MILWAUKEE - Whither the briefcase? Once it was the icon of the businessman - much like the three-martini lunch, a dapper hat and cigarette smoking in the office.
In the 1980s, women were encouraged to carry a briefcase to seem, well, business-like, and the briefcase became the necessary accessory for power suits and Peter Pan collars.
Not so much anymore.
For many, the square, hard-body briefcase collects dust in the closet, replaced by the ease of the shoulder-hanging laptop bag or the funky look of a messenger bag that pulls across the chest. Some women shelved their briefcase and carried a stylish handbag to work one casual Friday, Stainless Steel Brooch then never looked back.
"When I even think of the word 'briefcase,' an image of an older businessman in his 50s or 60s pops into my head," said Megan Radaj, 23, a sales assistant with M&I Bank's treasury management services. "I think briefcases are a thing of the past."
The briefcase is doing a slow fade from the business world, and convenience, style and function are likely reasons. Women who prefer a large handbag for their work materials say it's easier to take it from daytime to nighttime and to keep all their purse essentials in the same place. Others say the briefcase can't protect a laptop as a specially padded laptop bag can. And the briefcase doesn't sling ergonomically over the shoulder or chest as competitors do.
"Briefcases are still about 60 percent of our business," said Lisa Wells, a spokeswoman for Tumi, a New York luggage company. But in the last five years the Tumi line has grown to include messenger bags and laptop bags, from the ubiquitous black nylon to lush leather.
"There's the younger guy who doesn't want to look like his dad or doesn't want to look like his boss," Wells said. "It's a big lifestyle change."
Stacey Jones, a vice president at M&I Bank in Milwaukee, started out with a briefcase but now carries a designer bag-slash-purse during the week.
"It's more fashionable and easier to manage," Jones, 34, said in an e-mail. "I travel to meet with customers, and a single bag is less cumbersome. When I do require another bag, it is usually the laptop bag. This past weekend I had to decide if I was taking the briefcase or the laptop bag through the airport. Silver Cufflinks The laptop bag won. Not only does it hold the computer, but it has great pockets to organize other necessities."
Ellen Goldstein, chairwoman of the accessories design department at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, thinks the current state of briefcase affairs should serve as a wake-up call to the industry. The biggest update they've made to the case since James Bond popularized the attache case was to add a convertible shoulder strap a few years ago.
"It was clunky," Goldstein said. Like many women, Goldstein started out carrying a briefcase and a coordinated handbag but then switched to a backpack because it was more comfortable. Then she switched to a messenger bag before switching to a large stylish handbag that held everything.
That worked for a while. Now she's switching back to a messenger bag for another practical reason.
"It frees up my hand so I can carry my coffee," she said.
Jason Matayas got a briefcase as a gift for college graduation. He used it at first. He thought it made him look more professional.
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