The Vintage Purse Museum Photo and History Archive

Brocade Stand-Up Evening Vanity Bag

2026-10-20T14:42:00.012-07:00

1938 ad, the Miami Daily News

Made in Italy Black Bucket Bag with Prong-Set Rhinestones

2026-10-17T14:40:00.006-07:00

1941 Lewis Antelle Personalized Frame Bag

2026-10-14T14:33:00.003-07:00

The Courier-Journal, Sept. 7, 1941

Reedcraft Weavers of Beulah Michigan Woven Boho Tote

2026-10-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

Read about Reedcraft Weavers here: https://www.ccbreland.com/blog/reedcraft-weavers-1940-2011

And here: http://betsiecurrent.com/index.php/summers-in-beulah-history-of-reedcraft-weavers-beulah/

Adele Straw Wicker Bag with Poodle and Eiffel Tower Motif

2026-10-07T14:36:00.007-07:00

SPECIAL POST: The Para-Tote - A 1950s Concept Bag That Became a Reality

2026-10-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

Para-Tote with fake cardinal, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

The Para-Tote - A 1950s Concept Bag That Became a Reality

Years ago, the curator of The Vintage Purse Museum was doing her never-ending handbag research, and stumbled upon an ad for a very quirky bag: the Para-Tote. This box-shaped plastic-handled clear vinyl novelty item was meant to hold one's keys, wallet, and lipstick atop a shelf that covered the rest of the interior, which featured air vents, a wooden perch, and food and water holders for... a live bird.

Not only were we fascinated, we thought, wow, we will never, ever find one of these bags for our collection.

We were wrong.

After we acquired our Para-Tote, pictured at the top of the page with a fake cardinal—homage to Arizona, where our collection is stored—the next step was to pinpoint its history.

The Para-Tote is in newspaper articles and other publications as hyphenated or one word, and with the first letters in both upper and lower case, but we're writing it as "Para-Tote" throughout this article for consistency.

Carroll Daily Times Herald, November 19, 1954, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Turns out the Para-Tote was a concept bag, submitted to an annual contest at Hess Bros., a Philadelphia department store chain founded in 1897 by brothers Charles Hess and Max Hess. It was Max Hess Jr. (1911-1968), who took over leadership at Hess's in 1935, and began holding special events such as flower shows, contests, fashion shows, and celebrity appearances.

Max Hess Jr. was responsible for 1954's fourth annual "Versatility in Design and Use Contest," which was chaired by Ed Carroll. Among the sixty winners to receive commemorative plaques was Jana Handbags, Inc., designer of the Para-Tote. The winning items were later displayed at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.

Jana Handbags, Inc. was founded in 1942 by Harry Jason (1910-2002) and Ludwig "Lou" Nathan (1908-1987). In some 1954 newspaper articles, Lou Nathan was said to have been the designer of the Para-Tote concept bag, but we also found a 1956 article stating that actress Marian Meyser was the designer. We could not find a Marian Meyser in genealogy archives, so we believe this was either a stage name or a misspelling. Therefore, we're not sure who designed the Para-Tote.

A more important question may be, what inspired its creation?

It occurred to us during our research that the Para-Tote was reminiscent of 1970s clear platform shoes containing water and goldfish. Of course, these were a fad circa 1973, which would be nearly 20 years after the Para-Tote's debut at the design contest.

But wait.

We did further digging and found out that, in November 1951, the National Shoe Convention in Chicago displayed a pair of goldfish shoes—which were not going to be sold to consumers. (See photo below.) Could these concept shoes have been Harry Jason and Lou Nathan's inspiration for the Para-Tote?

Goldfish shoes, November 18, 1951, The Philadelphia Inquirer, clipped via Newspapers.com.

As the 1951 goldfish shoes were not meant to go into production, we wonder if Mr. Jason and Mr. Nathan also intended for their Para-Tote to be a one-off to bring publicity to their brand.

We don't know the answer to this, but we do know that high-end maker (primarily of leather goods) Mark Cross began selling them less than six months after Jana's 1954 contest win. They cost $18.50 at Mark Cross's New York store. This was a tidy sum in 1955, plus the 10 percent federal excise "luxury" tax on handbags. (Unless they somehow got around the tax by calling it a bird cage or "parakeet limousine" as in the ad below.) Still, based on what we saw in newspaper ads of the era, $18.50 was within Mark Cross's pricing parameters for a non-leather bag.

Mark Cross ad in House Beautiful magazine, July 1955, clipped via Internet Archive.

Mark Cross ads were definitely geared toward a moneyed audience, but journalist Marj Heyduck's (1913-1969) newspaper column of July 28, 1955 (below), shares some wry skepticism about the popularity of the Para-Tote.

The Journal Herald, July 28, 1955, clipped via subscription to Newspapers.com.

We tried to find a connection between Jana and Mark Cross, whose president was, at the time, Gerald Murphy (1888-1964), but there is no evidence of one. We suspect that what occurred was an agreement to produce these bags based on the concept piece. We don't know if the idea was purchased outright, or if Jana received a percentage of sales, or if it was another type of collaboration between Jana and Mark Cross.

We found an August 1955 newspaper column by Broadway columnist Whitney Bolton (1900-1969), who said that he and Ruth Mitchell (1919-2000), a Broadway stage manager, walked into the Mark Cross store at 55th and 5th, and one of the Para-Totes was on display, with a live, "happy" parakeet inside. He said the bag was "slightly open down the seams" to let in air, so we believe that the air holes were added to a later version of this bag, which we'll get to in a moment. Later that day, Mr. Bolton said he saw actress and singer Elaine Stritch (1925-2014) on the street and told her about the parakeet handbag. It appeared to Mr. Bolton that Ms. Stritch thought he was joking.

Ms. Heyduck and Mr. Bolton weren't the only newspaper columnists that poked fun at the Para-Tote.

1955 Boston Globe column, screenshot via subscription to OldNews.com.

As the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity, so Mark Cross surely benefited from these humorous takes. However, by late 1955 the Para-Tote, identified more generically as a "parakeet handbag," would be sold in pet shops and department stores for about $4. We believe our bag is one of these later, more affordable versions. They also had the addition of air holes rather than vented sides. Ours did not come with a plastic shelf at the top to hold keys and such, so we don't know if a shelf came with it, or if ours is missing.

October 14, 1955, Evening Star, Hecht's department store, clipped via Newspapers.com.

The Vintage Purse Museum's Para-Tote, sans fake bird. We believe this is a later version of the bag because it has holes, rather than relying on the seams for air circulation. We don't know if this version came with a clear plastic shelf. If it did, ours is missing.

So, what company actually manufactured the Para-Tote? We're reasonably certain it wasn't Jana or Mark Cross. Midcentury handbag makers sometimes relied on outside contractors to create their products, rather than make them in-house.

Whenever we do research, we use keyword combinations in the search boxes of our various resources. Sometimes we get a promising lead. In this case, what piqued our interest was a reference to a New Jersey company called Bird Bag Co. The name itself didn't prove anything, but we also found a 1954 Bird Bag Co. help-wanted ad looking for "experienced handbag frame coverers."

We reached out to relatives (names withheld for privacy) of the founders of Bird Bag Co., and they kindly responded to our email query. While the timeline of this company is very close to the invention and production of the Para-Tote, they couldn't verify that their family were the makers. They did agree, however, that the name of the company and its work framing bags for handbag makers could be potential clues. If we uncover anything more, we will update this post.

News of the Para-Tote—with optional 14K gold ID tag—made it across the Atlantic, as evidenced by the 1956 Coventry Evening Telegraph article below. Columnist Mavis Cole only says that it was a "craze in New York," and not that it was available in the UK. Mark Cross had a division in the UK at that time, but we don't know if it ever sold the Para-Tote.

Coventry Evening Telegraph, November 2, 1956, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Mark Cross advertisement for the Para-Tote in the April 15, 1956 issue of Vogue magazine. Clipped via Internet Archive. 1956 was the last year we could find ads for the Para-Tote.

1956 appears to be the last year the Para-Tote was made and sold, but we did find a 1959 photo of actor Hugh Dempster (1900-1987), and his wife, actor Emma Trekman (1909-2000) visiting Portland, Oregon with their parakeet, Bozie (photo below).

August 19, 1959, The Oregon Daily Journal, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Researching this part handbag, part birdcage, and all conversation piece was quite a journey! While this parakeet/handbag concept wouldn't fly today (pun intended), one must remember that the 1950s were innovative times, and that an abundance of contemporary handbag designs are based on those past styles. Think about it—these days, there are people who carry their dogs and cats in handbags!

This article ©2026 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Special thanks to the relatives of the founders of Bird Bag Co. Resources used were Newspapers.com, MyHeritage.com, and OldNews.com, to which we have paid subscriptions, as well as Google and Internet Archive. Please do not use photos or information from our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.

Petit Point Bag with Enamel Frame - Elaborate Scene

2026-09-28T11:56:00.007-07:00

Special Post: Mahler Belts and Bags - With Input From the Daughter of The Founder

2026-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Mahler of California leather handbag with mandala-style fabric applique. Founder Irving Mahler's daughter Marcey told us this was her father's homage to Emilio Pucci (1914-1992), a designer that was popular in the 1960s, and whose design house remains high fashion today. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Mahler of California Belts and Bags

We planned to write an article about California handbag makers, showcasing a number of them together. We're still working on it, but decided to do a separate piece solely about Mahler Belts & Bags after we connected with the gregarious Marcey Mahler, who graciously shared her father Irving Mahler's story.

We also gathered information for this article from our usual resources, including newspaper archives, genealogy websites, and trade publications (via Google Books and the Internet Archive).

Mahler California imprint. Note the belt-shaped M. From one of the Mahler bags in the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Irving Mahler was born in Austria in 1904 to Adolph "Aaron" Mahler (1871-1963) and Malka "Mollie" Kraus Mahler (1874-1937). The Mahlers emigrated to New York around 1912, when Irving, one of six children, was eight years old. Marcey Mahler told us that there was some confusion surrounding their original last name, Fuchs, when the family entered the US, as Adolph spoke limited English. So when he was asked for his surname, he instead answered with his occupation, "mahler," which means "painter" in German.

While immigrant families' descendants have often assumed that surname changes happened during the US port entrance process, historians now say that this did not occur, and that names were taken directly from ships' manifests. In the case of the Mahlers, one could theorize that the change could have arisen not only due to Adolph Mahler's language barrier, but a transposition of the "name" and "occupation" categories on the manifest of the ship upon which they arrived.

Adolph was employed as a house painter in New York for a number of years until he eventually worked at a store. Marcey vaguely remembers from family lore that it may have been a dry cleaning business. The 1940 US Census shows Adolph as an assistant manager in an industry we can't make out because the writing is illegible. (We can assume that he Americanized the name Adolph to Aaron during this period for obvious reasons.)

The 1940 US Census also shows that Irving and one of his brothers were working in the belt business. Marcey recalls that their employer was Mo Gross, and we did find a Gross Belt & Novelty Co. operating in this time frame, but we don't know if this was Mo Gross's firm.

Model wearing a Mahler belt. September 21, 1955, The Los Angeles Times, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Irving married Florence Altschuler Mahler (1910-1968) in New York. They had two children, Howard and Marcey. Howard was born in New York, and Marcey in California. They relocated for the same reason many East Coasters move to the West Coast: the weather! Marcey told us that her father had taken a trip during a bitterly cold New York winter to visit cousins in California, then came home and told her mother that they were moving to Los Angeles.

Irving Mahler started working for a California belt company, eventually purchasing it. The business name Mahler Belts of California, Inc. was filed in 1952 (per a California business entity search), and was located (per a 1952 California business directory) at 1601 S. Broadway in Los Angeles with 15 employees.

It appears to have been established a bit earlier than 1952, as we found a 1951 reference to "Mahler belts & bags" in the trade publication California Stylist. This also indicates that Irving Mahler was already making handbags, even though his bread and butter was, at that time, belts.

A 1953 issue of California Stylist reported that "Irving Mahler (Mahler Belts) and Irving Chernuchin (Arrow Belts) will serve on the board of directors of the group which recently became affiliated with the California Sportswear & Dress Association." (Slight error in the publication: The owner of Prince Mfg. Co., the leather goods company that made Arrow belts, was Israel Chernuchin, 1919-1973.)

Mahler leather bag with wood scrollwork. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

July 15, 1970, The Press Democrat, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Marcey Mahler told us that, early on, her father had a manufacturing facility and showroom in the Cooper Building (now known as the Cooper Design Space) at 860 S. Los Angeles St., in what would become known as the Fashion District. This building was, said Marcey, "catty-corner" to the California Mart (nicknamed "Cal Mart," and also known as the California Market Center).

A 1961 classified ad we found in La Opinion, a Spanish language newspaper, said that Mahler Belts' address was 757 S. Los Angeles St.

Among Irving Mahler's collaborators was famous fashion designer Richard Blackwell (1922-2008), but their business relationship ended due to a financial dispute.

Irving Mahler, said Marcey, was an innovator who often looked at ways to diversify his brand. Inspired by the 1959 Annette Funicello song "First Name Initial," he expanded the business to include initial necklaces. He also invented the "PermaClip," which attached to the inside of Mahler belts to keep them from separating from skirts and pants.

April 14, 1962, the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, clipped via subscription to Newspapers.com.

The addition of leather handbags to Mahler Belts of California, Inc. came, said Marcey, because of a singular fashion style—one which her father absolutely despised—the "chemise," a somewhat shapeless dress that was not meant to be worn with a belt. This trend caused a significant decrease in belt sales.

It seems Irving Mahler was not alone in his distaste for the chemise, as we found the following snippet from the November 1957 issue of the trade publication Kiplinger's Personal Finance, which dryly reported: "Paris designers are promoting the 'chemise dress.' A chemise dress, men, is a gunny sack that has traveled abroad."

The chemise dress, inadvertent saboteur of the belt business. March 27, 1958, the Arizona Republic, clipped via subscription to Newspapers.com.

Thus the company had a name change to Mahler Bag & Belt., Inc. The business grew, and, in 1966, Irving Mahler leased an 18,400 sq. ft. office and showroom at 1044 S. Hope St. (This address is now a parking lot.)

Mahler leather and raffia handbag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

April 23, 1972, The Tuscaloosa News, clipped via Oldnews.com.

Marcey told us that her father was the first designer to use top grain leather along with contrasting white stitching on handbags. She also said that he was among the first to install a conveyor belt on the production line in his factory.

Mahler leather bag with contrast stitching, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

September 22, 1968, the Lubbock Avalanche, clipped via subscription to Newspapers.com.

When Marcey was a teen, she worked at the showroom with her father, who would ask her opinion on his bag designs. She would also show them to her classmates to get their thoughts on the bags, and let her father know which ones they liked.

September 11, 1966, the Arizona Republic, clipped via Newspapers.com.

In the mid-1970s, the company, which by then had changed its name to Mahler Sales Co., Inc., created the Slam belt and bag line, meant for a younger market, with the ad below showing a groovy Rolling Stones-like lips logo and '70s-does-'20s deco-style art. Marcey told us that the name "Slam" represented the initials of some of Irving Mahler's grandchildren.

July 1976 advertisement for Slam belts and bags in the trade publication Handbags and Accessories, clipped via Internet Archive.

Marcey remembers her father importing his inventory and components at the outset, but, like many handbag makers of the 1960s-1970s, Mahler Sales began bringing in even more products from Asia, including acrylic box bags. This was more than likely due to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and its dramatic effects on the handbag industry, which made it less expensive to import bags rather than make them in-house.

In December 1975, Mahler Sales Co. Inc. donated 86,000 belt buckles to the Braille Institute Thrift Shop in Los Angeles. Its manager, Marjorie Morris, decided to turn them into Christmas ornaments, with the help of student volunteers from local schools. So if you have an unusual Christmas ornament that looks something like a belt buckle among your collection of vintage holiday decor, it could very well be a Mahler piece!

Eventually, Marcey's brother Howard took over Mahler Sales and ran it for several years, until 1985, when the company closed its doors. We found a newspaper notice of liquidation of "Mahler Belt & Sales Co." by auction house Fred Bush and Associates that listed substantial assets, including machinery, to be sold August 27, 1985.

Irving's wife Florence, Marcey's mother, passed away at age 58 in 1968 from breast cancer, which she had survived for ten years, beating the odds at that time. Irving Mahler passed away in his home at the age of 89 in 1994. His son Howard passed in 2014.

The spirit of Irving Mahler continues with his legacy of well-made handbags, which not only endured over decades, but are roomy enough to hold everything we need.

"My father was very smart," said Marcey. "He was a visionary." The Vintage Purse Museum heartily agrees.

This article ©2026 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Special thanks to the Marcey Mahler. Resources used were Newspapers.com, Oldnews.com, and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. Other resources were Internet Archive, FamilySearch.com, and Google. Please do not use photos or information from our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.

Button Flap Three-Way Convertible Bag With Graffiti Design - Possibly by Stylemark

2026-09-24T11:53:00.007-07:00

Raspberry Colored Woven Bag by Tenafly Weavers

2026-09-20T11:50:00.001-07:00

1930s Dura-Flapper Laundry Bag

2026-09-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

29 Mar 1932, Tue The Courier (Waterloo, Iowa) Newspapers.com

1920s La Garde Leather Bag with Back Strap

2026-09-14T11:21:00.018-07:00

10 Oct 1926, Sun St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) Newspapers.com 11 Apr 1926, Sun St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) Newspapers.com 07 Jun 1927, Tue Commercial (Bangor, Maine) Newspapers.com

Light Gray and Dark Gray Silk Bags with Rhinestones and Beads - With Calling Cards, Handkerchiefs, Coins in Coin Purse

2026-09-10T11:17:00.021-07:00

White Beaded Bag with Beauvais Scene and Jeweled Frame and Clasp

2026-09-07T11:14:00.012-07:00

Murray Kruger Clutch with Inset Austrian Scene Tapestry - Sold by The Elaine Shop

2026-09-03T11:05:00.008-07:00

Special Post: Copa Collection/Carvalhu/Brazilian "Brutalist" Bags - The Facts

2026-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Silver-colored leather bag with sliding metal frame with leaf design and inset amethyst. This bag has a label inside that says "Genuine Leather - Made in India." From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum

Copa Collection/Carvalhu/Brazilian "Brutalist" Bags - The Facts

This style of artisan bag is intriguing in its design, which is generally that of a simple leather pouch with an eye-catching metal frame or flap, often embellished with semi-precious stones such as quartz or amethyst.

Our secondary interest is the misinformation behind it, which we began researching in 2021.

The Vintage Purse Museum occasionally attempts to do our best at myth-busting with regard to handbags, but must reiterate that we only offer these facts in the name of historical accuracy, and not to impugn anyone. The problem is not so much that this misinformation is spread purposely or with malice, but often due to simple ol' copy and paste. And, unfortunately, the expanding use of artificial intelligence.

In this case, our focus is on the two most common descriptors for this style of handbag: 1970s and "brutalist."

Unlabeled black leather bag with metal frame and stones. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Let's start with "brutalist," which was originally an architectural term, used after WWII. You can read more about it in a detailed May 2, 2026 Architectural Digest article. In essence, it was a type of constructional modernism that was described as raw, monochromatic, and geometrically bold.

There is much controversy—not only in architecture—but also about brutalist's later use in the description of a specific type of jewelry. We're not jewelry experts by any means, but we did note that some online jewelry forums have gotten very heated about this topic, particularly among jewelry purists who are not keen on the adoption of this term.

In addition to these arguments, we found other references to "brutalist jewelry" in the 2020s, but none in previous decades. While this does not mean that someone in the jewelry world didn't use it before 2020, we gathered it to be a much more contemporary designation to describe chunky jewelry that employs a ragged or unfinished look. (Not a criticism. We think this jewelry is gorgeous.)

Like the jewelry, the brutalist description that we often see with these handbags is based on the swirling or craggy metal ornamentation, often embellished with stones. These bags are primarily Brazilian in origin, but there are also handbags like this that are labeled "Made in India." Our bag pictured at the top of the page has one of these labels.

It is quite possible that some of the US importers and wholesalers of handbags and accessories started out using Brazilian-made bags of this design, but switched to India because manufacturing and labor costs were lower in South Asia. Or they were already importing bags from India and contracted with factories there to create designs that replicated Brazilian fashion.

Brazil is famous for its mining of gemstones and other natural materials, and some resources indicate that it is among the top five countries that make and export leather handbags. It is also well-known for its distinctive jewelry.

One could make the assumption that Brazilian jewelers' utilization of this technique in their bracelets, necklaces, and rings was the impetus for these jewelers and/or the handbag makers or importers to incorporate it into handbag frames. If we find firm documentation of how these frames came to be, we will update this article.

Black leather bag with metal frame and stone. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Sticker on the back of the handbag above.

Among the labels on some of these bags is "Carvalhu" or "Carvalhu Rio," which we could not find in any reference materials as a handbag manufacturer. However, we did learn a few things about this name.

"Carvalho" is a common Portuguese surname in Brazil, and "Carvalhu" is a variation of the spelling. (Brazil was colonized by Portugal in 1500, hence the Portuguese surnames and language.) One reference suggested that Carvalhu (with a "u") is a phonetic misspelling of Carvalho (with an "o"), but we could not confirm this. However, if this were a Brazilian company exporting its handbags to the US, it may have purposely changed the spelling to ensure correct pronunciation.

The maker names Copa Collection and Carvalhu are often used together on online sales sites, even when the handbag has no label or just one maker name on it. Attributing a maker to a bag that is unlabeled is more than likely due to AI and/or copy and paste.

This is also where the 1970s misidentification comes in. While we cannot say for certain that there weren't variations of this style of handbag in the 1970s, we found evidence that the earliest they were introduced to the US was the late 1980s, peaking in popularity in the early 1990s.

The first item of firm documentation is the Florida business entity search showing that Copa Collection was established by two partners in 1988. We spoke with one of the partners in 2021 when we first began researching these bags, but they declined to be interviewed. The other partner did not return our email. (We are withholding the partners' names for privacy.)

Copa Collection handbag, which appears to be missing its stone in the stylized metal "flower." From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Label inside bag above. There were various styles of labeling for this brand.

Copa Collection was a Florida-based wholesaler and importer of a variety of items from Brazil, including handbags and accessories, as well as home decor and Judaica. We learned from biographical information of one of the partners that they also imported giftware from China, India, Mexico, and the Philippines. It appears that one partner sold their interest in this business in 2004. We do not know if they sold it to the other partner, but business records show that Copa Collection was dissolved by 2007.

The next bit of evidence that Copa Collection bags were produced and sold primarily in the 1990s is the singular advertisement (that we could find) featuring a sketch of a Copa Collection handbag. That is, we found a number of newspaper ads for a variety of Copa Collection branded items—not just handbags—in gift shops from 1990-2002, but the ad below from 1991 is the only one with a sketch that clearly shows the exact design of this style of handbag.

Copa Collection ad, December 15, 1991, The Midland Reporter-Telegram, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Black leather shoulder bag with metal flap on the front, engraved with "Copa Collection." From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum,

Label inside bag above.

While researching this article, we noticed that a company called Fancy Nancy—primarily known for hand-painted handbags—also carried a line of bags in this metal-with-stones style. This company was founded by Nancy Caplan Grant (1931-2022) in Atlanta, Georgia, and later moved its headquarters to Boynton Beach, Florida. Below is an advertisement from 1988, which, so far, has been the earliest advertisement we could find for this style of bag, as well as coordinating belts and bracelets. We do not know if these were made in Brazil or India or elsewhere.

Fancy Nancy ad, October 23, 1988, the (Biloxi, Mississippi) Sun Herald. Clipped via Newspapers.com.

Another of this type of bag with a Brazilian label (or metal imprint) is "Dutra's" or "SayJo by Dutra's." We could not find anything about the origins of this company, but we did see jewelry by Dutra's for sale online, made in the same style as the handbag frame. Dutra is a Portuguese-Dutch surname, and was the name of Brazil's 16th president. (In 1630, part of Brazil was taken over by the Dutch, so some surnames have connections to the Netherlands.)

Black leather with metal frame bag by SayJo by Dutra's. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Imprint on frame of bag above.

To summarize our findings, we did not see advertisements for this type of handbag any earlier than the late 1980s. While we understand that a common assumption is that these handbags were made in the 1970s, they are much more in line with the late 1980s to early 1990s fashion aesthetic. We could also find no evidence that they were ever called "brutalist" in design until recently. Many of these handbags were made in Brazil, but they were also made in India, which is another country known for its leather exports, and quartz and amethyst mining.

As always, our primary interest in writing handbag history articles is to showcase the designers, the manufacturers, wholesalers, and importers that worked extremely hard behind the scenes to bring us these wearable works of art.

Unlabeled belt made in the same style as these handbags. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

This article c2026 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Resources used were Newspapers.com, to which we have a paid subscription, and Google. Please do not use photos or information from our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.

Oblong Brown Leather Box Bag Made in France for L.L. Berger Department Store

2026-08-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

Manitoba Tartan Clutch

2026-08-24T12:58:00.009-07:00

Charmed Book Bags by Kathleen Scranton Repurposed 1949 Favorite Flowers Book with Shoulder Strap

2026-08-20T12:55:00.008-07:00

Bienen Davis Black Leather Box Bag with Luckenbooth Symbol

2026-08-15T12:50:00.010-07:00

Rendl Original Beige Leather Bag

2026-08-12T12:48:00.007-07:00

Ruched Floral Fabric Clutch with Brushed Gold Frame

2026-08-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

SPECIAL POST! The "Cherry Coke" (Color!) Handbag Trend of 1946-1947

2026-08-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

1940s brown patent clutch with acrylic (Lucite) clasp, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. This 1940s bag is the closest we have to the "cherry coke" color and fabric.

The "Cherry Coke" (Color!) Handbag Trend of 1946-1947

Forty years before there was Cherry Coke™ in a can, there was "cherry coke" the trademarked patent leather color. But there's more to its history than just a cola-monikered hue that complemented clothing in a richer tone than basic black.

Original photo from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. On the back there is a handwritten note that says, "Easter 1946," which coincides with peak popularity of the "cherry coke" handbag trend. Could she be wearing a cherry coke bag?

Bag similar to the one worn by the woman in the photo above, April 13, 1946, The Times Leader. Clipped via Newspapers.com.

If you do a Google search of the origins of cherry coke the drink, you'll see that it was a cherry syrup-flavored cola sold at drugstore soda fountains, diners, and movie theaters in "the early 1900s." The earliest reference we could find to the beverage in the newspaper archive was an article about it being featured at a midwest soda fountain in 1916.

The first fashion reference that we could find was Revlon's 1941 "Cherry Coke" lipstick, cheek color, and nail enamel, described in ads as "a sparkling brown red." It was marketed along with Revlon's other new "American-ism" colors, "Hot Dog" and "Rosy Future."

Revlon's Cherry Coke was apparently very desirable. We found a US government document that included a memorandum dated December 2, 1946 stating that operations gifts requested for WWII informants in China included Revlon Cherry Coke lipstick and Parker pen and pencil sets.

Revlon ad in the April 7, 1941 issue of Life magazine, showing their Cherry Coke lipstick. Clipped via the Internet Archive.

Revlon trademarked the name Cherry Coke (see below) in 1941, along with separate trademarks for their Hot Dog and Rosy Future colors, to include claims to women's outerwear and undergarments. As Revlon made cosmetics, they presumably would be contracting with clothing manufacturers for cherry coke-colored apparel.

Revlon's cherry coke 1941 trademark for apparel, screenshot from Google Books.

Some Revlon newspaper ads showed the cosmetics with coordinating clothing and accessories, including cherry coke bags and pumps. A 1941 Revlon ad (below) was the earliest mention of cherry coke handbags that we could find, but the cherry coke handbag trend didn't take off until 1946.

Revlon's Cherry Coke cosmetics, along with coordinating apparel and accessories. March 30, 1941, The Baltimore Sun, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Before we get to the maker of cherry coke patent leather, here's a summary of what was happening to the US leather goods industry during WWII. Leather was among a number of different materials used in consumer products that were needed for the war effort, which caused commercial shortages. So, from February 1943 until October 1945, consumer purchase of shoes was limited, and required a ration coupon.

WWII-era shoe ration coupon, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Leather handbags, however, did not require a coupon, and were still available in stores, even though handbag makers were unable to get the quantity and quality of leather they had access to prior to the war. This leather shortage led to shoe and handbag manufacturers use of alternative materials for their products, including a variety of plastics.

While plastics were in use as a material for handbags and bag hardware before WWII, there was an upswing in the innovative ways plastics were created and utilized in the 1940s. We've written articles about a few of these, including Plasticflex (patented 1941), which combined plastic "plaques" and leather laces as a handbag base, and Plasticoil (patent filed 1945, granted 1946), the fabric used to create handbags that are referred to today as "telephone cord purses."

Plasticflex and Plasticoil handbags were sold in large quantities, but it appears that women more often opted for plastic handbags that resembled leather. Three of the companies that created leather-like plastics were Bakelite Corp., maker of Vinylite; Firestone, maker of Velon; and BF Goodrich, maker of Koroseal.

Original Koroseal ad from the December 8, 1947 issue of Life magazine. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

These faux leather bags were often less expensive than genuine leather bags, and marketed as washable, welcome traits for frugal post-war consumers.

This brings us to Colonial Tanning, a Boston, Massachusetts firm (est. 1924) that was known for its patent leathers. The Vintage Purse Museum acquired an envelope from the corporate stationery of Colonial Tanning Company, postmarked 1944, and made out to Modern Medicine Publishing Co., a Michigan publisher founded by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. It may have once held a check from Colonial to pay for ad space in one of Modern Medicine's magazines, although we can't know for sure.

Colonial Tanning Company envelope, postmarked 1944. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

The envelope has the name Kivie Kaplan (1904-1975) penciled on it. Mr. Kaplan's father founded Colonial Tanning, which was later run by Kivie Kaplan and his brothers. An early civil rights activist, Kivie Kaplan marched for equality alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mr. Kaplan was a pioneer in that he actively sought to employ Black Americans at his family's factory, and he eventually became national president of the NAACP. He also employed military veterans, and established profit-sharing bonuses for his factory workers in the late 1940s. Kivie Kaplan and his wife Emily Rogers Kaplan donated substantial funds to the Jewish Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Boston, Massachusetts, which led to the addition of a 156-bed wing in 1955.

Kivie Kaplan and Emily Rogers Kaplan (left) at the opening of the hospital wing they endowed, Jan 2, 1955, The Boston Globe, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Cherry coke patent leather was a minuscule part of Mr. Kaplan's remarkable story, but we reached out to his relatives (names withheld for privacy) to see if there was anyone in the family who might remember this product. The family graciously responded with a number of possible online sources. They also mentioned a massive 1961 factory fire at Colonial's Hartnett Tanning division in Ayer, Massachusetts (about 40 miles from Boston), that more than likely destroyed any records from the previous decades' production.

Considering this fire, and with most resources focusing on Mr. Kaplan's labor relations and civil rights work, we knew it would be a challenge to find out more about cherry coke handbags. One of the biggest issues was that even though we could pinpoint cherry coke's fashion-related popularity from about 1941 (primarily for Revlon's cosmetics) until 1946-1947 (the peak for cherry coke handbags and shoes), we weren't sure if it was genuine leather or a plastic that resembled leather. The two ads directly below contradict each other. One calls it plastic, and the other says the material is patent leather.

May 15, 1946, The Montreal Star, clipped via Newspapers.com.

August 28, 1946, the Lansing State Journal, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Colonial Tanning's 1946 trademark registration claims use of "cherry coke" starting in 1940, which corroborates the 1941 Revlon ad featuring leather shoes and bags that matched its cosmetics. Charles Revson (1906-1975), founder of Revlon, and Kivie Kaplan, co-owner of Colonial Tanning, were just two years apart in age, and both were born in Massachusetts to parents of Lithuanian descent. We don't know if they knew each other, and could not find evidence of an agreement between their two companies to collaborate on the cherry coke color trend.

The 1946 Colonial Tanning trademark (below) also says it's "for apparel, belts, and shoes of leather, rubber, fabric, or combinations thereof." The implication is that Colonial could produce this color in genuine leather and other types of materials.

Colonial Tanning's 1946 Cherry Coke US trademark registration, screenshot from Google.

Newspapers and magazines alternately advertised cherry coke shoes and handbags as "patent leather," "plastic patent," or just "patent." There is a difference. Patent leather is genuine leather that is treated to have a shiny appearance. Plastic patent is just that—shiny vinyl-like plastic. Our first thought was that it was probable that Colonial made leather and plastic in the same trademarked color, particularly in light of WWII leather shortages and the subsequent rationing of leather shoes. We then found several Colonial Tanning advertisements indicating that they were, indeed, manufacturing plastics as well as leather. (See below.)

Boot and Shoe Recorder, December 1, 1946, clipped via Oldnews.com. We believe this ad was originally printed in color. Prior to being called "Colonial Plastics Company," this division of Colonial Tanning was known as "Colonial Synthetic Leather."

In 1944, the Kaplan brothers established Colonial Synthetic Leather (later known as Colonial Plastics Co.) at 183 Essex St. in partnership with Mark Bortman (1896-1967), owner of Bortman Plastics, which was already at this address. 183 Essex St. was just a few minutes from Colonial Tanning at 207 South St. Sources indicate that Essex St. was a multi-business building rather than a manufacturing facility. This means it is possible that Mr. Bortman, a renowned plastics expert, as well as author, historian, and philanthropist, had his main office there, and subcontracted his plastics and textile manufacturing concerns to independent factories, under his supervision and specifications.

In Boot and Shoe Recorder's April 15, 1947 edition it was reported that Mr. Bortman attended a Colonial sponsored dinner at a leather show. It said, "An inspiring talk was also given by Mark Bortman, president of the Bortman Plastics Company and a managing partner of the Colonial Plastics Company. It is Mr. Bortman's department which did such excellent work during the leather shortage in providing synthetics for the handbag trade as well as the shoe industry."

It's likely that cherry coke was first produced in leather, then in plastic, but what color was it, exactly? All newspaper ads and many magazine ads were in black and white during this time period. We saw one newspaper advertisement that referred to it as "cherry coke brown," and another that said, "gleaming plastic in a deep bronze shade," and yet another that said, "red, gold, copper, all fused into one glowing color."

One of our resources is Google Books, which often gives us glimpses of vintage trade publications, catalogs, legal documents, etc. We discovered that page 212 of the 1947 Montgomery Ward Spring/Summer catalog has a color picture of a cherry coke handbag. Because many Google Books' items only offer snippets (due to copyright or other factors), we couldn't see the full page. We then thought, if Montgomery Ward had this product in its catalog, perhaps its competitor Sears Roebuck did as well. (If you have the Montgomery Ward catalog, and would like to email a photo of the page to us, we will happily credit you here.)

Thanks to the website of Catalogs & Wishbooks, we found the 1946 Sears Fall/Winter catalog, which shows a model wearing what may be a cherry coke or similar brown handbag. Catalogs & Wishbooks also has scanned pages of the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog, which shows shoes identified as being in the cherry coke color.

Screenshot of a page from the 1946 Sears Fall/Winter catalog, from Catalogs & Wishbooks. Her handbag appears to be similar to the cherry coke color, but there is no text in the catalog that identifies the color or fabric of the handbag.

Screenshot from Catalogs & Wishbooks of a page from the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog. The shoe identified as cherry coke is on the lower left.

Another screenshot from the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog. The shoe identified as cherry coke is in the top center of the page. Screenshot from Catalogs & Wishbooks.

A third screenshot from the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog. The cherry coke shoe is at the lower left. Screenshot from Catalogs & Wishbooks.

The 1946 Sears catalog features a handbag in a reddish brown that is very similar to 1947's cherry coke shoes, but it does not have a description alongside it. There were a number of bags and shoes in browns that resemble this color that aren't made of the trademarked cherry coke material produced by Colonial.

At the top of this page is our 1940s patent handbag that is a dark brown bordering on maroon. This bag is unlabeled and has a coordinating fabric lining. It appears to be darker than the shoes in the 1947 Sears ads, so we don't think it's cherry coke, but a similar color by a different manufacturer. It is the closest bag in our collection to cherry coke in terms of color, material, and age.

We found newspaper advertisements for cherry coke shoes by different makers, including well-known names such as Palizzio, Marquise, and Paradise. However, all of the ads that we found for cherry coke handbags did not share any maker names, although Colonial was often listed as the material's manufacturer. It is possible that Colonial sold its fabric to just one or two handbag manufacturers that wholesaled bags to shoe boutiques and department stores. It is also a possibility that the shoe manufacturers contracted with a wholesale handbag manufacturer to make cherry coke bags to match the footwear sold under their labels.

April 1, 1946, The Miami News, clipped via Newspapers.com.

It would have been ideal for us to get potential clues from old packaging such as a shoebox, or perhaps a receipt that showed the purchase of a cherry coke handbag or pair of shoes. But, as you can imagine, our search for "cherry coke" led us on an entirely different path, meaning what mostly came up was the canned soda that premiered in 1985. So, one question you may have is how did a big company like Coca-Cola allow the use of a variation of their name, even way back in the 1940s? We wondered, too. And—well—it did. Until it didn't.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Coca-Cola first started using the nickname "Coke" in advertising in 1941, then legally trademarked it in 1945.

In September 1946, the footwear industry publication Boot and Shoe Recorder wrote an advertorial about a group of young people being the "Coke Crowd." This led to the publication receiving a letter from an attorney representing the Coca-Cola Company, and Boot and Shoe Recorder's subsequent, somewhat apologetic column, which you can read directly below.

First part of Boot and Shoe Recorder's column, screenshot via Internet Archive.

Second part of Boot and Shoe Recorder's column, screenshot via Internet Archive.

This missive from the attorney related to the potentially infringing usage of "cherry coke" as a fashion color, as well as Boot and Shoe Recorder's use of "Coke Crowd" in their previous advertorial. Months after the appearance of Boot and Shoe Recorder's acknowledgement of their "error," Coca-Cola took out the following ad in Boot and Shoe Recorder.

Coca-Cola's ad in the June 1, 1947 Boot and Shoe Recorder, screenshot via Internet Archive.

If any company, large or small, sees what it considers trademark infringement, it's up to them to protect their brand. It seems Coca-Cola's legal department was heavily scrutinizing the continued use of "cherry coke"—the shoe and handbag material color—which appeared in both upper- and lower-case in ads in leather industry publications, fashion magazines, and newspapers. The fact that they didn't trademark the word "Coke" until 1945 answers the question of why Coca-Cola didn't legally enforce it in 1941 when Revlon first came out with its lip color and coordinating apparel.

It wouldn't be surprising if the cherry coke color trend had run its course by late 1947, as happens with fashion in general, but its discontinuation could very well have been helped along by potential litigation. That said, we could find no legal filings regarding the use of "cherry coke" as a color in any historical court case databases. (Revlon also discontinued its "Cherry Coke" and "Hot Dog" cosmetic colors by 1947, but "Rosy Future" is still being produced.)

It is, however, very easy to continue manufacturing a material that was once called "cherry coke," and rename it something fancy—and not trademarked—like "burnt mocha," an actual handbag color name we saw in a 1948 ad (unrelated to Colonial Tanning). Or perhaps the color wheel of fashion had spun to its newest preferred shade by winter of '47.

We did find a few later references to "cherry coke," including one in the 1960s as a shoe color, but it quickly disappeared. Today we'll occasionally see a hair dye or clothing color referred to as the more generic "cherry cola."

This was a fascinating—albeit niche—topic for us to research. Some of the facts about the cherry coke color trend may be lost to time, but if we learn anything more about it during our continued study of handbag history, we'll be sure to update this article.

This article c2026 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Special thanks to the family of Kivie Kaplan. Thanks also to Sarah Cleveland and Basil Cleveland, President & Co-Founder of the Boston Leather Guild, for their kind response to our email, and for researching the archives of the Widener Library at Harvard University. Resources used were Myheritage.com, Oldnews.com, and Newspapers.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. Other resources were Catalogs and Wishbooks, Familysearch.org, Internet Archive, Encyclopedia Brittanica, and Google. Please do not use information or photos from our website without permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.

Margaret Jerold Dalmatian Motif Leather Bag with Convertible Shoulder Strap

2026-07-26T15:01:00.008-07:00

07 Feb 1993, Sun The Naples Daily News (Naples, Florida) Newspapers.com

Home Crafted Bonnie Bag-Style Knitting/Sewing/Utility Bag by Mildred

2026-07-23T14:58:00.011-07:00