Legacy of the Handbag

Here's a trivia tidbit you May not know about one of my favorite accessories you will ever own: your handbag. Do you know where the bag comes from?

Leave it to those innovative Egyptians, who made just about everything in the first place! We first see the bags during a time when Egyptian hieroglyphs show pouches worn around the waist. In the 14th century Europe, bags showed social status based on relationships and quality of the bag. During this time, the bags are more for women, and are attached to their belts. In the 15th century, both men and women wore purses that are richly decorated with gold. It is also common for men to give as a gift bag with his new bride with a love story illustration embroidered on it.

Much later in the century, women began to wear a dress lover and chose to wear bags under their clothes. Only in the 16th Century bags start to the more common materials (like leather), and are attached at the top with a drawstring. Large cloth bags were introduced and carried by travelers across the body. In the 17th century, we see a more complex and elaborate the bag. Young women skilled in embroidery gave rise to stitched artwork on purses. Also in 1670, men's pants with built-in pocket, which is not far away with the need to wear men's purse. However, men still carried netted purses in their pockets to carry the new money.

As the neo-classical clothing came into vogue in the 18th century, women began carrying bags, so as not to destroy clothes. Women also had more of them, having special for any occasion. At the beginning of the 1900s, people began calling their bags - "handbags". This term referred to luggage that men carried. This then inspired women to start carrying bags with complicated fasteners, internal compartments, and locks. During the 1920s, it became popular that no longer fit the bag with the outfit. And with World War II during the 40s, women's purses were made of wood and / or plastic in order to save metal for supplies.

World-renowned handbag designers we know and love, such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes and appeared on the scene in 1950 only to blaze trails for the more popular designers to follow, creating a world-wide phenomenon known as - the bag! We simply can not live without one!