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| Marilyn Pivnick woven leather handbag on a vintage frame. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
SPECIAL POST: Marilyn Pivnick Vintage Style Handbags
The Vintage Purse Museum was privileged to speak with 1990s-2000s handbag designer Marilyn Pivnick, who graciously allowed us to share the story of her unique business.
Marilyn Wakschal grew up in Roslyn, Long Island and attended the Music Preparatory Department at The Julliard School, where she studied piano. She met her future husband Allan Pivnick, a native of Connecticut, while he was interning in dentistry at Long Island Jewish Hospital. After they married, Marilyn taught piano while raising their three children. The family settled in Los Angeles, California in the 1960s.
The catalyst for her business enterprise came sometime in the 1990s, when Marilyn visited an outdoor flea market in sunny Southern California. It was there she discovered a cache of Arts and Crafts-era (approx. 1919-1925) tooled leather handbags for sale. She purchased 12 of them even though they were tired and worn. Allan polished them up and Marilyn created and attached cross-body shoulder straps. She and her two daughters—artists in their own right—held a craft show in their backyard for friends and friends of friends. Every one of the bags sold.
That initial success gave Marilyn the idea of creating a company that specifically repurposed unusable vintage handbags into modern daytime and casual purses. She designed each item while sitting at her kitchen table and employed home crafters to do the needlework. Her centralized shipping operation was her dining room.
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| Closeup of woven leather and label from bag at the top of the page. Marilyn confirmed that this was a custom order, made with the frame and chain of a salvaged Whiting & Davis vintage handbag. |
As tooled leather bags weren’t in plentiful supply, she found other vintage purses that could not be salvaged, but had usable frames. While many were typical 1920s-1930s metal frames, it was the intricate celluloid frames that especially appealed to her. Marilyn tells us that these were the ones “that told a story.” Her team of crafters crocheted customized new bags and attached them to vintage frames, including those in exquisite Asian style or Art Deco figural animal shapes. (Several examples of Marilyn Pivnick bags appear in the handbag reference book “Purse Masterpieces” by Lynell Schwartz. The Marilyn Pivnick handbags were photographed by Marilyn’s daughter, jewelry designer Lisa Statt.)
Her company took off, with her products in 100 stores all over the country including Neiman Marcus and Barney’s, and were featured at trunk shows with top-name designer brands such as Ralph Lauren.
Soon, custom orders began coming in from publicists and agents of celebrities such as Barbra Streisand, Halle Berry and Lauren Holly, who carried a Marilyn Pivnick handbag at her 2001 wedding to Francis Greco.
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| Photo of actress Lauren Holly carrying a Marilyn Pivnick handbag at her 2001 wedding to Francis Greco, from Fanpix.famous.com. |
Wedding bags were a popular item for the company, and Marilyn had a line of reproduction-vintage purses with new vintage-style gold- and silver-tone frames produced for brides, their attendants, and anyone else who wanted a lovely, high-quality evening bag. She also carried handmade knit and crocheted shawls, ponchos and scarves.
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| One of Marilyn Pivnick's wedding handbags. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Label inside the bag above. |
Marilyn tells us she very much loved what she did, but all good things must come to an end, so she closed her business around 2010. She and her husband Allan stay active, enjoying time with their family and friends, and will soon celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.
Special thanks to Marilyn for speaking with us and sharing her story, and to her daughter, artist Wendy Vasquez, for facilitating our telephone meeting.
Sat, Dec 9, 1995 – Page 9 · Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) · Newspapers.com
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