1970s Roberta di Camerino Velvet Black Red Gold Top Handle Purse

Description

This beautiful, luxurious, and plush handbag features the distinctive Roberta di Camerino "R" logo, situated on the lower left corner of the handbag, on one the wider black stripe. The handbag has a central red stripe nestled between two leather strips, and featuring a wonderful cut velvet radial sunburst design. The hard frame purse has a leather base, handles, and accent piping, as well as a leather lined interior. The body of the purse is primarily composed of gorgeous, soft velvet. The purse has gold tone art deco push clasp hardware. The purse was made in Italy. It is impossible to be anything less than charmed by a Roberta di Camerino handbag.

Giuliana Camerino (née Coen) was born to a Jewish family in Venice. In 1943, as World War ii raged on, the Camerinos fled to Switzerland where Giuliana began designing handbags for local leather goods stores. Camerino founded the house “Roberta di Camerino” in 1945. The business was named after the 1935 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film “Roberta”; The song “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” was the last tune Camerino listened to before escaping to Switzerland.

Roberta di Camerino handbags quickly became known for their innovative use of patterned and colored fabric, two materials that had never been used in handbags. Camerino continued to develop new and interesting designs that would go on to inspire others, including using an “R”-trellis pattern in 1946 that predated Gucci’s iconic “G” pattern handbags and accessories, a the woven leather handbag in 1957 that anticipated the Bottega Veneta woven look, and a hinged handbag that Prada later went on to imitate. Camerino helped develop the post-WW2 venetian economy, employing venetian craftsmen to create many materials, including the brass hardware she used in her striking, cut-velvet bags, and to weave fabric using local antique looms. Camerino branched out into apparel; much of her clothing had distinctive optical illusion tromp l’oeil prints, pleats, buckles, and ruffles.

Camerino’s pieces were favored as a status symbol among the jet set crowd as well as celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Farrah Fawcett. Her innovative designs in playful and exciting fabrics earned Camerino several accolades. Camerino won a Neiman Marcus Fashion Award in 1956, acknowledging the widespread influence of her designs on the entire handbag market, her work was also exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1980, and as well as the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum in 1999.

Height: 5 1/4, Width: 11, Depth: 5 3/4, Drop: 3 1/4, Total Length: 9 1/4 inches

*All MRS Couture garments and accessories have been professionally cleaned and thoroughly checked before shipping. They are ready to wear upon arrival.