Illustration by Eric Reynolds manstyle
I'm on the subway, heading back home to West Philadelphia from
work in Center City when I realize I've forgotten to take my gingko
pill for the day. I don't know if that Japanese root extract actually
helps with memory, but it's become a habit. The search through
my bag quickly turns into a reconnaissance mission. Before you
know it, I'm unloading my three-dimensional "to-do" list onto
the seat next to me: there's the old copy of Entertainment Weekly I've been meaning to read, notes for that article I need to write
and new CDs I should have listened to last week. Everyone's staring.
I must seem like one of the homeless kooks who're always reorganizing
their things. Finally I discover the bottle on the bottom, lost
among the old Post-It notes and moldy paperclips. I grab one of
the little yellow pills and swallow hard. The gingko must be doing
something because as I'm carefully placing the pieces of my life
back into the bag, a picture of my mother doing the same thing
pops into my head and it dawns on me. I wear a purse. As I snap together the plastic clasps on the black vinyl bag,
I spy a skater dude with a blue nylon bag across the aisle. "Pardon me," I scream, just barely audible over the clamor of
steel wheels grinding the tracks, "do you ever think your bag
is a kind of purse?" He closes his copy of Men's Journal and nods. It's a trend that seems so common, yet it's rarely acknowledged
by designers: the man's handbag with the over-the-shoulder strap
that says you're too mature to be wearing a backpack, but not
quite ready for a stuffy briefcase. Still there are few stylish
choices when it comes to these bags. They all tend to be blue,
black or brown rectangles made out of leather, vinyl or nylon.
"I saw a girl the other who had a really nice bag, but I wasn't
about to ask her where she got it," says Chris, my brother-in-baggage
on the subway. "It was an Esprit bag. I'm not going to wear that."
I empathize with his plight: Why should he wear a women's bag
when what he really wants is a better man-purse? Chris' nylon
bag is practical, but not very distinctive. Ladies get a whole range of choices to sift through - from Cartier
clutches to L.L. Bean totes. But what about men? Is there a lack
of stylish bags in the menswear section because designers refuse
to acknowledge the trend or do men not want to admit they need
a purse and, as a result, there's no market for them? The next day I go to the library and do a little research. There's
no denying that handbags were invented for ladies in 1785 when
pocketless dresses became all the rage, but does that mean men
shouldn't wear them? Sigmund Freud said a purse was a substitute
for a vagina, but I'm not thinking about getting to third base
every time I unzip my sack. I bring up the subject with a female friend who informs me that
plenty of men in Europe carry a purse. "It's more of an oversized wallet with a strap," she says. Her
father, a Greek immigrant, always carries one when he's back in
the old country: "He keeps his passport, plane tickets, address
book and worry beads in there." Perhaps it's American machismo that keeps the man-purse from gaining
higher status in the United States. It's hard to imagine John
Wayne or James Dean with a pocketbook by their side. Yet if you walk down a street in Philadelphia, it's not unusual
to see a raver keeping his things in a DJ bag or a homeboy holding
all of his stuff in a gym bag. But why isn't the street-savvy
designer keeping up with the man on the street? Just in case any designers are listening, I've already done some
informal polling of a random group of male friends and co-workers.
The ultimate man-purse has to have lots of pockets. Separate places
for pens, magazines and change. ("If you're running for a train,
coins are going to fall out of your pocket," explained one guy.
"But if you have them zipped into your bag, they won't.") There has to be both an over-the-shoulder strap and a handle,
because the strap is handy, but can mess up nice shirts - the
handle is best for those times for when you're all dolled up (I
mean, uh, dudded up). The main section of the bag should be expandable, so you can also
use it for a weekend getaway when you want. Finally, I'd like to see bags with more personality, maybe a few
that recall the satchels worn by Pony Express riders or look like
old doctor bags, but are practical for today's man. We man-purse-wearing guys shouldn't have to make due with oversized
laptop cases or bike-courier bags anymore!
The Man Purse