A recent exhibition displays the best in the world of purses and handbags, from designer replica handbags to expensive luxury products such as Chanel handbags. To some, handbags are simply functional accessories for carrying odds and end, but the exhibit, entitled “Pocket Anthropology: A Treasure of Handbags,” aims to illuminate the significance of the purse in modern society. It is showing at the Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The influence of designer handbags, and the more modern trend of designer replica handbags, on class and high society cannot be ignored. Chanel handbags have remained an enduring symbol of the swank socialite for nearly a century. Meanwhile, Chanel replica handbags have become a way for the “everywoman” to sport an inexpensive status symbol.

The exhibit features over 50 examples of purses, designer bags, and designer replica handbags. Each purse begs the question, “what secrets have been tucked away in here?” Handbags remain a place to keep all things personal: to-do lists, cigarettes, phone numbers on crumpled paper, mints, mementos, and countless other personal and functional items have made their way through these bags. If Chanel replica handbags could tell stories, they would have some elaborate tales to tell.