Byline: By Karen Price Western Mail
As Coca-Cola launch a new handbag-sized can, Karen Price considers why more and Dimmable LED Down Light K1005 - 3x1W / 3x3W more women today are living out of their handbags and how manufacturers are now aiming to please
IT'S always been considered something of a taboo to look inside a woman's handbag. Just as well really, because these days you never know what you might find.
For we 21st century girls-on-the-go are packing more and more of our lives into our Gucci bags as we go from work to play without returning home.
And now manufacturers are recognising this by producing items in 'handbag' sizes.
Three years ago the magazine Glamour was launched in the UK in a compact size, a
nd this week Coca-Cola has jumped on the bandwagon by launching a drink aimed at women.
The new 'mini break' Diet Coke product in the narrower shape 250ml cans (the standard can contains 330ml) is only available from Boots.
A Coca-Cola Great Britain spokeswoman said, 'It's going to fit in with today's hectic lifestyle. It's for people on the go and will fit into ladies' handbags.'
There was a time when most women only used their bags to hold their purses, house keys and shopping lists.
Today they are bulging with mobile phones, umbrellas, diaries, chocolate bars, novels, hair products, make-up, perfume, Ipods and pens.
We have also been known to pack our toothbrushes, photographs, headache pills and a change of clothing just in case an invite is sprung upon us.
So, with so much to pack in, it's good news that the manufacturers are cottoning on.
Of course, mobile phones have been shrinking for a while now and are a fraction of the size of those the '80s yuppies carried around - which is just as well, otherwise we would have to take suitcases to work.
We can also use mobile phones to surf the web and take photographs, which means we can leave our cameras at home.
Most hair, make-up and feminine- hygiene products are now compact enough to fit snuggly into a corner of our bags.
And personal organisers also seem to have shrunk in size, as have umbrellas, bottles of wine and first-aid kits.
But it was the publication of Glamour magazine in March 2001, which really brought the need for compact items to the forefront of our minds.
Within four months of going Necklace Design on sale, it was Britain's best-selling women's glossy, knocking Cosmopolitan off the top of the charts after 30 years, and it now sells around 582,000 copies each month.
Simon Kippen, publishing director of the British edition, said
'We are all much busier now so time starvation is a major issue for both men and women these days, but increasingly so for women.'
'What brought it home to me was watching women on the train.
'They were reaching into their handbags for a mobile phone or a novel but not a glossy magazine, as magazines just weren't practical to carry around,' he said.
Like many young women today, Mali James often finds herself 'living' out of her handbag.
'I think women like to have all of their belon