Clothes for Work

When middle class women started to travel to work for the first time in large numbers in the 1920s, they needed practical handbags to carry their personal possessions for everyday activities. In the nineteenth century, this function had been provided by voluminous pockets, attached at the waist with ties and hidden with the full petticoats under the skirt. The increasingly slim and simple fashion silhouette made this impossible after the First World War, and stylish leather handbags and clutchbags or pochettes like this became all the rage.

This green kid handbag incorporates clear "art deco" styling. Such a bag would have been carried for daytime appointments or visits to town, or by a career woman journeying to work to contain items like makeup, purse, comb, handkerchief, pencil or pen, and a hundred other bits and pieces. Other leather and embroidered bags from this period are shown below, including one made from dyed green crocodile skin. The small evening "minaudiere" with a red background is made of black compostion with diamante and was for carrying lipstick and handkerchief to a dance.

Full item descriptions:

"bag" [1972.158], Bridge
"bag & handbag" [1986.254]
"bag" [1982.100]
"evening bag" [1968.23]
"evening bag" [1949.243]
"evening bag" [1968.230]
"evening bag" [1983.305]

Related Themes:

Bags & Purses