ABSTRACT
In late 1969, increasing numbers of men began carrying handbags in public. The practice owed something to male dress at the time; with trousers slim and pocket less and Edwardian jackets cut to hold little more than the wearer, another method was needed for toting around one's everyday necessities. The examples set by hippies and trendy individualists such as designer Rudi Gernreich and author Truman Capote helped pave the way for acceptance of the handbag by more self-conscious men. Evidently enough men had doubts about the use of handbags to keep their use from reaching truly universal proportions. Nevertheless, a healthy percentage of men have continued to carry them around in places where alternatives such as the gym bag, luggage case, and backpack would seem out of place. Jerome Jacobe saw it as a healthy development, explaining, it could indicate the disintegration of the more superficial aspects of role differentiation.
