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| Early version (circa 1952) of the Bags by Edwards Ltd. "3 way cover bag," before it had the L&M name attached to it. The cover (brocade on one side, velvet on the other) is attached by a frame clip rather than the sturdier connection system of later bags. It is a smaller size than later versions, and has its original coin purse and instructions. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Closeup of instructions, frame clip, and interior maker imprint on bag above. |
The Vintage Purse Museum has in its collection quite a few handbags that are reversible or have changeable covers. We’ve been asked several times for a history of these, and finally decided to embark upon another journey of research gathering. As always, this led us to more than we bargained for.
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| Pair of three-way bags, one showing its matte black base, and the other with a paisley print reversible cover. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
While the most common is the three-way by Lowy & Mund/Bags by Edwards, we’ll begin by acknowledging some of the predecessors of these 1940s-1960s bags. Please keep in mind that it’s impossible to showcase every type of reversible bag and every maker, and that this is a general overview.
A few important notes first: Some of the convertible bags in our collection don't have clear maker imprints as they may have worn off over time, so it is possible that not all of them are by L&M. Next, in old documents, "Lowy & Mund" was alternately called "Lowy and Mund" and "L&M." And finally, for this article, we are using the words "convertible," "reversible," "three-way," and "3-way" interchangeably. As well as the word "interchangeably," interchangeably. :)
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We can't pinpoint the convertible or reversible bag's precise origins in terms of commercial consumption, but we found advertisements for these as early as the 1920s. They appeared to gain in popularity by the 1930s, as shown in the 1934 newspaper ad below.
While the ad does not mention a maker, we did find a 1935 reversible-cover handbag patent filed by Murray H. Resnick, the son of famous mid-century bag maker Julius Resnick of JR handbags. This patent, shown below, has sketches similar to the bag in the advertisement above, but we can't be sure if this was a JR product. As you'll read a few paragraphs down, Murray Resnick wasn't the only 1930s patent-holder for a handbag with interchangeable covers.
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| Murray Resnick's 1935 reversible-cover handbag patent, screenshot via Google Patents. |
Murray Resnick's 1935 handbag was later cited in the 1957 patent for Edward Lowy's convertible handbag, and again by other makers of similar bags in subsequent decades. It was very common for inventors to cite previous patents, presumably in order to avoid patent and design infringement, a very contentious and often litigious topic in the handbag industry, usually with no good resolution for the plaintiff. This inability to protect what someone believes is their original design is one of the reasons you will see nearly identical handbags with labels of different makers.
Murray Resnick also filed a 1955 patent for another type of convertible bag. In this later patent, he cited a 1924 convertible bag patent filed by Max Berkowitz, who was a longtime handbag industry professional, as well as a respected board member of the Ladies Handbag Authority. Not only was the handbag world very intertwined, it epitomized the phrase "nothing new under the sun."
Also of note in the 1930s was women-owned company Virginia Art Goods, which made what it called a "slip cover" bag, which had a base bag of white, and covers in different patterns and colors.
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| Virginia Art Goods "slip cover" bag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
By the 1940s, there were even more companies making reversible or convertible bags. This includes Miami-based Stylecraft, as shown in the 1941 newspaper advertorial below.
While the concept of reversible or convertible bags was not new, it made much more financial sense to have one of these while the US was in the throes of The Great Depression (1929-1939), as well as during World War II (1939-1945). The purchase of a single handbag that could be worn with several outfits or on different occasions was not only clever, but economical. It became even more important to save money after the implementation of the 1944 US federal excise "luxury" tax on handbags and other items, which, for ten years, was 20 percent of a bag's retail price. (The following ten years the tax was 10 percent, until it was repealed in 1965.) Why buy three different bags when you could get the versatility of a three-in-one, while only paying the tax once?
Handbags with changeable covers were not exclusive to the US, as evidenced by the 1949 UK newspaper ad below. (Bentalls department store chain was founded in 1867, defunct 2023.)
Here's where we get into the industry impact of Lowy & Mund/Edwards convertible handbags, which we believe were the biggest sellers, based on their durability and availability today. First, some company background. (We reached out to several members of the Lowy family, but were unable to connect. )
Alfred Lowy (1902-1989) and Irving Mund (1900-1967) established Lowy & Mund, Inc. some time prior to 1935, which is when they are listed as members of the then newly-established Ladies Handbag Authority, organized under the auspices of the National Recovery Administration. (We found the company name in the 1936 government document entitled History of the Code of Fair Competition for the Ladies Handbag Industry). At that time, their business address was 209 W. 26th St. in Brooklyn, New York. This is currently a residence, but, in the 1930s, was a storefront.
Per 1944 help-wanted newspaper ads, L&M's primary address was 15 E. 32nd St. in New York City. This general area was a very popular location for handbag makers' offices and showrooms during the mid-century.
Bags by Edwards, Ltd. appears to be a business name, but we couldn't find it in online business name databases, so it's unclear if Edward Lowy (1906-1985) had his own bag company prior to joining forces with his older brother Alfred Lowy, and business partner Irving Mund. However, it seems as if "Edwards" was a bag line of L&M's rather than a separate entity. We'll update this post if we find further information.
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Pair of three-way convertible bags, one with a floral cover and the other with a popular print (referred to in old ads as "Egyptian" or "Persian") This fabric was made by Amity Mills and used by a number of different bag companies for many types of styles. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.
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L&M made countless handbags in many styles, including some under their Spot-Lite line, which they trademarked in 1944, its first year in use. (Coincidentally, this was the same year of the aforementioned L&M help-wanted ads, as well as when the handbag tax was first implemented.) The L&M After Five evening bag line was trademarked in 1962 (but first used in 1960).
We were unable to find the convertible bag line "L&M Bags by Edwards" with its crown logo as registered to the Lowy & Mund company, or Edwards (with crown logo) as a standalone trademark. However, we learned, per the US Patent and Trademark Office database, that in 2018 the "L and M - Bags by Edwards" trademark had been registered by the Fregoli couture bag company, based in Italy. Fregoli's social media shows that they are (at the time of this post) making a high-end convertible style. We do not know if these bags are marked with L&M or Edwards or the crown logo.
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| L&M Bags By Edwards imprint inside a vintage three-way handbag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
The Vintage Purse Museum has an original ad from the April 1, 1948 issue of Vogue magazine, which shows the convertible handbags made by Bags by Edwards, Ltd. (Ad directly below, and an example of an early Bags by Edwards, Ltd. handbag at top of page.) There is no mention of L&M, but the address is that of L&M's offices. These early bags have a different way to remove and replace the covers (as shown in the closeup at the top of the page), as well as a chain handle rather than the acrylic handle of later versions.
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| Original 1948 Vogue magazine ad, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. This version of the "3-Way" bag had a frame that clipped the cover onto the base bag, rather than the system later patented by Edward Lowy. |
1948 was also the date of the earliest ad we could find for the Edwards "3-Way Bag" in the newspaper archives. In the newspaper ad, as well as on the instruction sheet that came with our early Edwards bag, a patent number is cited in very small print. This is a patent for a "removable handbag cover" filed in 1935 (registered 1936) by Harry E. Rosenberg, who originally filed a patent in 1934 for a similar cover.
There is no patent assignee, so we couldn't make a connection between the somewhat common name Harry Rosenberg and the L&M company. However, there was a Harry E. Rosenberg that owned the Mam'selle handbag company, which was established in December 1936. It's very possible this is the same Mr. Rosenberg. Our theory is that this patent was used with permission, with royalties going to Mr. Rosenberg. We will update this post if we find further evidence.
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| Harry Rosenberg's 1935 patent, which was cited in the Edwards advertisement directly above it. Screenshot from Google Patents. Murray Resnick's patent is very similar. |
It is unclear why Edward Lowy filed his own patent in 1957, but it could have been because the Rosenberg patent had expired by then, and/or other bag companies were quickly jumping on the convertible bag bandwagon. (Examples at the bottom of this page.) More likely is that this was when the L&M company started producing the bag with the updated connection system created by Mr. Lowy.
Edward Lowy held at least seven handbag patents, including the aforementioned 1957 patent (below) for a "handbag having removable cover."
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| Edward Lowy 1957 patent, screenshot via Google Patents. |
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| L&M tapestry convertible handbag. The heart-shaped embellishment is not original to the bag. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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View of the same bag with its tapestry cover off and the textured black base showing. 31 Aug 1962, Fri The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana) Newspapers.com
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| Identical pair of L&M "five-way" bags, with the convertible chain counting as the fourth and fifth ways. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
We discovered numerous advertisements for three-way handbags--some with the maker name and others without. We also found ads for 5-in-1 handbags, which considered the chain handle that could be kept out for holding, or concealed inside so the bag could be used as a clutch, as the fourth and fifth "ways." (See ad directly below.)
Edward Lowy's final patent for a "combination personal receptacle" was filed in 1968. The most recent newspaper advertisement we could find for a Lowy & Mund three-way bag was from 1969. The most recent newspaper ad for any L&M bag was from 1970. There were "after five" (lower case) advertisements in the newspaper archive after 1970, but we believe this referred to the time of day in which the bags were meant to be used, and not the L&M trademarked After Five line.
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Vinyl bag cover with metallic accents. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 21 May 1959, Thu The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com |
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| Photo from the September 1957 issue of the trade publication Handbags & Accessories. The bag being shown by the salesperson to the customer is a changeable cover bag with a pattern of clock faces. Original magazine from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
While the ads appear to stop within a few years of the 1967 death of L&M partner Irving Mund, it's very possible that Lowy & Mund, much like a number of other bag companies of that era, was a casualty of GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. In 1968, GATT had its "Kennedy Round," which allowed for more importation of bags made overseas, and greatly affected the US handbag industry, causing many manufacturers to go out of business. The Vintage Purse Museum has a 1970 list from a House Ways and Means Committee hearing that names some of these companies. There is no mention of Lowy & Mund, but there is an "M&L." This may be a typographical error, or there may have been an "M&L" handbag company.
The very last reference we could find naming Lowy & Mund in a document was 1969's "The Market for Leather Goods in North America and Selected Western European Countries," which was published by the International Trade Centre-UNCTAD/GATT. (ITC is now a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.) We couldn't see the complete document, but noted its association with GATT.
Below is the last newspaper ad (1969) we could find for L&M 3-way bags. The fact that they were sold for so long makes them difficult to accurately date; however, one can reasonably assume that those with the acrylic handle were produced from about 1957 until 1969. The bags from the late 1940s to early 1950s, with the original flip-frame cover system created by Mr. Rosenberg, had a chain handle. Also having a chain handle are the "five-way bags," which were produced in the 1960s, but they, too, had the later connection system created by Mr. Lowy.
The convertible bag has had numerous incarnations over decades. For instance, there was--and still is--the "Bermuda" bag, also known by other names, created by many companies, as well as home-crafters. We've seen tooled leather reversible bags, and "hippie" or "boho" style bags on wooden frames that can be turned inside out to reveal a second pattern. Mary McFadden (1938-2024) designed her "Worldly Treasures" bag with reversible covers for a television shopping channel in the 1990s. In 2005, Linda Westcott Johnson created the Dorothy Valworth line for Fred Segal of Beverly Hills, saying she was inspired by a vintage bag, presumably the L&M 3-way. Then, as we mentioned here previously, Fregoli of Venice, Italy appears to have created an upscale version. Another contemporary company, Miche, is known for its line of interchangeable bags. As always, fashion is cyclical, and we're definitely here for it!
Scroll down for more photos of vintage convertible handbags from The Vintage Purse Museum collection, as well as more advertisements from this era.
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Convertible bags, disassembled, by Lumured. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 02 May 1957, Thu The Indiana Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com |
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Stylemark bag with changeable covers: butterfly print, pink and white. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 07 Sep 1960, Wed The Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio) Newspapers.com |
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Jana leather clutch, shown open, with changeable cover. The cover has a slot that fits over the metal piece, which is secured by a leather flap. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. 04 Dec 1951, Tue Muncie Evening Press (Muncie, Indiana) Newspapers.com |
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| Pair of unlabeled brocade evening bags with changeable covers. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
This article c2024 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Resources include Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. We also used Familysearch.org and Google. Please do not use photos or information from our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.
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