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Thursday, December 31, 2020

Bags of Bags and Purse Museums and Presents: The Leiber Museum In New York, The Esse Purse Museum, and The Jewish Museum in Florida - featuring the woman who designed the handbag she gave to the First Lady

Bag Museum, Netherlands, Europe.





Museum of Bags and Purses. 


You might not be able to afford the money for a Judith Leiber handbag like the one she gave to each successive the first lady, or the time to visit the gardens designed by her husband but you can see them online.https://judithleiber.com/blogs/news/a-history-of-judith-leiber-iconic-bagsrompted 

Before they went to live in the USA, Judith Leiber and her family had survived WW2 in Hungary. She trained in handbag design and worked for others. 

Later she set u her own company. The setback of a stain on a handbag resulted in the happy decision to conceal it with a rhinestone.

Another feature of her handbags was pictures of animals. Her first bags were green and constructed of calfskin. After that, prompted by calls from the consumer, came snakeskin bags in assorted colours.

Her designs included animals, food, fruit and money. 

She and her husband lived in the USA until their late nineties and his last words to her were, 'It's time to leave.'

They leave behind a website selling her hand bags and his garden which you can visit in person, and see online.

Look at the virtual tour of the Judith Leiber life story and handbags at the Florida Jewish Museum. The building itself has several small, rounded, uplifting, colourful stained glass windows in turquoise and yellow. Also notice the seven branched candelabra for the sabbath and the nine branch (eight and the serving candle used to light the others).  I described these in my earlier posts on the festival of Hanukah and the nine branch hanukiah.

You can not only spin around 36 degrees in the online view of the room in Florida's Jewish Museum. You can also zoom in on the texts on the wall.

If you were in Florida and can visit the museum you can photograph yourself holding a replica of one or both of the replica bags supplied for visitors to borrow for a magic moment for a selfie with a bag. (What a great idea. I first saw the selfie opportunities with museum props with hats at the museum about immigrant Indians in Little India in Singapore.)

Online, looking for Leiber gifts, the cheapest item I could find was a single post ear-ring for 50 dollars from a department store in the USA.

Other American Museums With Items Associated with Judith and her husband

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Americans use the word purse, where British English says bag or handbag. 

Esse Purse Museum

However, the Esse Purse Museum in the USA has a website showing lots of affordable funky designs, including one of lips which reminded me of the Leiber purse. The website also offers frog bags for children for parties at Christmas or birthdays.

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

Books include Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock/Cassell)

Quick Quotations (Lulu.com) 

Useful Websites and resources


travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com


Virtual tour of the Jewish Museum, Florida, USA, Judith Leiber

https://judithleiber.com/blogs/news/a-history-of-judith-leiber-iconic-bags

 http://www.leibermuseum.org/

https://www.lyst.co.uk/designer/judith-leiber/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/obituaries/judith-leiber-97-dies-turned-handbags-into-objets-dart.html

https://judithleiber.com/collections/best-sellers-home-page/red+novelty

https://essepursemuseum.com/

South Korea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Handbag_Museum

http://simonehandbagmuseum.co.kr/

https://www.facebook.com/simonehandbagmuseum/

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