{"id":14720,"date":"2013-07-18T00:20:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T07:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=14720"},"modified":"2013-07-18T00:20:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T07:20:24","slug":"wanted-an-evening-handbag-thats-pretty-and-big-enough-to-do-the-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wanted-an-evening-handbag-thats-pretty-and-big-enough-to-do-the-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: An Evening Handbag That’s Pretty — And Big Enough to Do the Job"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Searching<\/a>
An evening handbag that’s pretty — and big? Nowhere to be found in the stores. This bag was $268 at Nordstrom — pretty, but way too tiny for my purposes. And I couldn’t figure out what the flap at the back was for. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mother of the groom was discombobulated.<\/p>\n

There she was, recessing down the aisle after the wedding, her overstuffed evening bag dangling half open from her wrist. Also dangling from her wrist, a camera and a beat-up camera case.<\/p>\n

Not a pretty picture.<\/p>\n

What gives? Why was this otherwise reasonably-well-put-together lady \u2013 that would be me on my<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
In the stores: This is the bag I wore to my son’s wedding; $26.98 at Macy’s. I overstuffed it and the snap kept popping open. My cell phone didn’t begin to fit into it, so I resorted to using my threadbare camera case as a second handbag on the day of the wedding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

son\u2019s wedding day \u2013 so disorganized?<\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t she put all that stuff into one nice presentable evening bag and recess down the aisle like a woman in charge of her life?<\/p>\n

An Evening Handbag That’s Pretty — And Big<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Because there\u2019s no such thing as a presentable evening bag that can hold what a woman \u2013 a real one \u2013 puts into her purse these days.<\/p>\n

Designers of formal handbags, it seems, are stuck in the pre-women\u2019s movement, pre-digital, mid-twentieth century. A tour of Macy\u2019s, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale\u2019s accessories departments \u2013 and my closet \u2013 reveals that a typical dressy evening bag is six to ten inches long and a scant one inch thick.<\/p>\n

What then is a twenty-first century woman to do with all her stuff? She\u2019s dressed up in her favorite floaty, feminine cocktail dress or evening gown<\/a>. Her new shoes are strappy<\/a> and sexy. Her<\/p>\n

\"an<\/a>
In the stores: This black beaded bag was $40 at Macy’s. Too skinny to hold much. It’s an evening handbag that’s pretty — but not big enough. Not even close.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

jewelry sparkles. Her highlights are glowing. She\u2019s planned her make-up for days, and for once her mascara hasn’t caked. She\u2019s ready for a night on the town.<\/p>\n

But what about her stuff?<\/p>\n

She\u2019s got the twentieth-century usuals, the same things her mother and grandmother tucked into their purses back in the 1950s and 1920s: lipstick, comb, powder. Extra stockings in case the ones she\u2019s wearing get a run. A packet of tissues in case the opera\/concert\/wedding is a tearjerker. A thin wad of cash \u2013 her mad money, as my mother used to call it, in case her beau turns out to be a bad actor.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s got all that, but this is 2013, so there’s more.<\/p>\n

Cell Phone Instead of Cigarettes<\/strong><\/h5>\n

True, smoking has gone they way of nylon stockings with a seam up the back, so there are no cigarettes to squeeze into that dainty little evening bag of hers. And no lighter.<\/p>\n

But there is a cell phone — or maybe a mini iPad. There are the MapQuest directions to the wedding she printed out at the last minute. Also her business cards. Her credit cards (these days she might be picking up the tab). A fat wad of cash (the dollar isn\u2019t what it used to be). And, if she\u2019s in the mood and thinks he might be, protection.<\/p>\n

In addition to all that, if she\u2019s me and she\u2019s headed someplace fun, she\u2019s got her camera<\/a>, a spare battery, a notebook and a pen.<\/p>\n

This woman needs an evening bag with girth. Something that is as pretty and dressy as the rest of her outfit. But a handbag of substance, like its owner.<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s that bag?\u00a0Not in my closet. Not in the department stores of downtown San Francisco.\u00a0And, no, not even on line.<\/p>\n

I’m still looking. Got any ideas?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no such thing as a presentable evening bag that can hold what a woman \u2013 a real one \u2013 needs to put into her purse these days. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34,1036,566,835,82,56,814,985],"class_list":["post-14720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","tag-dont-miss","tag-evening-handbags","tag-fashion","tag-mother-of-the-groom","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-peter","tag-shopping-stories","tag-wedding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}