Fashion and nostalgia? They’re in the bag
April 19, 2018
She’d taken a class in the early 1960s at the Shell Factory in North Fort Myers and had learned the raw beginnings of coquillage, or shell art, gluing bits of treasure heaved from the sea onto the fabric panel that formed the side of a pocketbook she carried for years.
When that handbag finally wore out, she carefully cut away the shell panel and tacked it to a wicker bag she kept the rest of her life.
It seemed every region had bespoke purses back in the day.
Of course, Nantucket baskets remain popular (and valuable).
But remember the other bags?
In the later 1960s and 1970s, decoupage and painted purses came in to vogue.
Annie Laurie (yes, that really was her name) created handpainted and decoupage wooden purses in the Palm Beaches.
Her purses remain popular with collectors and Palm Beachers who love a touch of nostalgia.
Others may well remember the Caro- Nan baskets that seemingly were everywhere from the mid-1960s through the early ’80s.
The purses, created by Carolyn McDaniel and Nancy Steele of Jackson, Miss., bore simple motifs of colorful townhouses they handpainted around the sides of baskets made in Vermont.
They localized them, painting the names of the boutiques that sold the purses onto the storefronts and other buildings, and adding decoupage elements that read “France,” “Fabulous,” “Palm Beach” and other locales. At the height of their popularity, Caro-Nan was selling 5,000 bags a month.
I remember seeing the bags at boutiques along Naples’ Fifth Avenue South, as well as along tony St. Armand’s in Sarasota.
Fashion and nostalgia? They’re in the bag
