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Museum-Worthy Bags
By GERT JONKERS
Museum-Worthy Bags
By GERT JONKERS
Despite its collection of 3,500 handbags, top left, Hendrikje, the 10-year-old Museum of Bags and Purses, has suffered from an inferiority complex, perhaps because it was based in an Amsterdam suburb that also features the Piggy Bank Museum and the Museum of Wooden Shoes. But in May, it will reopen in the center of Amsterdam. Well feel so much more confident to say that were actually the best and biggest bags museum in the world, says Sigrid Ivo, its director and curator. Ivos mother, Hendrikje, began buying vintage bags some 30 years ago, starting with a 19th-century leather-and-tortoiseshell number. A menagerie of accessories followed, including an armadillo shoulder bag, a leopard-head tote and the bejeweled clutch that Judith Leiber named after the *******s cat, Socks. The inevitable Vuitton monogram and Fendi Baguette are on display, but overall this baggage is about excess. Last week I bought this handbag in the shape of a train, Ivo says. What a wicked idea! www.museumofbagsandpurses.com.
