From The Art of the Handbag

With the arrival of the twentieth century, the handbag came into its own In the early years, bags for the upper class remained small, and only members of the working class carried large bags Wealthy women carried different bags for different occasions or even times of the day, and evening bags in particular were lavishly decorated with fur, fringe, beads, and other embellishments

From there, bags branched out to encompass styles ranging from minaudières to roomy handbags, from vanity cases to practical shoulder bags Over the years, the range of basic materials expanded from fabric and leather to all kinds of synthetics, such as plastic, PVC, vinyl, Lucite, and Perspex.