They come with us, wherever we go, dangling from our shoulders or slung across our chests. They contain the random objects that we deem necessary for daily function, or that we simply want to have with us. They are leather, canvas, nylon; small, medium, way-too-big; pouchy, boxy, compact, cavernous. They are purses — and they are, in a sense, ourselves. Herewith, an assortment of miscellaneous facts, figures and fancies about purses, to mirror the hodgepodge currently residing in my own.
• Pick a pocket or two
The earliest purses were actually pockets — constructed separately from garments, and tied on underneath one’s petticoat, accessed through slits in the side seams. These were common from the 17th to the late 19th centuries. Reticules — very small, decorative handbags meant to be draped over one’s arm — became popular from the 1790s on, but many women continued to wear pockets, as the reticule could hold very little.
• A not-so-plain
Another very early form of the purse: the chatelaine, a decorative hook or brooch attached to the waist of a dress, from which chains dangle with small objects attached. These were popular in the 19th century, but if you look closely at Mrs. Hughes in “Downton Abbey,” you’ll see she’s wearing one (very handy for the various keys a housekeeper needs to have available).
• Cigarettes, anyone?
Minaudi?res — small and often elaborate clutch bags designed to be carried in the evening — became popular in the 1920s and ’30s. (Straps interfered with the lines of an elaborate evening gown.) Jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels coined the term (supposedly minaudi?re means “a coquettish air”), and manufactured their own jeweled clutch in 1930 — inspired by socialite Florence Gould, who on evenings out carried her essentials in a Lucky Strikes cigarette tin.
