IT'S MY BAG

Whether they’re status bags, practical canvas totes, or phone wallets with glitter trim, purses carry a lot more than just a woman’s stuff. There’s a whole genre of male humor based on the idea that women carry quite literally everything in their bags, and as someone who has a first-aid kit, a sketchbook, one small sock, and two phone chargers in mine right now, I can’t really argue.
But we 21st century pack mules wouldn’t have lasted very long in the Victorian era.
Neither would the phone girls, for that matter.
The basic idea of the purse was pretty much the same as it is now, but the design and making of it were very different. Regency romance readers are familiar with ladies who carried “reticules,” an early version of the purse, and a lot of women carried variations on the theme right through the 19th century.
The interesting twist here, though, is that unlike our modern status bags, where women pay truly stupid money to have someone else make it for them (yes, guilty!) women made these bags themselves, as a way of showing off those ever-important female needle skills. Bags were crocheted, or tatted, or beaded, or embroidered. What mattered was that our genteel lady worked it with her own smooth hands.
And no, you couldn’t fit much in them but some calling cards, a miniature pencil and a “vinaigrette” of smelling salts. Maybe a coin or two, but a sheltered lady would need little or no money.
What wasn’t in that bag was one thing none of us modern ladies could imagine a purse without: makeup. Victorian ladies wore no visible cosmetics, and they certainly wouldn’t risk going out with the possibility that their secret enhancements would fall out of their tiny bag.
It wasn’t until the 1910s and 1920s that women openly carried their rouge and powder, often in beautifully decorated vanity cases.
As for the size of the bag, most fashionable women carried smallish ones. Queen Victoria herself drew an amazing amount of comment when she visited Paris with a good-sized bag decorated with an embroidered poodle. (Of course, her great-great-granddaughter is famous for her impressive, and practical bags!)
Big bags were for servants who did the household shopping, and they carried large sensible baskets.
Women didn’t always carry their bags, either. Throughout the 19th century, the “chatelaine” bag, a purse that attached to a woman’s belt, was also very popular. It wasn’t a new idea; medieval women had worn their castle keys on a belt (hence the name chatelaine!) and Colonial women wore cloth bags known as pockets at their waists. The chatelaine bag, though, is probably closer to our cross-body bag.
There were also all kinds of special bags for special needs. A woman would have her needlework bag for quilting bees, a dance bag to carry her little silk slippers to the party, and an opera bag for her lorgnette and program. These, too, were lovely and elaborately decorated.
And, fellas?
Men carried purses very similar to the ladies’ well into the 19th century. There are surviving men’s purses with beading and tassels and all sorts of decoration. So the next time you boys would like to make a smart comment about our bags, remember, you’ve done it too!

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