Thanks to the internet, we now do most of our purchases online, including ordering groceries, paying our bills, ordering take out, and shopping for different products. While this has revolutionized the shopping industry, you have to be extra careful since you can’t physically check the product. If you’re shopping for purses online, you must learn how to measure a purse.
Since you can’t physically examine the purse, it’s hard to check the product quality, space, and size. Learning how to measure a purse can help you understand the purse’s measurements and make the decision-making process easier.
If measuring a purse is something you’ve never really paid attention to, read our guide to make sure you never buy the wrong purse again.
How Your Purse’s Size Affects Appearance
Most women own and carry purses. Even though large-sized purses are becoming incredibly popular, they’re not for everyone. Not everyone knows this, but your purse’s size can influence your overall look. For instance, small-sized purses make you look bigger, while larger bags make you look smaller.
If you’re tall and bulky, carrying a small bag will make you look smaller. Similarly, if you’re smaller and want to look bigger, carry a small-sized purse. Knowing how to measure a purse can help you pick out the perfect size to suit your appearance. However, most women don’t know where to begin and often end up returning the purse, or worse, putting it away in a closet and never use it.
A Simple Guide to Different Purse Sizes
Let’s say you find a really nice purse on a great website in a large size. How can you tell how big the large-sized purse is? Or, suppose you’re looking for a purse that’s the same size as the ones you currently own. How do you determine the size of a bag you find online?
Learning how to measure a purse can answer these questions and clear all size-related confusion. First, you need to understand purse sizes, and what measurements they correspond to. These sizes include:
· Small Purses
Small purses are typically 6-12 inches wide and are suitable for keeping your most essential items like your mobile phone, medicine, wallet, etc.
· Medium Purses
Medium-sized purses are slightly larger than smaller purses and up to 14 inches wide. You can carry your wallet, wipes, your phone, and a notebook, etc.
· Large Purses
A large-sized purse is typically between 14-16 inches in width, and spacious enough for your wallet, a small makeup case, a water bottle, power bank, notebook, and charger, etc.
· Extra Large Purses
This is the largest purse size you can buy. They’re usually over 16 inches wide and can carry many large items along with your essentials, such as tablets, novels, makeup cases, diapers, wipes, checkbooks, etc. If you still need more space, you might as well get a backpack.
Understanding Purse Measurements
The next step in learning how to measure a purse is understanding the dimensions of your current purse to compare it with the one you’re planning to buy online. Purse measurements involve taking three basic measurements – length (L), width (W), and height (H). If you’re shopping online, you’ll see the measurements of different products similar to something like this: 7” L x 6” H x 5” W.
How to Measure a Purse the Right Way
Now that you understand the purse measurement dimensions, let’s look at the steps to measure them the right way:
1. Measure the Length
The length is the first dimension you’ll measure on your purse. Place a measuring tape on the two widest points, and check long the purse is. However, you should know that most purses don’t have consistent shapes. If that’s the case with your purse, you need to measure the length at three distinctive points – the top, middle, and bottom.
2. Measure the Width
You can check the purse’s width by measuring the longest distance between the front and back sides. In this case, the shape of your purse doesn’t matter. Simply place your measuring tape from the back to the front and note down the measurement.
3. Measure the Height
Next, you need to measure the height, which is the distance between the purse’s opening and base. The purse’s shape in this case matters since you’ll be counting from different starting points, depending on your purse’s shape. For instance, if you’re shopping for a slouch bag, you should know the height measurements in this case and start from the lowest resting point (the center) to the base.
4. Measure the Strap Drop Length
This is an additional dimension that you can use to find out how big the top handles are. It is the distance between the purse’s opening and the strap’s highest point. If this distance exceeds 8 inches, you can easily carry the purse on your shoulder. Additionally, you can also measure the strap’s length from its connection points. This will help you know how high or low you can carry the purse.
5. Measure the Depth
Since most designers and purse manufacturers use different ways to list dimensions, this can confuse potential buyers. To avoid this, you can measure the purse’s depth. This follows the same steps as measuring the width. The only difference is that you’ll take this measurement on the side of the purse, measuring front to back.
Our Final Thoughts
Learning how to measure a purse seems like a lot of trouble and unnecessary, but it can save you money and time. You’ll spend less time on the internet trying to figure out the size of different purses. More importantly, you won’t waste money on buying a purse that’s too big or doesn’t fit all your essentials.
