Kiss-Clasp Me Deadly

Like Ava, above, there's something in classic film noir that grips and won't let go . . . the rainslicked nights, the melancholy of the hero, the dead-souled beauty of the woman that destroys him . . . all wrapped in looming black curves that were a nightmarish exaggeration of the Deco sensibility.

That design ethos crept into the late-40s daylight as well, with Buick's Roadmaster automobile, the furniture designs of mid-century modern architects like Henry Glass . . .


and, now getting to the point of this post, handbags.


The beauty above, made by the dubiously-named François of California, captures all the nasty dark volupté of the time, right on down to the pink vinyl interior. François bags are marked by this overblown sculptural quality. Notwithstanding the calibre of design, examples can be found at very reasonable prices online and in vintage shops. This particular example is from Vintage à la Mode in San Francisco.

If you're into channeling your inner Noir heroine, a bag like this would be a reasonably safe way to go.

(photo top from The Killers, 1946, review on electricsheepmagazine.co.uk; Henry P. Glass chair design from the ArchiTech Gallery's show Future Perfect: Mid-Century Modern Design Drawings, 1947 Buick Roadmaster from www.supercars.net, many thanks)

Style Icon: Jacqueline du Pré

It's not to my credit that the first thing that caught my eye in this marvelous photo of British cellist Jacqueline du Pré was the handbag.

To make amends to one of the most brilliant performers ever, let's backtrack and pay homage where it is due.

I don't have any details on the picture itself but it's surely taken en route between concert halls. She is the picture of perfect happiness, Alice in a wonderland of virtuosity made and met. She fairly crackles with vitality: huge smile, streams of strawberry-blonde hair, instrument endearingly turtle-shaped at her side. You can read the full story of her life here.

This is how it ends: her career was finished at 28 by multiple sclerosis; she died less than twenty years later.

A short glimpse of her genius, in this performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto --conducted by Daniel Barenboim, with whom she had a torrential love affair and married.



And now, less guiltily, on to the bag . . .

to my eye it's a dead ringer for those made by 60s manufacturer Bienen-Davis. Here's one currently for sale on eBay, many thanks for the picture, Trish.

What I love about this company's bags is their neatness, containment, understatement. Perhaps du Pré liked this as well? While she was close to bursting with the scope of her talent, the bag in her hand was tidy and elegant.

Stealth Brands: Mark Cross

I love accessories with a pedigree--scarves, bags, belts, or costume jewellery made by a company that did its business in exemplary fashion for decades, sticking to the principles of its founders.

Given the demands of modern marketing and celeb-based brand development, these boutique businesses, often family-run, are currently at a huge disadvantage, and have two obvious options to survive. The first is to allow the name and design archives to be acquired by a money-rich conglomerate, which with luck will be enlightened enough to hold true to the brand's ethos. The second is to depend on the steady custom of the wealthy few who are not interested in broadcasting their advantages through easily recognized logos. As these few become fewer indeed, more and more of these businesses are simply shutting their doors.

But because their products were created to last, the brand lives on, fashion's fleet of Flying Dutchmen, in the secondhand realm, where they are known to and sought-after by connoisseurs but otherwise so under the radar that the prices are invariably well below the pieces' actual worth. Such is the case with the leather goods of the now defunct Mark Cross.

The name may mean little to most luxury goods buyers nowadays, but back in mid-century, it stood for beautiful luggage, handbags, and other leather goods. Grace Kelly carried a negligee in a Mark Cross bag in the film Rear Window. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor ordered suitcases by the containerload. The company sold the first wristwatch ever in the United States. According to its chairman in 1969, customer service was paramount.

"If someone calls up from a hotel to say his suitcase won't lock, we treat it as an emergency," he told Time magazine, "He gets immediate help, no matter how small a customer he is."

I was lucky enough to experience this service firsthand, as a young editor in the mid-1980s, when the Fifth Avenue branch of the store was still in operation. My mom had given me her old navy blue, boxy little Mark Cross camera bag (so called, I guess, because it was just large enough to hold an Instamatic, a wallet, and a lipstick). It was a cross-shoulder strap style, which was just as well in Manhattan in those years, and I wore the thing near to death. Inevitably, some of the stitches detached where the strap met bag. I braved it into the store, abashed to be carrying a twenty-year-old item, hoping someone could tell me the name of a good repair shop. The saleswoman practically snatched it out of my hands, telling me to come back in a week. "But, how much?" I asked, being on an extremely stringent budget. "Oh," she reassured me. "Of course there's no charge."

So when, a few weeks ago, in Selfridges, I saw a chic young woman carrying an over-the-shoulder boxy little bag and looking great with it, I reckoned the time had come for another Mark Cross. Here it is, off Etsy for $39/£24.



If you love beautiful things, but are not so keen to pay for their celeb-driven marketing, you might want to keep this stealth brand in mind.

(advertisement at top from Bag Lady University, the invaluable educational arm of Bag Lady Emporium, with many thanks)

Crocks Carla's Way

Am currently in gator country in the American southeast, and have seen quite a few of these armored beasties lazing in the local canals and lagoons. They're impressive in life, but at the risk of getting savaged by animal rights activists, I think they're just as beautiful (and far better behaved) in handbag form.

Here's a fine specimen on the arm of Madame Sarkozy. It's from Dior, a line she wears quite frequently. I wouldn't be surprised if Galliano himself hadn't given her the most gorgeous exemplar in their stash, knowing the subsequent publicity to be priceless.

This bag costs well into the thousands. But a clever girl can find a superb vintage version on eBay for far, far less. Brands to look for include Lucille de Paris and Vassar. Before you bid, examine the scans very carefully, and know that most professional sellers of vintage reptile bags have trained a very bright light on the item for photography, to make the scales look as glossy as possible.

(photo from Harper's Bazaar UK, © The Picture Library)