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Handbags
Anna Johnson
(Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
2002 Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0761123776
The Power of the Purse, a history of the handbag & its style.
Handbags have been the essential accessory for women down the centuries. They have been fashion statements, as well as playful or practical or simply decadent luxuries. It is said they signal who a woman is or wants to be.
That being said, my greatest era of freedom was when I didn't carry anything I couldn't fit into a pocket! Which was during my children's teenage years, when I no longer needed to haul their supplies around. For most of my adult life, however, I have bought or made countless handbags--for work, play, evening, travel. Of all the handbags I've held, perhaps the one I fashioned from my youngest child's outgrown & worn pair of jeans was both the most useful & beautiful, once I'd festooned it with a strap & tons of ornamentation.
So, Anna Johnson's Handbags was a fun excursion in which I learnt to know my Gucci from my Pucci & about the Bolide, Birkin, Baguettes, Moschino's smiley-face & Judith Leiber's whimsical minaudiers, & Venetian vs. Bohemian beads.
A big celebration of those containers in which we store all manner of useful things we think we'll need away from home, & which we hang from our arms & shoulders. This book comes in a handy bag-sized packet offering photos of the spectacular, the artsy, the bon ton & the whimsical. & always, the expensive!
David Roby's lyrical poem I Have a Handle on the Situation opens this thick little book, which takes you on a history of how the handbag was born & borne, & how it evolved through materials, artistic humor & social iconography.
From a 5th century Scythian pouch to Priscilla Snyder's 1997 Dragon grip. From European almsbags to a beaded one for an imperial evening; from pocket books & long pockets from 17the century American women to tapestry French bags & Ottoman reticules from the early 1800s. From pirate chests of the 1930s to wicker bags of the 1950s. From the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious colors & patterns of the 1960s to the leather & tooling of Turkey. From a Hermes saddlebag to a Vuitton bucket shoulder bag, see what has inspired & who have crafted these essential accessories.
Anna Johnson offers us six sections: Class Acts: Elegant Icons; Night Creatures: The Evening Bag; Sculptural Chic: Shapes & Structures; Obsessive Ornament: The Decorated Bag; American Classics: Sporty Style & Novelty & Caprice: Handbag Humor.
The names of the handbag makers read like a who's who of the haute & the couture: Chanel, Fendi Ostrik, Balenciaga, George Ruff, Katherine Bauman, Elsa Schiaparelli, Mali Parmi, Lulu Guiness, Anne Marie of France, Elizabeth Ardin, Natori, Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Calvin Klein, Dooney & Bourke, Levi Strauss, Jean Paul Gaultier & et al.
As I oohed & aahed my way through this thick little book, I'd murmur: “This! This is the one I like the most.” Then I'd turn another page & behold another beauty. Some of them are insane & some are seriously sensible--all of them simply beautiful, interesting icons of their times.
A fascinating, informative, colorful & well presented archive.
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