CURSES, PURSES!
Next on Oprah: You need them, but you can’t leave them. Coming up: Handbags . . . and the women who love to hate them.
As relationships go, women and their bags is a classic love-hate pairing.
“I consider the handbag the bane of women,” says Pam Johnson, president and publisher of the Ithaca Journal in Upstate New York.
“This is definitely a problem that you really don’t know how to get around,” says Johnson, who has tried. Oh, how she has tried.
A believer that big bags are inappropriate for executives, Johnson has tried everything from pockets to briefcases to hold what a purse cannot. A quick inventory of her Chanel bag reveals a wallet, checks, lipstick, powder, aspirin, a pen and some “important papers.”
Wendy B. Carson, a Los Angeles lawyer, swears by her big shoulder bag and claims she gets lots of errands done because of it. Among the contents: food coupons; an invitation to a baby shower and another to a birthday party; a list of the models and prices of breadmakers.
“I put things in to remind me that things need to get done,” says Carson.
Purses--you love them because they carry all your stuff, but you hate them because they don’t carry themselves. You have to negotiate them on your shoulder. You have to figure out how to carry an evening bag, hold a plate of cheese balls and a glass of Chardonnay.
No matter what the fashion magazines say about how fabulous purses can be, or how easy Queen Elizabeth makes it look to carry one, handbags carry tons of frustration among their carriers.
Next on Donahue: Cross - dressing. Should the handbag match the shoes?
Long, long ago when the firmament first appeared, the person who carried the handbag in the family was the man, says Sandra Rosenbaum, assistant curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This was because men did the traveling, so they needed a place for their stuff.
“Men carried them until they got pockets,” she says. These came with the three-piece suit, made famous by Louis XIV. But when the jacket became a cutaway, men refused to give up their pockets.
Women, on the other hand, were late bloomers. Before the French Revolution, they toted the necessities--sewing needles, keys to the castle, a scent of some sort--in deep pockets hidden in the gathers of their skirts.
But with the demise of Marie Antoinette, wide skirts went out of style--lest you wanted to end up like Marie, says Rosenbaum. Pocketless slim skirts forced women to use handbags, an example of a response to fashion that persists.
“Purses are definitely intertwined with style of clothing,” says Rosenbaum. “So you can’t keep stuff in pockets? You put it in something else. So you can’t stuff it all in that something? You find something else and maybe even suspend it from something,” says Rosenbaum, who like Queen Elizabeth, is a handbag minimalist.
Other women of today, though, are a purse-snatcher’s nightmare. Not only are their back-breaking bags filled beyond capacity, they also carry totes, briefcases, backpacks and satchels.
And while men haven’t totally gone back to their roots--most tend to carry macho bags like attache cases, gym bags and canvas briefcases--some have embraced the women’s handbag.
RTD bus driver Clyde Lewis recounts a chat he had with a woman bus driver:
“I was carrying my bag over my shoulder and she asked what was I doing with a lady’s purse, and I said I didn’t care because it serves my purpose. It fits my needs.”
Contained therein: bus schedules, customer complaint cards, a map of Los Angeles, glasses, gloves, accident report cards, pencils, napkins, cologne, a pen, a key chain and $1 for emergencies.
Lewis used to carry a larger bag, but found that it was “filled with a lot of goodies.”
Next on Geraldo: What’s really in a woman’s handbag? Stay tuned as a purse is opened and its contents revealed on national television . . .
Evan Gilner, 38, claims to be the daughter of the Queen of Purses. Indeed, she is a credit to the throne. The Altadena woman, who is a Directors Guild of America trainee, describes her handbag as “sort of like a portable office.”
Right now, says Gilner, her purse smells like the perfume she spilled. She no longer carries her lunch in her bag after a rather ugly incident. And security personnel at rock concerts cringe at the sight of Gilner’s hefty bag.
“They’ll glance in there and say, “ ‘Oh, go ahead in. We’re not going through that,’ ” she says. “I could be carrying an Uzi. They say, ‘ We’re not looking.’ ”
But when friends who loathe carrying handbags need to put their stuff somewhere, guess who they turn to?
What Women Want . . .
“In this age, women carry everything in their bags,” says Coco Kechichian, owner of Coco’s Leather Goods Repair in Beverly Hills. He offers these tips for extend the life of a bag.
When buying, look for:
* Double-stitching.
* Magnetic snaps instead of spring snaps.
* Nylon instead of metal for zippers that curve.
* Handles that attach to the bag with rivets rather than stitching.
* “Feet” on the bottom of a bag intended for everyday use.
* Darker colors, to hide the dirt.
* Vinyl and leather linings, which last longer than fabric.
To maintain a bag’s good looks:
* Have it Scotchgarded soon after purchase.
* Occasionally use a natural leather cream. (Exotic leathers such as lizard must be professionally treated.)
* Blot spills with a cloth. Don’t rub.
* And if you think your bag is too full, ask yourself: Does the snap or zipper close comfortably? On a drawstring bag, does the shape change when you set it down? If the first answer is no and the second answer is yes , start unloading.
What Makes It Last
For the April issue of Accessories 11 women were asked to opine on a subject near and dear to their hearts: handbags. Here’s where they stand:
* About half carry the same bag Monday through Friday.
* All agree that finding the perfect “business-appropriate” satchel or tote to use as a handbag cum briefcase is next to impossible.
* Must features in a handbag include: top zipper, inside zippers, lining, medium to large size, light weight, sections, soft leather and adequate space.
* The color black is preferred.
* Although handle options are nice, the women showed general disdain for hand-held bags and overwhelmingly voted for shoulder straps that either fit on the shoulder or across the body.
* All dislike handbags that are kept in department store display cases, especially if the price tag is not visible.
* They own an average of 13 handbags, but use only three or four regularly.
* Their favorite brands: Coach, Chanel, Bottega, Anne Klein, Leiber and Falchi.
* Best quote: “I need something that works for me on an everyday basis. I can’t think about handbags when I get up in the morning.”
