A Brief History of Handbags - It All Began With Pockets!

Before the 17th century, women began to wear small pockets tied to each hip beneath the petticoat. This gave women a new found sense of freedom in carrying their personal possessions with them that they were reluctant to give up with the birth of the sheer empire waist dress introduced in Paris around 1790.

The official handbag was born when the pockets that women had been wearing under their petticoats were put on small ropes or strings and carried in the hand.

So began the great divide between men and women because men still had their pockets sewn into their cloths! In the early 1800's this fact was even noted in the British Imperial Weekly Gazette - "While men have their hands in their pockets so grand, ladies have pockets to wear in their hand".