SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2019 This section is produced by The Morning Call Advertising Department. themorningcall.com/home Sponsored by P. 2 & 3 Deeds home&leisure P. 4 Classified Ilene Hochberg Wood’s collection that is displayed at the Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Sartorial Savvy Handbag historian’s PURSEonality exhibit features the rare, Photos courtesy of Ilene Hochberg Wood were designed and worn,” says Wood. “I really view collections as a way the coveted, and to study history and culture.” Take, for instance, the story of designer Anne-Marie of Paris. Research will tell you that few concrete facts are known about the woman who supposedly had a boutique on the ground floor of a the creative grand hotel, The Hotel Meurice, in 1940s Paris (occupied by German forces until 1944). There, VIP guests could expect to find her striking ILENE HOCHBERG WOOD’S bags waiting for them in their suites. Anne-Marie’s novelty designs ranged from a champagne bottle to a telephone to a castle or radio – COLLECTION IS ON DISPLAY and finding them today has proven to be difficult for even the most serious collectors. NOW AT HISTORIC BETHLEHEM Wood, however, has 24 in her collection – including the Anne-Marie castle bag she refers to as a “unicorn” for its rarity – and all are on display MUSEUMS & SITES at the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts. “We don’t have a real picture of Anne-Marie. My own hypothesis is that many of the hotels in Paris were overtaken by Germans and they By Shannon Sigafoos of The Morning Call used them as their headquarters, and perhaps she was selling her bags to the Nazis,” says Wood. “I’m dying to know more about her. We adies, we know this to be a universal truth: When we’re out and know everything about Coco Chanel, but there must be a reason that about, there are several things we tend to notice about each other we don’t know much about Anne-Marie’s story. Maybe she was Jewish, – our coats, our shoes, and our bags. Whether we deem ourselves so she wanted little to be known about her personal background.” L ‘fashionable’ or not, these three wearable items can make a Many of the other designers who show up in Wood’s collection statement about our personalities even to those who don’t know us. have long and storied backgrounds. Through April 30, 2020, Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites is Louis Vuitton’s heritage as a trunk maker preceded even the centering their multi-site exhibition around the collection of a local founding of his company; starlet Audrey Hepburn helped to make his woman whose name you may have heard before. PURSEonality Speedy Bag iconic two decades after its initial launch. choosing a favorite bag is akin, for her, to choosing a features several hundred handbags (out of more than 3,000) from the Thierry Hermès first established Hermès as a harness workshop favorite child. collection of Ilene Hochberg Wood – bestselling author, designer and on the Grands Boulevards quarter of Paris in 1837; today, the Kelly bag “There is a lot of time, work, effort and money that goes fashion consultant. (made famous by actress and Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly), which into doing needlepoint. It’s a major undertaking,” Wood The exhibition not only chronicles Wood’s fascinating journey into is designed in a signature trapezoid shape and made with luxurious explains as she points to a bag stitched with Exeter roses. “I owning what many believe may be the largest collection of (privately leathers and skins, is worn on the arms of the rich and famous. began to seek out these handbags in the ‘80s at places like thrift held) handbags in the world, but it also captures a decades-long Artist O.E.L. Graves, who had a long and varied career using stores, and it was not a fashionable concept because everyone snapshot of what is essentially fashion history – and Wood believes that experimental materials and whose works were popular among was inheriting bags like this from their grandmother and they every bag has its own story to tell. Hollywood elite such as Clark Gable and Bob Hope, used lucite to were relegating them to the trash. I was buying these bags and “It started out as my personal collection. Then it went from being design purses that look fragile but are actually durable. calling it a ‘handbag rescue’ because I felt that the women who my collection to that I was saving iconic bits for posterity. I felt that they And then there are the needlepoints, which are the oldest in her [the bags] had a powerful story to tell about the times in which they collection and among Wood’s favorites – though she admits that SEE SARTORIAL SAVVY PAGE 2 SARTORIAL SAVVY Continued from Page 1 had made these bags had invested out that, history lessons aside, differences). The bag she’s carrying so much, and it hurt me to see their many women see the purchase when we meet up to discuss Ilene Hochberg work devalued.” of a handbag as an investment. this story is, in fact, a copy of the Wood holding the It is from these stories that we According to Christie’s Auctions Balenciaga Classic City AJ Graffiti Red Alligator Kelly can see how Wood has built her and Private Sales (known Print Satchel – a fun, colorful design Bag by Hermés, which collection with the same attention worldwide as the British auction that Wood says also speaks to her isone of the many in to detail as a discerning curator – house founded in 1766), people love of drawing or painting on bags her collection that and why there are hopes for the started looking at their handbags and creating something unique that is displayed at the exhibition to not only move on, but as investment pieces around the nobody else has. Historic Bethlehem to eventually reside in a museum time of the recession in 2008. “This bag [the Balenciaga] is Museums & Sites. designed specifically for them. The rise of bags on the secondary made this way, but I have many Though there are no concrete plans market wasn’t just about frivolous bags that I encourage friends in place yet, she is in the process of spending – it was also about to paint on.” researching and planning for the buying pieces that would hold Social media and image- future of the collection. their value over time. centric platforms such as “The plan has always been And while men have cornered Instagram are also driving demand that this was a starting point for the market on a number of for the less expensive and novelty something big. Because people collecting categories – everything bags that lean more toward the new generation of buyers and women in coded messages,” Wood City! Through January 12, journey didn’t see the bags as cultural icons from cars to watches to sports functional, athleisure trend and potential collectors. says of the enduring usefulness through four historic sites where or as cultural artifacts, I thought memorabilia – women, aside from away from the higher-end “it” With so much of her collection and legacy of purses. “The bag is over 20 trees display decorations that effect was going to be lost,” jewelry, have never really had a bag of the moment. There are now out for public view, Wood the first line of defense because it’s inspired by famous fashion Wood shares. “There are a lot of category of their own. many of these whimsical bags is “pressing the pause button” on something we all carry.” designers such as Dior, Chanel, anthropological, cultural, and social Keeping that investment in in the PURSEonality exhibit – buying more bags for the time Burberry and more. The trees ties that the ‘man on the street’ isn’t mind, Wood also tends to wear including clutches resembling being. She plans to count and PURSEONALITY AND THE COUTURE were designed to be exhibited getting. Bags are very approachable. duplicates of her designer bags – fast food, emojis, candy boxes, photograph every bag she owns alongside the PURSEonality They’re pretty, and they have very not only because of wear and tear, and sports equipment. The idea just so that she has an exact figure TREES OF HISTORIC BETHLEHEM exhibition with corresponding little pretense. They can explore but because, she says, the copies behind them, according to Vogue – a number that will come in handy Couture Trees of Historic purses, clutches and handbags much bigger issues. Wouldn’t it be can be just as fun to carry (and Business, is that “they keep prices if they’re ever assembled into a Bethlehem is amazing visitors from Ilene Hochberg Wood’s wonderful to have a museum?’” even with a discerning eye, it can as reasonable as possible, so that permanent collection. with a unique holiday experience private collection. For information, It would also be wise to point sometimes be hard to spot the it stays fun to buy a bag” for a “Women speak to other in the heart of the Christmas visit historicbethlehem.org. THE RENOVATIONS Fanciful features – INCLUDING A TURRET AND WINE SHAFER CONSTRUCTION’S PROJECT CELLAR – BRING HOUSE NOW COMPLETE NEW CHARM TO AN OLD HOME By Shannon Sigafoos of The Morning Call complete. And though Bill Shafer has time, we were living in it.” “The fireplace marble was custom scheme for the room and throws three decades running his business, Some favorite features of the house made around an antique cast iron some history into this modern space.” ack in April, we covered making his own home this year’s in the Shafers’ own words include: parlor heater from a brownstone The wine cellar: “The big splurge the beginning of the “Project House” allowed him a The turret’s stained-glass windows: in Brooklyn.