How Big Should a Handbag Be?

A reader wonders if it’s better to carry a small bag or a large one. Our critic explains the relationship between purse size and power.

Remember that famous scene from Season 4 of “Succession,” in which Cousin Greg brings a date to Logan Roy’s party and she’s carrying what Tom calls a “ludicrously capacious bag”? It pretty much sums up the situation.

“What’s even in there?” Tom says. “Flat shoes for the subway? Her lunch pail?”

Fashion loves a ginormous bag, and there were lots of them on the runways at the recent spring 2025 shows — Ferragamo, Khaite, Proenza Schouler and Dries Van Noten, among others. But power players? Not so much.

Indeed, you could say there is an inverse relationship between handbags and authority. The truth is, the bigger the job, the smaller the handbag — if a handbag comes into play at all.

Think about it. The last female world leader to make handbags part of her signature was Margaret Thatcher, who turned her structured box bags into a personal totem, like her pussy-bow blouses. (She often carried Launer bags, also a favorite of Queen Elizabeth II.) Since then, it has been hard to think of a female head of state with a handbag.

(To be fair, it’s hard to think of a head of state of any gender with a bag, which is the point.)