Handbags & Purses - Designer Brands

Perhaps the most enduring of practical everyday companions, bags have been used by both women and men throughout the ages to carry their belongings. Today, handbags and purses are much more than highly-functional accessories; they are steadfast statement makers of the fashion set.

Take a stroll down luxurious boutique-lined Avenue Montaigne in Paris or New York's swanky Madison Avenue, and you'll see that bags dominate the window displays of high-end stores. No other accessory can match the success and power of fashionable bags, which can resemble everything from structured train cases to slouchy bindle-style sacks.

At auction houses around the world, handbags and purses are increasingly figuring prominently in catalogs. They favor bags ranging from ultra-rare, just-large-enough under-arm evening clutches to nearly-impossible-to-find oversized holdalls.

The purse auction market has produced record sales in recent years. In some cases, limited-edition pre-owned bags can go for as much as 200 percent of their original retail value at auction.

Quick Facts

• A small 19th century woolen bag handmade by British monarch Queen Victoria sold for $1,249 in 2009 at Bonhams in Edinburgh, Scotland
• At a Heritage auction in 2011, a one-of-a-kind Hermès Kelly bag in porosus crocodile and fine black leather went for $125,000
• Luxury handbag prices have risen steadily. The industry has realized an annual growth rate of more than 50 percent in recent years, helping to spark increased interest in vintage bag auctions