It could well be argued that handbags have overtaken shoes as the luxury collectable accessory of choice for celebrities and ordinary women alike.

But in fact handbags may have had as long and controversial a history as the ubiquitous high heel, and according to handbag historians they were used in a similar way - to show the status of the wearer.

In the fourteenth century, the richer and more powerful the person was, the more jewels and embroidery festooned the handbag. Not much has changed in the handbag world, then.

Over the centuries handbags have gone through many adaptations and fashions, but the word handbag was only coined in the 1900s. The start of the twentieth century also heralded the type of handbag we would recognise today - with bags getting increasingly smaller and the introduction of handbag fasteners, inner compartments and locks.

But that is enough history: clearly the most important time period in terms of handbags was the fifties, which saw the rise of the ultimate handbag designer houses; including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Hermes.

Like Chanels Number 5 perfume, some of these handbags have become instantly recognisable fashion icons; signifiers of the rich and the famous. Sadly, though, this means that showing off your new Louis Vuitton at the office party, or having a stash of Gucci handbags in the wardrobe, is out of the price range of almost everybody.

We should be grateful for the Internet, for perhaps giving us mortals a chance to own a genuine Gucci handbag without having to win the lottery or shoplift. The web is so full of second hand designer handbag dealers that auction giant Ebay have branched out with their own dedicated handbag site, e bags.

Even better, high street shops and even hypermarkets are increasingly living up to the ideals set by the exclusive and expensive designer houses, and it has never been more possible that you can buy a handbag for eight dollars and pass it off as a unique one-off! Truly this decade ought to be the decade of the handbag: and specifically the stylish and affordable handbag. Handbag fans rejoice!