When it comes to collecting vintage hand bags, many passionate hand bag collectors love the 1950's bags, and the fact that there was a wide variety of materials used - from straw raffia, embroidered, canvas tapestry, mother of pearl, high quality leather, suede, sequined bags, to bakelite and Perspex - the choice of vintage hand bags for lovers of the antique and vintage, is enormous.

THE POPULAR DESIGNS OF VINTAGE HAND BAGS OF THE PAST CENTURY

The most popular designs of vintage hand bags of the day were bright and cheery themes, having the beautiful and popular trims of motifs and embroidery ranging from little cute poodles to themes such as birds facing each other or happy Parisian street scenes and lovely summertime flowers.

Many of these themes were immensely popular including the decorative fun bags which followed the themes of fun skirts. Vintage hand bags referred to as fun bags were made as a wooden box purse or as a canvas bucket style bag with whimsical decorative ideas.

Fun hand bags were always well made and trimmed with leather, had painted areas, mirrors and sequins with crystals.

Many vintage hand bags fashionistas collect these 50's vintage bags because the designs are quite exquisite in today's terms and the materials used for these vintage designer bags at the time are long lasting and to cap it up, you don’t have to worry about fit, warping or material shrinkage.

Prior to the vintage hand bags of the 20th century, what was known as bags were made out of common materials. They were rough and beaten leather and to have it closed required fastening with drawstring. These leather bags, including large cloth bags were mainly used for luggage by travellers on very long journeys and was worn diagonally across the body.

After this period, bags became more versatile but complex and elaborate with delicately embroidered or stitched artwork on bags.

By the 1800's, women were becoming fashion conscious and bags were called reticules, with most having more than one piece. They would use one reticule for each occasion with each of them holding various items which might include rouge, a delicate hand fan, a bottle of scent, some visiting cards, and most likely and a small jar of smelling salts.

The innovations of vintage hand bags began. 'Carrying bags' is now referred to as 'carrying hand bags'.

These handbags bags inspired the production of women's bags coming with add-ons such as handbag  fasteners, inner compartments, clasps and locks. By the 20's, bags were no longer made to match outfits.

Fun bags were either made as wooden box purses, or as a canvas bucket hand bags with decorative ideas.  The vintage hand bags from the 30's were always well made, with leather trims, had painted areas, mirrors, sequins and attached crystals in beautifully breathtaking themes such as birds facing each other,  lovely flowers or other pictures of nature.

The vintage hand bags of today which are inspired by vintage have a great feel of the design motifs of that era.  Many of the designs have embroidery motifs and symbols of the era. You can find these in decorative needlework and embroidery design books of the 1950's to the 1970's. 

The war brought on hard and serious times. Around the 40's,  handbags were made out of wood or plastic. Metals were necessary and strategic materials, so metals were never wasted on hand bags.

In the late 1940s, DuPont  developed the affordable and subsequently readily available plastic material, and the creation of the Lucite purse emerged.  As modern plastics became an important part of post war, this material became very popular and played a great part in the mid-century decorating that swept the fashion and style design world. And with the discovery of creative methods to tint the clear Lucite in a wide variety of colours, hand bag and purse manufacturers began a fierce competition to produce stylish, chic and even outrageous designs. There was much use of sparkling rhinestones, crazy shapes such as pagodas, bird cages and beehives.

Initially, these bags were wildly popular with movie stars, socialites, and highly paid prostitutes, but as time went on and more and more bags were produced with lower quality imitations becoming available.

Today, you can still find vintage Lucite purses in great condition. These vintage hand bags are highly coveted by collectors, with some even selling for hundreds of dollars.

The highly popular designers of vintage hand bags includes fashion designers such as  Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes. Today the 20th century inspired designs of vintage hand bags of these three designer brands are still popular, including those of bespoke designers - Gucci, Christian Dior, Fendi, Prada, Kate Spade, and Lockheart - amongst many other fashion designers.

Handbags of note from the 1950's include the Chanel quilted bag and the famous Kelly bag made for Grace Kelly by Hermès. The Kelly bag is a beautiful hand stitched bag of the best quality, usually made of calfskin, crocodile skin, lizard skin or ostrich skin. The original design of this vintage handbag product was based on a saddlebag which existed in the 30s.

To order for these vintage hand bags today, the new vintage inspired Kelly bags has a six month waiting list from Hermès.

The Chanel quilted bag is actually the '2.55' bag conceived on February 2 1955, and the style was quietly worn by fans of Chanel clothes. With the logo obsession of the 80s, both fake and real chain twisted Chanel diamond quilted shoulder bags flooded the market.  It became the bag to be seen with!

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