14 DAY TRIAL // They say one could easily get lost in a woman’s handbag, especially if it happens to be of the oversized, bottomless type that were so in fashion these past years. However, the new season brings a new trend: miniature clutches and handbags. Not only are they incredibly cute and stylish but, oddly enough, they’re also practical – but that’s only because the weight a woman carries around daily has dropped by 57 percent, the Telegraph reports.
They also say one could never say with precision what it is that a woman considers so vital to her everyday survival that she literally has to carry it around wherever she goes. As it turns out, one can pinpoint exactly what those items are, as a recent survey by Debenhams shows, because once those items have downsized, so has the weight of her handbag. From carrying on her shoulder 3.5kg in 2006, a woman burdened herself with only 1.5kg in 2009, which marks a 57 percent drop, says the publication.
“Researchers believe the drop in handbag weight – which is now at its lowest in seven years – is because of the introduction of iPhones and Blackberries which have replaced laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, chargers, MP3 players and filofaxes. […] The study found that in the last 15 years laptops and mobile phones had the greatest impact on the weight on women’s shoulders in Britain. The popularity of the mobile phone in the mid 90s added 247g to handbags in the UK - making the overall weight 1.4kg. In the early 2000s, the iPod increased the average weight to 1.6kg,” the Telegraph writes of the findings of the study.
“Two years ago, women were carrying around 7.3lbs – the equivalent of three and a half bags of sugar – everywhere they went. Finally the burden placed upon working women is falling – and it’s all thanks to technology. As the weight of handbags peaked, we worked to increase the tensile strength of weight-bearing straps and stitching across our offer. This is a level of quality we will continue to offer for those women who are still carrying everything but the kitchen sink around,” Sue Tebbitts of Debenhams adds.
The good news is that, as technology advances, the weight of a woman’s handbag will continue to drop considerably. Throughout 2010 at least, the tendency will be encouraged by the surge in popularity of miniature handbags. Clearly, popular items like books, magazines and deodorants, will no longer find a place in these tiny totes, and will perhaps have to be discarded.