The average American woman buys three handbags every year costing an average forty-two dollars
although one in ten of us says we would pay one hundred and fifty dollars more just for
one of these. A glorified pocket that we call a purse. Or a handbag or a satchel or a clutch.
Not a pocketbook though. No one says pocketbook. Right? Why am I asking you?
American women didn't begin carrying handbags around in mass until the 1940s and 50s. However
we did tote around purse-like garments for a long, long time prior to that. In the 15th
century a common gift for a groom to give to his new bride would have been hey a get
to know you dinner because they probably wouldn't have met before. And also a purse. If you
think about the pre-industrial days of the domestic economies women were working a lot
in the home and not just in the sense of child-rearing and keeping the house clean. They pretty much
produce all of the things there household needed for day to day living. There are all
sorts of little tools that would go along with that and what is handier for carrying
around tools than--well a tool belt. A pocket. That's what I'm going for. So prior to the
18th century a lot of women would carry around detachable pockets actually in their petticoats
that they could access perhaps through a slit in their skirts. And then in the 18th century
we have fashion shifting to the neo-classical style where the silhouette becomes a lot more
slender thus not allowing as much room for petticoats and pockets, you have the rise
of what would eventually become the modern day purse which the British called a reticule.
With the more petite size of those reticules or dispensables as they were sometimes called,
you also start to see the differentiation of social status based on the size of your
purse. Even back at this time in the 18th century you still have a lot of working women
tending to carry larger external pockets, these pre-messenger bags almost filled with
all the tools that they would need for their work outside the home. If you were a wealthy
woman obviously you would not be working outside the home and wouldn't need to carry around
all sorts of things so you would simply have a more petite reticule. Once we're into the
early 20th century the whole pocket thing had pretty much fallen out of fashion and
it becomes more common for women to at least carry around a shopping bag. Remember the
importance of the industrial revolution in this. Once we are fully industrialized the
production is moving outside of the home so women are leaving more often and fulfilling
their domestic duties doing the shopping and whatnot. Around this time you also see a little
bit more fashion being infused into the whole handbag thing with women wearing what were
called Dorothy bags which were drawstring sacks that they might match to their outfits.
How a-dorothy-able. It really wasn't until the 1940s and 50s that women began carrying
purses around en mass partially due to the rise of fashion houses but also due to the
rise of women working outside the home. Once we started leaving the house there was a need
for us well to carry things with us on those journeys out and you also have too the rise
of women wearing cosmetics, the whole beauty thing. In the early days of handbag fashion
it was still the smaller the size that signaled the higher the social status. One socialite
explained in the 1950s darling if your purse is too small to fit your cigarettes that's
totally fine because you should be with a man who will provide you with such cigarettes.
What about men? Why aren't they also carrying around these outside pockets which would eventually
become purses? If you look at the evolution of men's fashion, it has typically evolved
with pockets in mind. Guys have so many different pockets to chose from, they have pockets inside
of their pockets in jeans. They have back pockets, front pockets, they even have cargo
pockets sometimes, vest pockets, shirt pockets, coat pockets. I mean guys have pockets for
days. Square footage-wise men probably have more storage space simply on an everyday outfit
then women have in a birkin bag. Also when it comes to carrying things with you on the
way to work, well men do have purses. And they're called briefcases. Let's not forget
to that the beauty standards applied to men don't typically necessitate them wanting to
carry around things like lipsticks, blushes, mascaras, bobby pins, hairbrushes and also
yeah let's address periods. Why would men carry around purses if they're just surrounded
by women with massive purses? If you ever need any bandaids, breath mints, pens, you
name it, just find a woman with a purse.