The Victorian Era is one of the most talked about periods in history it had dramatic changes in both fashion and industry. Technology was beginning to increase and new things started to develop giving people, especially women, a more found independence. During this era was when the actual term 'handbag' came about due to a significant change in travel. In 1843 became the advent of rail road and train travel which lead to the need of hand-held luggage. The reason it lead to this is people started to travel around a little bit more and needed more items than usual but as of yet nothing significant had been made for this need. The term 'handbag' was a consequence of this development. The luggage they used for travelling was different from the pouches and purses in which women carried around that were made by them or usually dress makers where people could afford.
Due to this significantly big change at this time the horse travel accessories industry turned their attention to luggage making because that was where the money was at. The reason this has something to do with handbags is because now a days some of handbags still reference the early designs of the luggage in which they used, with their pockets, fastenings, frames, locks and keys.
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Carried on from the last century though was the desire for embroided purses with the goal of showing them off to people and showing how good they are at something. However the main person they wanted to impress with their embroided purses was their potential future husband. They would spend substantial amounts of time embroidering them marking the date and their own initials on the outside to almost mark it with their own tag.
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Later on in the Victorian Era as technology further developed a larger array of styles and fabrics were available for handbag design and production. This resulted in the new rage of chatelaines which were decorative belt hooks or clasps worn at the waist with a series of decorative accessories or bag like receptacle suspended from it. These were mainly worn by the richer women than the less fortunate because, they were quite expensive to buy or make.
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