These days an average woman’s handbag measures roughly sixteen by twelve inches. We fill them with a cellphone or tablet, make up, money, ID, vaccination record, dog potty bags, wallet, snacks for the kids…the list goes on. JH sent me a beaded bag at four by five inches with a label from France. Those were the days. The man who took you to dinner in those days actually expected to bring HIS fat wallet!
JH’s heirloom is a handmade micro beaded evening handbag with glass seed beads from the 1930s. The tambour embroidered accents sparkle in rose and orange in the Point de Beauvais stitch with micro-petit point. I see both round and faceted beads. The white satin lining comes with a tiny little pocket, which might hold a mirror. A gold tone spring tension frame sewn on the fabric supports a small chain handle.
Handbag Designers Back In the Day
Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue carried works by Freddy, Joseph, La Belle Creole, C and M Caron, and Walborg of France.
We consider some French beaded handbags lavish. Sometimes embellished with enameling over the metal frame, called Champleve enamel, or Cloisonne, accented with pearls, faux jewels, and porcelain medallions, often made by Limoges.
The handbag women find so necessary today wasn’t often historically necessary. For generations women’s dresses came with pockets, and we didn’t need to get “out” much anyway. In the 18th century the couture of the high society demanded a lady show off her waist and hip shape, so pockets went OUT. Women who left the house needed to carry a few things. So they made their own bags, literally a BAG, which had a drawstring, called a reticule. They wore these off the belt or a waist chain called a chatelaine. Women learned how to hand bead, crochet, and embroider these bags. This work served two purposes. They advertised the lady’s skill as a needlewoman, a mark of a good wife, and they advertised their fashion sense to fellow females.
Larger Handbags
In the late 19th century the world changed with the advent of country-wide railways. Women travelled and needed to carry MORE stuff. Handbags, still mainly in the drawstring style, became larger. But when sticking close to home women started carrying a new type of bag. Smaller, usually in metal mesh, and steel metal beads, they wore them with a silver clip and short chain on a sash or belt. A small silver chained flask for smelling salts, or a keychain for house and furniture keys accompanied these bags. Today people mistaken these for coin purses. For larger bags worn outdoors, France remained the leader in beaded handbags and the center of the beading world.
American women noticed the French steel beaded French bags, and American factories began to make these bags. One problem arose, OUR metal beads RUSTED. France retained its lead!
Twentieth Century Bags
The 1920s became the highpoint of beaded clasp and reticle bags. Women for perhaps the first time in history entered society on our own. We became more independent of husbands and home and needed our gear with us. Paraphernalia included the newfound institution of lip rouge, mirrors, money, and – gasp- sometimes cigarettes.
In the 1930s, due to the economics of the time, women entered the work force, and again bags became larger. Women needed to carry MORE. During the depression era we see hand made bags again. made cheaper than a dress, woman owned a few bags.
French Glamour took over the fashion world in the 1940s. Designers invented beaded little bags for evening based on the beaded prototypes of French bags of the past. These bags came accented with either geometric or floral designs and hung from a small chain handle.
The flash and glitter style of the1950s saw the birth of the dinner bag. Designers placed the emphasis on the beadwork, also rhinestone, sequin, or faux jewel work. Women carried these as clutches, which required a metal zip top. Clutches remain the evening handbag of choice. In an inversion of history of women’s liberation, the smaller the clutch the more it speaks of a MAN somewhere to carry the LARGE WALLET.
JH’s bag is valued at $140.