Women's Pockets... Handbags

If I were asked what is the essential difference between women's clothes and men's, I should say at once: "The man has all the pockets he needs, while the woman is deprived of them." And this is the reason a woman cannot do without her handbag. The truth is that the man is in perpetual astonishment at the treasures a woman's handbag contains — what he calls "a thousand and one articles." How often has he jested that a woman carries everything in her handbag except "the firewood"!

And in truth, these mocking observations of the man's are not without justice, for a woman is usually inclined to stuff her handbag with everything her hand falls upon, to the detriment of the bag and its contents. If you wish to keep your handbag in the shape that tempted you to buy it, you must empty it of its contents every few days — for you will be amazed at the various "articles" that collect in it within this short time.

The demand for leather during the war meant that the making of leather handbags declined throughout the world, and their place was taken by utility handbags made of artificial leather. Gone was that pleasure which a woman used to feel in having a bag all her own, unlike the other bags, and those precious treasures that delighted her eye disappeared. Add to this that the leather handbag, if cared for, lasted a long while — the utility bag being quite the opposite.

It is a cause for satisfaction that the designers of handbag fashions have today returned to producing the models women love. In their materials they range from smooth kidskin and pale white calfskin to the stiff tanned leathers that suit sober, well-tailored dress. Among the evening bags lately shown are bags of ornamented fabric with gilded metal clasps.

Handbags today have become a very marvel of luxury and adornment. There are now the finely made bags in captivating colors, and the big, roomy bags (which could very well hold the firewood)! Most of them are distinguished by the quality of their fabric and the ornamentation of their clasps. The truth is that the handbag makers, after all they suffered from the restrictions of utility wear, have today set about producing bags without equal in the extravagance of their elegance, their beauty, and their fittings.