I've spent the last week visiting my sister in Frederick, Maryland. We had a lot of fun. One day we took the subway into Washington, D.C. where we spent the day at the fabulous Newseum. If you're going to be in the Washington, D.C., area I highly recommend that you plan a day at the Newseum, it's incredible.
Traveling on the subway in the early evening allowed me to covertly observe a lot of people making their way home from work. Ever larger handbags have been on trend for women for quite some time. Based on my very small sample of Washington, D.C. commuters, it looks like a new trend is two bags. A large purse and an accompanying tote seemed to be de rigueur for the majority of female workers. The purses are so large I can't imagine what they're carrying in that other bag. Are they all stopping at the gym on their way home? These second bags don't seem to be the right size or shape for a laptop. Are they the female equivalent of the briefcase? The bags didn't seem to be the right shape for that either. Is everyone really taking a lot of work home with them? Are they doing their shopping on their lunch hour and want a cute way to tote their purchases home? Along with the rise of the big purse trend many studies came out about how we were hurting our backs, our shoulders and our posture by hauling giant purses everywhere we went. Is this new trend a positive one in that it balances us out?
My current "purse" consists of a small camera case, sans camera, which dangles from my wrist and into which I tuck all my necessities. One of my close friend tells me it, "looks like crap". I have a couple of dressier wristlets for when I care about that! Putting just about everything I need into a 2" x 3" case makes me uniquely incapable of imagining what might be in these big bags. How could anyone possibly need to drag so much stuff around with them?
Although traditional briefcases were scarce on the subway, the men were all carrying some sort of bag too. Messenger bags, backpacks, satchels and a few man purses were in evidence but I didn't see any two-bag men. Why do women have more to carry than men? Does this trend mean that young mothers, with the addition of a diaper bag, are now carrying three bags around?
If you're one of these two bag women, I'd really like to know...what's in there?!
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