handbags, as do many other ordinary people for practical and fashionable reasons.
