I use a North Face nylon knapsack for my carryon. I also take a nylon travel bag if I need a purse. After my most recent vacation my knapsack was filthy and I washed it in the washing machine and hung it to dry.
Vintage Coach Photos & Chat
- Thread starter bunnymasseuse
- Start date
TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others
cant help but chime in. i actually love travelling with my vintage coach. i never check luggage, so i do a carryon back-pack for clothes and a 'personal item'. one year it was a tan duffle, which was perfect for europe, used it every day on-site; for california i've actually brought the swag as carry-on personal bag; perfect, and i can slip a smaller bag inside for daily use; and over the years my bag of choice has been one of my carriers, which with front pockets and back slip pocket is perfect for the plane. the musettes have been too small for plane travel.
and i'm such a loser that i usually slip one or two vintage bags into the larger back-pack [think rick steve; or patagonia] for daily street use. i love having them with me. a pony is perfect for that.
and i'm such a loser that i usually slip one or two vintage bags into the larger back-pack [think rick steve; or patagonia] for daily street use. i love having them with me. a pony is perfect for that.
Also sharing this amazing gift on this thread!! Just a few months ago I was talking on this thread about how I wanted to have a vintage Bonnie Cashin style, and my boyfriend so very thoughtfully found this and got it for me for my birthday!! It's a 60s(?) lunch tote shopper, so cute and the leather is stunning. I love its age and history. Tomorrow I'll have to post on the rehab and rescue thread to see what I can do for it!
Your red Cashin Tote Shopper is absolutely gorgeous - hang on to that wonderful Boyfriend!
Below is the link to a thread that I did about rehabbing a 1960s Cashin bag. It was in bad shape and I gave it the full spa treatment - including dunking her in the bath - and she came out great! But it was a tan bag and red is a difficult color to rehab. I've had mixed successes and failures with several red bags, @Lake Effect is the expert on rehabbing red bags and she will be better able to advise you. Congratulations!
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads...y-can-still-be-beautiful-rehab-reveal.742282/
The link below shows before and after pics of 3 red, vintage bags that I rehabbed and they all got a bath and came out well, but none of these bags were as old as your bag (they were from the 1980s) and none of them were lined. I'd probably try surface cleaning your bag first - maybe use baby wipes on the lining? Frankly, your bag looks pretty good just the way it is right now.
A word of caution, I have noticed that some red bags get a bit splotchy looking after conditioning, and the splotches may last for awhile, but eventually they get absorbed into the leather and disappear. At least that has been my experience.
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/red-hot-in-nyc-three-bag-rehab-reveal.755638/
Last edited:
Thank you so much for this thoughtful reply!!! So truly helpful and considerate of you.
I'm so looking forward to getting if into tip-top shape - it's like a gift that keeps in giving! I'm definitely going to research the threads you linked and the rescue thread in general and do some searches, and then go bother @Lake Effect in the rehab thread if I need more help 
I'll definitely keep you all updated as I go through the process.Like you said, it's already so pretty! And it's very precious to me because I've grown to admire Bonnie Cashin so much (thanks to this forum!), because of its age and quality, and because of the sentimentality behind it as a gift. So there are many reasons I'm nervous to rehab - I would hate for it to look worse rather than better!! But I will definitely do my research, so thanks so much again for your help
Very nice Dinky Shopping Bag tote. If that's the one listed on Etsy, I'll volunteer that I've been admiring it since it was first listed. Word of caution though prior to rehab: Several of the early shopping bag totes (and other styles) were made with a cardboard bottom panel covered using an adhesively bonded piece of fabric. So soaking, which would be detrimental to the cardboard, is not recommended. I wouldn't want for you to accidentally create more work for yourself.Also sharing this amazing gift on this thread!! Just a few months ago I was talking on this thread about how I wanted to have a vintage Bonnie Cashin style, and my boyfriend so very thoughtfully found this and got it for me for my birthday!! It's a 60s(?) lunch tote shopper, so cute and the leather is stunning. I love its age and history. Tomorrow I'll have to post on the rehab and rescue thread to see what I can do for it!
It is the one on Etsy! Unbeknownst to my BF, I actually already had it saved on a list, so he truly chose well. I think it was from Canada, which means the conversion to USD made it a very fair price for him. I think it cost him $190? And yes, this definitely has cardboard in it somewhere. That was actually one of the things I'd meant to research, so thank you very much for the tip
In case anyone is interested in the little details, I noticed my bag has a "WILLSE" zipper. I have no idea what it is; the only info I could find was an eBay listing in Spanish that sold this brand zipper. In the eBay listing, the zipper was labeled made in the USA, and the seller was claiming it was 40s/50s but that's not reliable info. Unfortunately I can't look at the underside of the zipper due to the construction of the bag! But I did some research on what "WILLSE" could possibly mean and apparently it's a last name of British/Irish origin, so it could be the name of a company in someone else's last name. Or I could be misinterpreting the spelling! Anyone ever hear of Willse zippers?
Attachments
Also sharing this amazing gift on this thread!! Just a few months ago I was talking on this thread about how I wanted to have a vintage Bonnie Cashin style, and my boyfriend so very thoughtfully found this and got it for me for my birthday!! It's a 60s(?) lunch tote shopper, so cute and the leather is stunning. I love its age and history. Tomorrow I'll have to post on the rehab and rescue thread to see what I can do for it!
It is the one on Etsy! Unbeknownst to my BF, I actually already had it saved on a list, so he truly chose well. I think it was from Canada, which means the conversion to USD made it a very fair price for him. I think it cost him $190? And yes, this definitely has cardboard in it somewhere. That was actually one of the things I'd meant to research, so thank you very much for the tip
Take a look at the Bonnie Cashin Archive in the UCLA Digital Collection, you may find a photo or sketch of your bag! I think that one of the bags at the link below may be your bag!
http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0002g4k5
Here's the link to the archive:
http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0002bk1c
All three examples of this version of the Dinky Shopping Bag tote (one with the striped fabric lining like yours and two with the later employed black fabric lining) have WILLSE zippers on the inside pocket. That must have been COACH's source for this particular size and style zipper. Perhaps a small domestic vendor that went out of business a long time ago when the zipper industry consolidated and moved manufacturing offshore. It seems as though a few remaining players (YKK, SBS, Talon, Ideal, ...) now dominate this industry.
I had no idea there even was a UCLA archive of Bonnie Cashin. I have done research at that library for other digital photos too. Thank you!
I can spend ages looking at the Cashin drawings and photos in the UCLA archive! I was delighted when I found a drawing of my little Coach Cashin bag and discovered that she called it an Attachette, but Coach may have called it the Small Shopper - I've seen both names used.
I've had two - one from August 1994, and the other from December 1995. I don't think I've ever seen one made before 1994.