Their New Bag

The only men who used to carry hand bags were medieval couriers, New Guinea natives, mailmen, doctors, photographers and Truman Capote. These days, with trousers slim and pocketless and Ed wardian jackets cut to hold no more than the wearer, men are finding it ever more difficult to make room for even a credit card. Billfolds, eyeglasses and loose change? Forget them. Unless, of course, a fellow could get away with carrying a handbag.

He not only can, but is. Some men, of course, are old hands with a bag: Designer Rudi Gernreich has a complete wardrobe of them. Others, like Sammy Davis Jr., Jazz Trumpeter Hugh Masakela, Actors Jim Brown and Elliott Gould, Manhattan Publisher Jerry Mason and a host of lesser-known straight men, are busily following suit. Hippies have long favored the style, and members of a Houston contingent not only wear them but do a thriving business making and selling their brown suede "stash bags" for from $3 to $5. Industrial Designer Darrell Howe likes the fashion so much he is designing a shoulder bag to be used by his Los Angeles staff, but he admits that he left his own at home on a trip last week to Dallas. "There are certain areas where you can move with a shoulder bag," says Howe, "and other areas where you would be eaten alive."

Shoulder Models. Generally, U.S. sales of handbags for men are limited to stores on both the coasts. In California, 'both I. Magnin's and Saks Fifth Avenue offer a variety of styles, ranging from a heavy vinyl satchel ($17.50) to Vuitton's convertible shoulder-strap model ($125). Gucci, credited with starting the fad two years ago in Italy, shows two shoulder models in leather and canvas (Actor Marcello Mastroianni wears his with matching pants), along with the favorite clutch bag, a steal at $69. Furrier Jacques Kaplan has a dressier number, in fur with outside pockets, for $150. Paris Couturier Givenchy, in the U.S. last week, promised that his designs next year will include a purse for men. But in Italy, no one is waiting around. Shops in Rome have been doing a snappy business in men's bags for almost a year now.

Do bags have social significance? Los Angeles Psychiatrist Jerome Jacobi sees the trend toward handbags for men as good and healthy. "It could indicate," he explains, "the disintegration of the more superficial aspects of role differentiation." One may wonder why that is healthy. Clinical Psychologist Leonard Olinger regards the fad as "an overreaction that tends to deny the real differences between the sexes, just as in the past we have been forced to be terribly different when there isn't that much difference. The truth lies somewhere in between."

Toothbrush Holder. Truman Capote couldn't care less. He has carried a handbag for years. "I don't see how people get along without some sort of little satchel," he says. "Mine's really a medical bag," he explains. "When people ask me what's in it I say I'm a pusher." What does he carry in it, then? "I keep my money in it. And a book, in case I have to wait for someone. And the papers I'm working on. And four or five pairs of glasses. And a toothbrush and toothpaste, because you never know where you might spend the night."

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