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| Original Florida Keys handbag with painted owl. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
SPECIAL POST: Original Florida Keys Handbags – with input from the company’s owner
Original Florida Keys Handbags, constructed of durable marine vinyl, are kitschy, clever and creative, with hand-painted designs. The Vintage Purse Museum has three in its collection. Curious about the bags’ origins, we reached out to Bonnie Staryk, the former owner and president of the Florida Keys Handbag Factory, Inc. The company manufactured these bags for over 25 years, starting in the 1970s until it closed in 1999. Ms. Staryk shared the following information with us via email.
“The fabric (was) marine boat cushion material with rot guard lining, d-rings from Bimini tops and cockpit cushion snaps, all materials used at yacht upholstery shops,” she wrote.
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| Original Florida Keys Handbag with painted crab from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. Nautical and aquatic themes were often featured on these purses, but they had many other hand-painted designs, and sometimes included monograms and other customizations. |
Among the customization options given to customers were:
Pick your size bag
Pick your fabric color
Pick your trim
Pick your design
Tell us what colors you would like in the painting
Pick a monogram style for the back pocket
Pick the thread color
“Others tried to duplicate us, but never with the detailed personalization and the same marine quality,” wrote Ms. Staryk. “My ex-husband was directly involved with the business (in the) early years and served a term as president. His contribution was adding wholesale accounts. Unfortunately, the prices that had to be provided for wholesaling the product was too low to maintain a profit. The retail business was what maintained the manufacturing overhead.”
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| Original Florida Keys Handbag with painted pheasant. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
According to an article by Elaine Walker in the Monday, July 19, 1999 Miami Herald: “Thousands of tourists and Keys residents have toted the bags made of boat seat cushion fabric and hand-painted with designs like the Key West lighthouse, seashells, dolphins and various other combinations. While the bags have been known to last 20 years or more and survive Hurricane Andrew and sinking boats, the tradition isn’t going to survive.” The article said that Staryk and co-owner Barbara Lopez were slated to close the factory and retail store that weekend.
Ms. Staryk clarified some of the newspaper article’s inaccuracies about the company’s history. In an email, she told The Vintage Purse Museum that the Florida Keys Handbag company's ownership was originally made up of head seamstress Rose Holbrook, fabric cutter Henry Holbrook, with Bonnie Staryk in charge of art and additional handbag designs, and Mike Staryk responsible for sales. “After the other partners left by 1985, I elected to keep the staff manufacturing the handbags and brought in Barbara Lopez to assist with office tasks and factory store sales,” wrote Ms. Staryk. “Ms. Lopez purchased interest in the company for our partnership."
In 1973, each handbag cost $12.95-16.95. According to the article, the factory employed more than 25 production people and produced about 850 bags per week during the 1980s. With rising costs of labor and materials, the bags were priced at $36.95 each by 1999. That’s when Ms. Staryk, who estimated that she personally had painted 600,000 bags over the years, decided to focus on other ventures. In 2013, she wrote and illustrated the children’s book Blinken Pete and Polly - Tales in Verse, with Activities.
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| Bonnie Staryk and her Florida Keys Handbags. Photo of advertisement courtesy of Bonnie Staryk. |
The Vintage Purse Museum is grateful to Bonnie Staryk for providing information for this article and to her daughter Myka for connecting us with her mother. c2021 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum.
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