The Reticule

The reticule was born of a wardrobe crisis. When the slim, high-waisted dresses of the Regency made sewn-in pockets impossible, women needed somewhere to put their things — and the answer was a small bag carried in the hand or on the wrist. Its name came from the Latin reticulum, 'little net', because the earliest reticules were netted. This French example, from 1810–1820, shows how quickly the humble net became a luxury object: silk knit worked with glass beads, a metal-hinged clasp, and a metal chain.

Inside went the essentials of a lady's day: coins, smelling salts, a fan, a handkerchief, perhaps a dance card. Gentlemen found the whole thing hilarious and rechristened it the 'ridicule' — a pun the bag never quite shook. But the reticule persisted, evolving from net to silk to velvet to beadwork, and it carried on well into the Victorian era as the evening bag, long after day dresses had regained their pockets.

Every modern handbag descends from it. The reticule established the principle that a woman's bag could be a decorative object in its own right — small, beautiful, and carried visibly — and the evening clutch is its direct heir, two centuries on.