THE THING ABOUT HANDBAGS

Here’s the thing about handbags: they’re the perfect accessory. Handbags will always fit, no matter how much weight you may gain or lose. Handbags look amazing, and they’re functional too. And nothing pulls an outfit together like the right handbag. Handbags are the perfect accessory.

The first women to start carrying handbags were the ancient Egyptians. In medieval Europe, the quality of a bag’s embroidery and leather revealed your social status – so not much has changed there, then! The handbag proper began life in eighteenth-century France where it was called a reticule; Louis Vuitton opened his first shop in Paris in 1854 and in 1856, Thomas Burberry set up shop in Basingstoke. Together, they are responsible for the most copied luxury goods in the world. Coach of Manhattan was established in 1941; Hermes of Paris began to produce the handbag now known as the Kelly back in the 1930s, a good twenty years before Princess Grace ever carried it. Jackie O preferred the Hermes Constance, and in 1981 the iconic Birkin was designed for actress Jane Birkin, who blames its weight for her tendonitis. Iconic brands and celebrities have always had a special relationship.

In the 1970s in Somerset, Roger Saul started his Mulberry workshop. When he sold out over twenty years later, deciding to run a hemp-seed oil farm instead, the brand went global, with prices tripling. But purists will still tell you that a Saul bag, with its tartan lining and oiled brass zips, is better than the modern Mulberry. Mrs Thatcher’s handbags were Ferragamo; Princess Diana preferred Dior, who returned the compliment by creating the Lady Dior in her honour. The average thirty-year-old British woman owns twenty-one handbags and will buy a new one every three to four months, owning about 160 in her lifetime.

HANDBAGS FROM LADY TARGARYEN'S SPRING/SUMMER 2013 COLLECTION

From the origins and history of handbags to their present day form, one thing is clear: women love handbags. As a status symbol, a piece of everyday luggage and just something pretty to carry on your arm, we love handbags – cheers to our favourite accessory!

-        Featuring an excerpt from Late Night Shopping