The long history behind a woman's handbag

How my generation has loved markets and feel real nostalgia about those like Sheaf Market at the bottom of Dixon Lane with the friendly banter between the stall holders and the customers. There are many stories to be told about people like ‘Potty Edwards’ and his contemporaries.

Today you only seem to get the same atmosphere when you travel abroad and experience markets in countries like Turkey, and they are certainly good for buying handbags!

One of our favourite markets has repartee definitely in the old tradition. The Turks have done their homework well. Not only do we get ‘Asda price’, ‘cheap as chips’ and ‘cheaper than Primark’, but also ‘I’m from Barnsley, how much?’ when they hear a Yorkshire accent, and my favourite ‘Genuine fakes!’

Now these genuine fakes can be as varied as jeans, sunglasses, trainers or perfume, but most often are designer handbags, which are such incredible copies that it is said that you often can’t tell the difference from the real thing.

The designer bag can be the ultimate object of desire, not just for the rich, but for some ordinary women who often think nothing of spending more on a bag than on a holiday. And with the designer logo in prominent view, everyone knows what they’ve spent. Only by those who can recognise them of course, or actually care! I can’t say I personally know anyone who has spent thousands of pounds on a bag, but I must confess to owning several genuine fakes, courtesy of market stalls abroad!

Two hundred years ago handbags were not a fashion statement. With a woman’s role being firmly in the house, the money for shopping was kept in a small purse which she secreted about her person.

As women became emancipated, fashion became a statement of their earning power, or in many cases of the earning power of their husbands, and handbags started to become the ultimate accessory of the rich and famous.

Rail and sea travel started a trend in fashionable luggage with many of the great designers of the day launching their own brand, and from that designer handbags were born.

I’m going to say something quite obscene which may not be a good idea in a family newspaper, but oh well! The most expensive handbag in the world is the Mouawad 1001 Diamond purse selling at 3.8 million dollars. Isn’t that obscene? And what’s the point anyway?

One of the most expensive range of handbags is the Hermes Birkin. It was conceived in 1981 when reputedly the 70s sex symbol Jane Birkin was travelling on a flight from Paris to London when the contents of her handbag fell on to the floor. She happened to be sitting next to the Chief Executive of Hermes (like you would!), Jean-Louis Dumas, who said that he would design a bag for her which would keep the contents secure. So, the Hermes-Birkin was born. The Hermes Rose Gold sells at two million dollars and it seems that Victoria Beckham owns over 100 Birkin’s at an estimated $2 million. It would seem to be more affordable to buy a genuine fake!

It may also be more ethical, with Victoria Beckham angering conservationists recently after she added handbags made of alligator and python skin to her own designer handbag collection in her stores.

The Queen’s Speech ceremony after the General Election had a more dressed down Queen without ceremonial robes or crown. But, one thing remained the same and that was her handbag! Our Queen is a lover of handbags and it was said by some people 'Why does she feel the need to carry one even to give the Queen’s Speech?' Do you really have to ask a woman why she carries a handbag? She just does!!!

The Queen has been a customer of Launer for over fifty years, bestowed on them a Royal Warrant in 1968 and has four new bespoke bags made for her each year, owning, it is said, over 200 bags. It is possible to purchase the same models as Her Majesty who loves the Diva, Royale and Traviata designs and would set you back over £1,450, although her bags have one or two slight modifications like longer handles so that they fit comfortably into the crook of her arm. If you think that is a little expensive, you can pay in excess of £4,000 for some Launer bags at Selfridges!

The secret of what exactly The Queen carries in her handbag was revealed a while ago when one of her aides let us into the secret. Her glasses, pen, mints, lipstick and mirror and if it’s a church day, a £5 or £10 note discreetly folded for the collection (obviously depending how much she’s enjoyed the sermon!). There is no evidence that she carries a mobile phone!

A national survey stated recently that the contents of the average woman’s handbag are usually pretty much the same. As far as it can be said that there is an average woman! Tablets, more often of the medicinal kind, but of recent years often electronic, mobile phone, purse, makeup bag, brush or comb.

When you match your bag to your outfit it involves frequent moving of things from your every day, going to the shops one. My every day one has a mismatch of stuff in it. Bills, shopping lists, supermarket receipts, folded carrier bags, biros and mint sweets which are long past their sell by date!

Every so often I do have a big clear out, but before long its contents look exactly the same!

I wonder if Victoria Beckham has that problem?