{"id":434,"date":"2014-06-26T14:49:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T19:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/?p=434"},"modified":"2014-06-26T14:49:29","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T19:49:29","slug":"june-26-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/june-26-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"June 26, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

The real secret to having 140-plus purses is to spend as little as possible on each one. I never pay more than $25 and I often find beautiful bags in excellent condition for less than $10. I buy most of them on ebay, occasionally on etsy, and I figure it’s a small enough amount that if I end up with something awful, or seriously damaged, I haven’t lost much. Besides, you can hardly buy anything in a store that you’d be willing to carry for $25 so I come out ahead no matter what.<\/p>\n

I always say I collect two kinds of purses, but it’s really more like five. The first is Bienen-Davis, made roughly from the 1930s to the ’60s and known for their beautiful hardware. This one, with a cherub clasp, is typical:\"copyright2014LauraStempel_cherub_300x225.jpg\"<\/a>And so is this one, with the bar handle:
\n\"copyright2014LauraStempel_bar_300x225.jpg\"<\/a>Although a few shoulder bags show up in the ’60s, these are real lady purses, the kind you hold by the handle or slip over your wrist:\"copyright2014LauraStempel_yellowreptile_300x225.jpg\"<\/a>In fact, that’s one of the reasons I started using them: I was tired of having something hanging off my shoulder all the time. And yes, I use many of the purses I collect. Some are too precious or impractical, but I love collecting things that are beautiful, interesting and useful all at the same time.\"copyright2014LauraStempel_2bdboxes_300x225.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I also collect Delill box purses, which were popular in the 1960s and are shaped like little steamer trunks:
\n\"copyright2014LauraStempel_twofloralboxes_300x225.jpg\"<\/a>They’re covered with faux leather, fabric, raffia, plastic–even cork!–and come in a zillion colors and patterns. Delill produced a wide variety of styles (see below for my inability to resist some of the other ones) and I like these not only for their novelty, but because they’re hard-sided, just like a real trunk, and hold a huge amount of stuff: I can put everything that fits in a Bienen-Davis bag AND most of my lunch in one.<\/p>\n

I have a few mini-collections of other Delill styles: clutches, sometimes in the same pattern as a box purse:
\n\"copyright2014LauraStempel_patternedclutch_300x225.jpg\"<\/a>And sometimes not:
\n\"copyright2014LauraStempel_beadedclutch_300x225.jpg\"<\/a>Then there are the dozen or so fruit-themed change purses. Delill made many styles of change purses, along with eyeglass cases and even belts, but I love the fruit:
\n\"grapechangepurse\"<\/a>I also have a group of brown Delill bags with various kinds of beading that’s almost become an official collection. Several are satin clutches but here’s the latest, in velvet, which I bought just last week:
\n\"newvelvet\"<\/a>Yup, can’t stop buying them, and that’s how I know I’m a real collector.<\/p>\n

Next: The collection I started after I promised myself I’d never start another one.\"orangeB15\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The real secret to having 140-plus purses is to spend as little as possible on each one. I never pay more than $25 and I often find beautiful bags in excellent condition for less than $10. I buy most of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurastempel.com\/matchorclash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}