One Stop Shop

Special Offer This Week!! Make money from the comfort of your own home. This Offer US Only
Language Translations

Information on Handbags:

A handbag, or purse in American English, is a medium to large bag, often fashionably designed, typically used by women, and used to hold personal items such as wallet/coin purse, keys, tissues, cosmetics, a hairbrush, cellular device or personal digital assistant, feminine hygiene products, etc.

Variations

A medium-to-small-sized handbag with a short handle, designed to be carried (clutched) in one's hand is often called a clutch.

A larger handbag with two handles is often called a tote.

A pocketbook is similar to a handbag.
Vintage pocketbook

A security bag protects the carrier from travel theft. The handbag includes an invisible stainless steel strap sewn into the fabric and a protectant on the main zipper.
Man purse

In North America, handbags are traditionally only carried by women. However, increasingly, younger men carry one as a smaller alternative to a backpack; such a handbag is sometimes termed a manbag or, in American slang, murse[1] (portmanteaus "handbag" and "man" with "purse" respectively), also male purse or man-purse.

Many of the styles are actually messenger bags.
Child's purse

Young girls also use small purses or clutches, but usually just for play or dress-up.[citation needed]
Types of handbags
Crocodile skin handbags in a conservation exhibit at Bristol Zoo, England

* Clutch: Small, yet long (rectangular), evening bag without a handle.

* Satchel: A soft-sided case usually of leather, used to carry papers or books. Usually has a handle and often has a strap.

* Duffle bag: A large bag usually used for travel or sports.

* Tote: A medium to large bag with two straps.

* Messenger bag: A bag with a long strap to be worn across the body.

* Sling bag: A bag with a long strap (similar to a messenger bag), yet smaller.

Trivia

* In the Oscar Wilde play The Importance of Being Earnest, the protagonist, Jack Worthing, was found in a handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station as a baby, prompting Lady Bracknell's famous exclamation "A handbag?"
* A survey of shoppers at Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex, England, found that the average 30-year-old woman owns 21 handbags and buys a new one every three months, adding up to 111 over the course of a lifetime.

The Wikipedia article on this page is released under CC-BY-SA.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or
GNU Free Documentation License
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
The original article may be found at this location:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbags