Special Post: Christine Domboorajian LaCourse and Christine Custom Bags of Detroit

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Needlepoint handbag with Christine Custom Bags label inside. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Musem.


Christine Domboorajian LaCourse, Owner of Christine Custom Bags of Detroit 


The Vintage Purse Museum is delighted to share what we know about Christine Custom Bags of Detroit. It was a small company that appears to have produced many handbags during its four decades in business, as one can easily find these bags for purchase online. It's a bit of a mystery as to why they were so prolific even though they were a local mom-and-pop type of shop, but we developed a theory. Keep reading!

The Christine handbags that we've seen online are mostly made of needlepoint, although we’ve found a few created with other types of materials. They all have the distinctive Christine label and equally characteristic linings, featuring satin pintuck pockets. Christine Custom Bags are timelessly beautiful and highly collectible. As always, we wanted to learn more about the person responsible for these works of art.

Christina "Christine" Domboorajian was born in Teheran, Persia (Iran) and was of Armenian descent. Her parents were the Rev. Mihran Domboorajian (1860-1939) and Shushan “Susan” Vartanian Domboorajian (1867-1947). She had seven siblings, including one who died as an infant in Persia. The June 7, 1910 manifest of the ship RMS Caronia (launched 1904, scrapped 1933) shows that Christine emigrated to the US from Liverpool, England with her brother Peter, escorted by their uncle Benjamin, who was Mihran’s brother and already a US resident. Benjamin specifically went to Persia to collect his niece and nephew. It’s unclear why Shushan and her other children didn’t leave at that time, but they followed three years later, while Mihran, a Christian missionary, stayed in Persia. 

A 1939 Ann Arbor News article about the death of Rev. Mihran Domboorajian says that he came to the US in 1919, six years after his family’s arrival. We found a December 29, 1918 article about him in the Detroit Free Press headlined “When Baku Ran Red – Mihram (sic) Domboorajian fleeing Famished Persia Prayed in Church in War Torn Transcaucasus City While Armenian and Turkish Troops Fought Through the Streets.” This article is a harrowing tale of Rev. Domboorajian’s experiences during wartime, and its date of 1918 indicates he arrived in the US slightly earlier than stated in the 1939 article. (Note: We often find variances in timelines when we research these articles, and strive for accuracy by scrutinizing and comparing documentation.)

According to the 1939 article, Rev. Domboorajian went back to Persia in 1928, then returned to his family in 1933, where they’d settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mother and children originally lived at 110 Ingalls, where, according to an old address directory, three of the Domboorajian children were students, and Christine was a tailor. The family eventually moved to 616 Church St.

Christine Domboorajian (born circa 1893-1896; documents vary; her headstone’s birth year is 1893) was working as a tailor and milliner between 1915 and 1919. There is a family tree on a genealogy website that says Christine Domboorajian LaCourse made a hat for Eleanor Roosevelt. We sent a message to the owner of the family tree and asked if they had documentation, but we didn’t hear back. We will update this post if we do.

By 1921, she was a designer at the Handy Shop (maker of silk and beaded bags), and later became a designer at Dowden’s Bag and Bead Shop (makers/importers of many types of handbags). In 1924 she applied to be a naturalized US citizen, with her employer Louise Dowden (1882-?) and seamstress Agnes Ankner (1895-?) witnessing her citizenship application. (Agnes and her then-husband lived in a neighboring house on Church St. in 1917.)

19 Dec 1928, Wed Livingston County Daily Press and Argus (Howell, Michigan) Newspapers.com

In 1926, Christine and her brother Haig were defendants in a lawsuit initiated by the plaintiff, their uncle Benjamin (1873-1947), who lent them money to put a down payment on the 616 Church St. home in 1915. 

According to an online legal document, Benjamin, who had taken in siblings Christine and Peter when he brought them to the US from Persia, felt that he was co-owner of this property. (The case went all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court, and many Domboorajian family members testified. The document is quite long and complicated, so we are summarizing it here.) The judge ruled that Benjamin was not entitled to be an owner of the property, but Christine and Haig had to repay the loan with interest. It is unknown if this created any hard feelings between the Mihran Domboorajian family and the Benjamin Domboorajian family. In a 1931 Lansing State Journal newspaper article about an unrelated lawsuit where the plaintiff was once again Benjamin Domboorajian, the reporter cheekily wrote, “Mr. Domboorajian has probably had more litigation over this and that than any other resident in this county.” 

Benjamin, a rug importer, not only sold “Oriental” rugs in his Lansing, Michigan shop, but also needlework. Christine and her siblings worked at his store. We’re left to wonder if this is where she honed her handicraft.

Christine Custom Bag, needlepoint, with celluloid (or similar plastic) frame and chain handle. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of needlepoint on bag above.

Interior of bag above.

Christine Domboorajian was very active in her local branch of the YWCA. She spoke on the issue of the importance of diversity within the YWCA at the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association convention. 

Part of Christine Domboorajian's talk at the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, transcribed in the National Convention of the Young Women's Christian Association of the United States of America records, Vol. 7-9, screenshot via Google. The date of this document was unclear, but we believe it was published circa 1928.

In 1929, she was elected president of the Grace Whitney Hoff Federation of Industrial Clubs of the YWCA. Grace Nichols Whitney Evans Hoff (1862-1938) was a Detroit philanthropist and, in 1893, was the first president of the Detroit YWCA. The Grace Whitney Hoff Federation was established the same year that Christine Domboorajian became its president, and it appears that Christine worked with Grace Hoff to establish an annual scholarship. The first recipient was Martha Ingram, a cook and housekeeper, who was awarded $1,500 and a year of study and travel in Europe. It is unclear how long Christine was active with the YWCA, but we found references of her involvement up to 1933.

By 1934, Christine Domboorajian LaCourse had acquired Louise Dowden's location, and renamed it The Bag Shop. It was also alternately referred to in ads and articles as Christine Custom Handbags, Christine Custom Bags and Christine Bag Shop. We found several 1930s newspaper advertisements for her establishment, as well as an ad in the 1937 Volume 17, Issue 4 Magazine of the Women’s City Club of Detroit. Per these ads, Christine made and "restored" handbags. Her shop was in the Eaton Tower. (Built in 1928 at 10 Witherell St., it was named for chemical and dye magnate Theodore Horatio Eaton, later purchased by insurance broker David Broderick and renamed the Broderick Tower in 1945. It is now the Broderick Tower Apartments.) 

Note the font in the name "Christine" in the ad below. As far as we can tell, this font was used in all of her labels, over decades. We submitted it to an online font identifier, but couldn't come up with an exact match, so we don't know the name of the font, if there is one.
We also found the following 1936 advertorial by columnist Sally Dague, who doesn't print the name of the Detroit bag shop that creates, repairs and restyles handbags. Instead, one must find out by calling "Randolph 8900, line 228" or by sending a 3-cent stamp to the fashion editor for a mailed reply. However, there are a few clues that lead us to believe this is Christine's shop. First, Ms. Dague uses the phrase "custom-made" several times, and, more importantly, writes that the person who owns the shop has "18 years' experience." This matches up with Christine's timeline of work experience. (Sally Dague initially wrote about this unnamed bag shop in 1934, using the same sketch of handbags and slightly different verbiage. 1934 was when Christine acquired the shop from Louise Dowden.)


Christine’s husband was Reginald "Rex" LaCourse (1901-1983). They married in 1931, when he was working as a chauffeur. (He was previously married and divorced.) Per the 1940 US Census, he was a “physical director” at a “health gym,” and Christine was a “designer” at “retail (second word unreadable).” A 1958 directory listed a Rex LaCourse as a lifeguard at Michigan State University. He'd also worked as a mechanic, and was at some point employed at a Chevrolet dealership in Detroit, which is known as the “Motor City.” Per the 1950 US Census, Christine was a “stylist” at “custom hand bags” and Reginald was a supervisor at a metal factory. 

Christine handbag from the estate of Dr. Marjorie Peebles-Meyers (1915-2001), pioneering physician and the first Black woman graduate of Detroit's Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1943. Bag from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of reverse side of Christine handbag above. It is rayon with panels of Asian-motif fabric with added embroidery. The back side of the frame is studded with marcasites. We believe this handbag dates to the 1940s. We don't know if Christine or an employee made this in her store, or if Dr. Peebles-Meyers brought the bag to the store to be restyled, or if she gave the fabric to Christine to fashion into a custom handbag. We are honored to have this bag in our collection.

Label inside bag above.


And now for a possible answer to the mystery we mentioned at the top of this post. We stumbled upon a 1962 reference to Christine Custom Bags in the Suffolk (VA) News Herald. The article was about Mrs. J.D. Halbach of Oak Ridge, Virginia, who was sharing the needlepoint handbag she made, then had lined and blocked at Christine Custom Bags of Detroit at a cost of $35. This may explain the volume of Christine handbags currently for sale. Christine was not only making and repairing handbags at her small Detroit shop for decades, but advertising her services to put the finishing touches on needlework bags made by home-crafters all over the US. 

Screenshot of 1962 article from the Suffolk (VA) News Herald that mentions Christine as a place to get one's needlepoint bags blocked and lined.


We also found a 1962 mention of her services in an Akron Beacon Journal newspaper column called “Polly’s Askit Basket” by Pauline “Polly” Katherine Paffilas (1921-2005).
 
In addition, there is a listing on the reference page of a 1970 book (reprinted in 1974), Needlepoint for Everyone by Mary Brooks Picken, Doris Wilson White and Claire Valentine. It says that Christine Custom Bags was located at 114 Madison Ave., Detroit. We’re not sure if this is a misprint as this address is different from the one given in Polly’s Askit Basket column. Also, there is no Madison Ave. in Detroit proper. However, there’s a Madison Ave. in Clawson, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Christine and Rex had many different addresses before and during their marriage, so perhaps she was working out of her home in the 1960s-1970s. She would have been in her 70s at this time.

Needlepoint bag with Christine Custom Bag label, circa 1960s. Did Christine make this or put it together for a DIY-er? We may never know. Bag from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Label inside bag above.

These advertisements mean that Christine saw an opportunity during the DIY needlepoint handbag boom of the 1960s. (Needlework bags were popular several decades prior to the 1960s, but there was renewed interest among home crafters in the 1960s-1970s.) This also makes Christine Custom Bags a little more difficult to date. She started her company in the 1930s, so she could have been using older frames and bag chains on some of the needlepoint pieces sent to her by DIYers in the 1960s. (One can often date a handbag based on frames, chains, and other types of hardware.) Additionally, her signature pintuck pockets look very 1930s-1940s in style, but she apparently continued making them in her later work. There’s also the question as to whether or not she put her labels (which didn't change much over the years) in the home-crafted needlepoint bags that she was hired to line and block. We’re leaning toward “yes,” but we don’t have adequate proof and can't state this with 100 percent certainty. If we find further evidence, we will update this post. (It's important to note that Christine could've also been making and selling her own needlepoint bags in the later years of her business.)

Reverse of bag shown at the top of the page, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. We've seen the same double-sided Parisian design bag online without the Christine label and signature lining, which leads us to believe this was also a pattern purchased and sewn by home-crafters.

Lining of the bag above.

We found a number of Domboorajian relatives through our research of a genealogy website and newspaper archive. Many Domboorajians shortened or changed their surname, or married and took on their spouses’ surnames. We contacted several Domboorajian descendants via email. One (name withheld for privacy) had visited Christine and Rex as a young child, but did not know that she’d had a bag business. This relative told us that they were not surprised by Christine’s talent, as many members of the Domboorajian family are very artistic. Ramona Dom (Domboorajian) Fradon (known to her family as “Mony”) was a celebrated comic book artist who passed away at the age of 97 in 2024. Ramona’s father Peter Dom (Domboorajian, 1897-1962)—the brother with whom Christine emigrated to the US—was a lettering artist and graphic designer. Peter's son, Jay Dom (1925-1997), was a commercial artist.

Another creative Domboorajian relative (name withheld for privacy) graciously gave us the email address of a family member who’d been researching the family’s history years ago. We emailed them, but didn’t hear back. We also looked into Reginald LaCourse’s family, but could not find accurate contact information for the children or grandchildren of his siblings. 

Christine LaCourse passed away in 1980 in Volusia, Florida, where she was wintering. Her primary residence was in Caseville, Michigan, about 170 miles north of Detroit. We found an obituary in the February 28, 1980 Daytona Beach Morning Journal. Per this obituary, survivors included her husband Rex, and an unnamed daughter, which surprised us, as we were under the impression that the couple had no children. Upon further investigation, we found that Rex had a child (1921-1998, name withheld for privacy) with his first wife. Rex LaCourse died in 1983. 

Christine Domboorajian LaCourse and Reginald "Rex" LaCourse are interred at the Washtenog Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is also where Christine’s parents are buried.

Even though it's been many years since the hardworking and talented Christine Domboorajian LaCourse ran her successful handbag business, we hope to add more to this story. If you have information, please email us at vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com. 

This article c2024 Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Special thanks to the two Domboorajian descendants with whom we spoke via email. Other resources used were Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. We also used Google, Familysearch.org, Findagrave.com, the online archives of the Ann Arbor District Library, and the Suffolk News Herald. Please do not reprint this article or any other article on our website, or use our photos without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.

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