Revealing and Concealing
Why do we love handbags so much? It’s that massive spoil to yourself. That item you are prepared to save for months or ask a million friends for your birthday present.
Before the Birkin, Louis Vitton and the Chanel Classic Flap, women wore small silk purses or pockets, under their clothes, close to their skin. Like sumptuous, mysterious envelopes concealing secrets.
As clothes became more fitted, they started wearing these purses on the outside, in the form of a silk and embroidered pouch with a drawstring. What was in them I wonder? And then, travel exploded with rail and sea, and fashion, particularly luggage and the modern handbag emerged, and the Houses of Gucci and Prada originated. So yes, the handbag was a practical invention to carry our personal items from deck to ship.
But this era was also the start of the independent woman. The working woman. A handbag reveals a woman’s individual style and taste, it’s a statement to the outside world. And on the inside, it will make you feel a certain way. Sexy, powerful, unique, interesting and beautiful. And then of course, there's the mystery of what's within the bag itself...
A handbag exposes you, but is oh so private. Revealing and concealing.