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From The Times

HANDBAGS WERE ONCE A SIGN OF EMANCIPATION. OUR CORRESPONDENT FEARS THEY’RE NOW SYMBOLS OF OUR WEIGHTY LIVES

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“The first thing Adam purchased for Eve was a handbag,” bemoaned Anita Daniels, the New York fashion writer, in 1945. “It was his sweet revenge for the apple.” Hitting news-stands at the peak of war, this tirade over women’s most trusted accessory is a testament to the handbag’s oppressive reign, weighing heavily on both the shoulders and minds of women, even at a time of mortal peril.

Sixty years on, the liberated 21st-century woman lives in a material haven in which handbags spell unbridled luxury. Crafted out of the finest leathers — suede, croc-skin or even ostrich — encrusted with Swarovski crystals, jingling with silver accessories or perhaps a limited-edition designer piece with a two-year waiting list, the bag has replaced the shoe as the most coveted item in a woman’s wardrobe. Costing up to £15,000, the handbag has become a status symbol, a major investment and the ultimate fashion statement. It is far too important an item to be entrusted to men to buy for us.

Christian Dior humoured post-war fashionistas with delicate clutches at a time when anything practical smacked of darned stockings and ration books. But by the 1950s the determined housewife was enlarging her bag to extend her domestic efficiency, making room for cheque books, car keys, laundry-slips and diaries. When working women in the Eighties discovered that they couldn’t fit their bulging cosmetics cases into a flat briefcase, they incorporated office papers into their handbags. Now handbags are more like pieces of operative luggage. Strength, resilience, ample space and multiple pockets are all crucial.

The average weight of handbags in the UK has reached a back-breaking 3½lbs (1.6kg). Beside the basics — diary, phone, cosmetics, sanitary products, haircare, “handbag-sized” magazines, book, road map, iPod, car stereo, nipple pads, Mace or rape alarm, packed lunch, flask of coffee, water — recent additions include Bibles, crystals, self-help books and embroidery or tapestry sets, which are making a comeback as working women look for something non-electronic to help them to pass time while in transit. Yet, despite the odd vibrator, set of lacy underwear or knife, it is not the individual items that attract attention, it is the sheer number of them.

“You would be amazed at how many women carry an entire change of clothes and an overnight kit, even though they’re not staying overnight anywhere,” explains one guard at an office in Central London. “Or they’ll have a full-size bottle of hairspray, hair straighteners and an electric toothbrush. A bottle opener and tin opener are also popular.” Most items crammed into bags in the UK are simply things to make the long days more bearable. Heels to change into for work, trainers and a sweater for the train; energy bars for women who have no time for a lunch break; cigarettes and even miniature bottles of spirits are panacea for an otherwise dull day at the office. Then there are the pills. At Burberry, the security guard’s eyes glaze over when I mention medication. “Pain-killers, antidepressants, back creams, bandages for knees, plasters for rubbing shoes,” he confides. No wonder it takes more than six days to replace the contents of a handbag if it is lost or stolen.

Although the average worth of a handbag and its contents lies at £550, home insurance companies are advising that many exceed their claims limit, reaching a value of more than £1,000. Feeding off the terror of women all over Britain, Sheilas’ Wheels and Diamond car insurers both have policies specifically for handbag insurance, and NatWest has added handbag cover to its Advantage Premiere insurance benefits.

“Just in case” seems to be a theme. It’s what has given rise to the oversized hobo handbag currently inspiring top designers — complemented by copper hardware, zips, chains and padlocks. Are Marc Jacobs’s Stam, Chloé’s Paddington and Fendi’s Spy bag answering our prayers or are they simply feeding off our neuroses?
It is difficult to believe that the handbag was originally a sign of emancipation. In the 1920s, flappers deciding to go out without a chaperone first started carrying a small bag. Inside would be a few select, Art Decoinspired pieces; a pillbox, a mirror, a purse, a watch, a cigarette case.

Margaret Thatcher managed to turn her handbag into an international symbol of authority. So is the handbag an icon of power and emancipation, or a fashion item gone too far? “It’s both,” laughs the feminist critic Lillian Robinson.

“The handbag shows that our lives have moved on, that we have more opportunities. Yet our responsibilities have not been equally shared. It’s called the Wonder Woman complex. We need to do everything — have kids, a career, look after the parents, deal with finances and housekeeping. We need to be on call all the time.” And because of the handbag, we have to do it one-handed.Robinson, principal at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute in Montreal, Canada, challenges me to count the pockets on a professional male wearing a coat and a suit. There are up to 20, compared to six on the female equivalent — and even they don’t pass Robinson’ s test.

“Serious pockets — the type that can actually contain anything — get in the way of tailoring,” she explains. “Women are expected to have clothes that show off their bodies. Because of this, we are lumbered with the handbag.” In the name of research, I approach a statuesque young man stepping out of Vogue House, wearing skin-tight jeans and a simple T-shirt seemingly free of any functional pockets. “Where, if you don’t mind me asking, do you keep your wallet and phone?” He points to a demure blonde in his shadows, straining under the weight of one familiar Fendi Spy. “My girlfriend has them in her handbag.”