Bags - An Illustrated History

Aurum Press Ltd, London, 2007. Good secondhand condition.

Handbags have never been more important in fashion: the 'must-have' bag of the season is a much-lusted-after designer item that can make or break a fashion house. For a woman, the handbag is an intimate extension of the body, a kind of mobile home for all the items indispensable for daily life, and at the same time an indicator of her fashionability - be it Prada, Louis Vuitton or Chanel.

Here, Caroline Cox tells the fascinating story of the handbag, from its origins in nineteenth-century reticules (essentially pockets with handles) and Louis Vuitton's revolutionary Noe bag for the female traveller, via Art Deco Bakelite clutch bags and the Hermès Kelly endorsed by Princess Grace in the 1950s, right up to present-day 'It bags' - the Mulberry Araline and Marc Jacobs Stam.