Handbag
Early examples of these bags have been uncovered in Egyptian burial sites (c. 2686–2160 BCE) and were made of leather with two straps or handles for carrying or suspending from a stick.
[4] Whilst one of the earliest discoveries of an ornate leather purse came from Anglo-Saxon Britain, dated circa 625 CE, revealed from the burial site of King Roewald in the mounds of Sutton Hoo in Suffolk.
The Courtauld bag, tentatively believed to have been made at Mosul in the early 1300s, is thought to be the oldest surviving handbag in the world today.
[10] By the late 18th century, fashions in Europe were moving towards a slender shape for these accessories, inspired by the silhouettes of Ancient Greece and Rome.
[12] The modern purse, clutch, pouch, or handbag came about in England during the Industrial Revolution, in part due to the increase in travel by railway.
He stipulated that he wanted various handbags for his wife, varying in size for different occasions, and asked that they be made from the same leather that was being used for his cases and trunks to distinguish them from the then-familiar carpetbag and other travelers' cloth bags used by members of the popular classes.
H. J. Cave (London) obliged and produced the first modern set of luxury handbags, as we would recognize them today, including a clutch and a tote (called a "ladies traveling case").
H. J. Cave did continue to sell and advertise the handbags, but many critics said that women did not need them and that bags of such size and heavy material would "break the backs of ladies".
[14] As handbags grew into the mainstream in the 20th century, they began to transform from purely practical items to symbols of the wearer's wealth and worth in society.
[14] During the 1940s, the rationing of textiles for World War II led to the manufacturing of handbags made in materials like raffia or crocheted from yarn.
Men's designer bags are produced by well-known companies such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Coach, and Bottega Veneta in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Because Thatcher was Britain's first female prime minister, former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore wrote in his authorised biography of 2013, "her handbag became the sceptre of her rule".
Victims of her handbaggings, from political leaders to journalists, have testified[25] to what the German chancellor Helmut Kohl perceived as her "ice-cold pursuit of her interests".
"[26] Thatcher's bag was almost as newsworthy an item as she was herself and on the day she died, one of her handbag-makers saw a sharp rise in sales of her favorite structured design.
The original bag Thatcher asserts on a signed card was the one "used every day in my time at Downing Street"[23] is archived at Churchill College, Cambridge.
[28] In June 2015, a Christie's handbag sale in Hong Kong saw a pink crocodile skin Hermès Birkin bag made only in 2014, sell for a then world record £146,000.
[28] In May 2017, Christie's Hong Kong sold a white crocodile skin Hermès Birkin bag with 10.23 carats of diamonds for a world record HK$2.9 million (£293,000).
[29] Other notable collectors include Victoria Beckham, who has over 100 Birkin bags, Katie Holmes, Rita Ora and Kelly Brook.
[30] Others include Kim Chiu, KC Concepcion, Kris Aquino, Heart Evangelista, Marian Rivera, Bea Alonzo, Kathryn Bernardo, Lovi Poe, Megan Young, Gretchen Barretto, Camille Prats, Sarah Lahbati, and Jeffree Star.
