SPECIAL POST: Fiber Artist Irene Reed and Her Remarkable Handbags

Asian-motif fabric bag with woman's face by Irene Reed, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of bag above, featuring Irene Reed's signature crochet detail and use of costume jewelry.

Fiber Artist Irene Reed and Her Remarkable Handbags

The Vintage Purse Museum was introduced to the work of artist Irene Reed (1946-2012) by fellow handbag collector and former art gallery owner Vicki Schwager, whose wonderful collection can be seen here.

Once we saw Ms. Reed's captivating creations, we had to find one of our own. This desire for just one led to us acquiring, at current count, five glorious Irene Reed pieces. We may be a bit obsessed!

While Ms. Reed was known primarily to fellow Connecticut residents as a fixture of the Hartford art scene, her fascinating body of work can be found nationwide in numerous collections both public and private. Her brilliant wardrobe accessories were a favorite of stylish individuals, and a number of her pieces were displayed in art galleries and museums, including several Smithsonian traveling exhibits.

Photo of Irene Reed from 2000, shown in a July 11, 2013 Hartford Courant article. Clipped via subscription to Newspapers.com.

The Vintage Purse Museum felt it was important to share her art with those that may be unfamiliar with her unique vision, but we also hoped to add anecdotes from her personal life from someone who knew her best.

Which is why we were thoroughly delighted to connect with her lovely sister, Laverne Lombardi, an artist and art instructor in her own right. The talented siblings led very different lives, often separated by miles, but remained close to each other and their parents. 

Irene Reed leopard print bag with lady face, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of bag above.

Irene Reed was born in 1946 in Plainville, Connecticut to Louis Coyne (1913-1998) and Ann Brunette Coyne (1915-2011). Louis started out in the grocery business, but eventually became a tool designer for a small tools manufacturing firm. We asked Ms. Lombardi if their father's career inspired the sisters' artistic aspirations, and she said it was possible, but she mostly credited their mother Ann Coyne for teaching Ms. Lombardi to knit, and Ms. Reed to crochet.

"She could crochet anything," Ms. Lombardi said of her sister, noting that she could instinctively construct specific shapes.

Ms. Reed's crocheting skill heavily influenced her art, which is apparent not only in her handbags, but much of the work she created prior to and after them. One notable crocheted piece, said Ms. Lombardi, was a 4-foot by 6-foot recreation of a $10,000 bill that she made for a bank. She also crocheted a car commissioned by a client to match his vintage automobile. 

She made so many works of art over decades that it's often difficult to precisely pinpoint their eras. The earliest mention of an Irene Reed handbag that we could find in a newspaper archive was a crocheted strawberry bag made in 1986. We believe the Irene Reed bags in our collection to be from the late 1990s to early 2000s. She also made distinctive hats, including some for famous clients.

A 1983 Hartford Courant newspaper article described Ms. Reed's hat-making process, as well as her penchant for puns: "Wearers of Hartford fiber artist Irene Reed's highly imaginative sculptural headpieces are sure to attract attention. For one creation, 'Fountainhead,' Reed creates the illusion of sprays of water from a fountain by using threads of monofilament. 'Figurehead,' with four crocheted human figures arranged in a pattern, and 'Brideshead Revisited,' an exquisite wedding cake confection of antique lace and ribbons, are among the 15 works Reed is showing at the M.S. Gallery starting Friday. Five large (20-by-30 inch) wall pieces and five small hangings in the shape of fans are also being shown."

Photo of Irene Reed hat and fan that appeared with article mentioned above, December 4, 1983, The Hartford Courant, clipped via Newspapers.com.

The article also said that she spent "as long as a month on each of her art hats," and "finds more customers for them in New York and on the West Coast than she does in Hartford." Mia Farrow, Faye Dunaway, and Gilda Radner were "among those who own Reed's exotic creations."

Laverne Lombardi told us that Mia Farrow had seen Ms. Reed's crocheted caps featuring goggles and other embellishments, and had special ordered one for herself. A 2013 Hartford Courant article published after Ms. Reed's death said that Mia Farrow's piece was meant to represent a "WWI pilot's headgear." Another custom headpiece, said Ms. Lombardi, was constructed for a production of The Wiz.

Irene Reed headpiece in the December 7, 1986 edition of the Hartford Courant, clipped via subscription to Newspapers.com.

Irene Reed crocheted large items such as full-sized pieces of furniture, but also made small ornaments for her family that were personalized with photographs, including one special bell-shaped piece for her parents' fiftieth anniversary. She also made figures such as angels and court jesters to go atop spools of thread. Among Ms. Reed's favorite motifs, said her sister, were chickens and roosters. It seems she was equally comfortable creating whimsical sculpture for display as she was with her wearable art, which included not only handbags, but also belts and jewelry.

"She had a friend who made clothes for older people, and she'd make jewelry pieces to go with them," said Ms. Lombardi.

We found a 1993 announcement in the Meridien, Connecticut Record-Journal that reported that Irene Reed had collaborated with artist Sara Cambria (1916-2007) to make jewelry for a showing and sale at Meridien's Gallery 53. Ms. Cambria hand-painted rocks that Irene Reed turned into jewelry or ornaments by adding crochet. 

Her interest in Asian fabrics and themes was yet another facet of her aesthetic, as seen in our bag at the top of the page. Ms. Reed also created a series of crocheted shoes, including some that were made for the Stuart Weitzman brand to be displayed in its Manhattan store. Some of her pieces embraced eclectically humorous viewpoints, or were an esoteric take on wordplay. Her friend Dan Blow, co-owner of the (now-defunct) Hartford store Japanalia, owned an Irene Reed piece that was a silver crocheted airplane with crocheted fruit and marshmallows surrounded by crocheted purple mountains. He was quoted in a 2013 Hartford Courant article as saying that it took him a while to figure out that it was meant to be "purple mountains majesty above the fruited plane."

It appears that Irene Reed didn't label her designs, but she did have business cards to include with at least some of her pieces, which listed her name, address, phone number, and the description "Sculptural containers & accessories crocheted in fiber." (The Vintage Purse Museum does not have one of these cards, but saw one online with a piece that was for sale.)

Colorful Irene Reed handbag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of bag above.

Ms. Lombardi told us that Ms. Reed preferred to ride a bicycle through town rather than drive a car, and would pick up bits and bobs off the street or at yard sales to incorporate into her work. She created art in her four-story row house across from Hartford's Trinity College, with each floor a designated spot for a variety of mediums. The basement, said Ms. Lombardi, was the area her sister used when working with water and paper, a messier process than crochet.

Vibrant blue Irene Reed bag, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Closeup of bag above.

While Irene Reed was active in the local art scene, and extremely supportive of fellow artists, she had just a few close friends, and was a very private person, mostly preferring to keep to herself and her art. 

Even so, with a master's degree from Wesleyan University, and the title of Master Craftsman bestowed upon her by the Society of Connecticut Craftsman, she went back to school to obtain a second master's degree in gerontology. She then spent her final years working part-time as a research assistant at the University of Connecticut Center on Aging, while still creating art, sometimes in conjunction with her elderly clients' needs.

"Her master's thesis was about art for the elderly and how it improved their outlook on life," said Laverne Lombardi.

Irene Reed very small purse or possibly a necklace. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

On November 26, 2012, Irene Reed passed away unexpectedly in her sleep at the age of 66. She was survived by her sister, her sister's husband, children, and grandchildren, and an aunt, uncle, and cousin. Much of Ms. Reed's work, along with the works of other artists that she collected, was sold the following July at her friends' Dan Blow and Eiko Sakai's store, Japanalia. 

Laverne Lombardi still holds dear many fabulous pieces of her sister's extraordinary legacy, ensuring that Irene Reed's fanciful, unconventional, and tactile mementos of a true artist's life will be appreciated by their family for generations.

Special thanks to Laverne Lombardi, and to her daughter Karen for facilitating our delightful telephone conversation. This article c2026 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Please do not use photos or information from this article or others on our website without requesting permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com. Resources used were Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which we have paid subscriptions, and Google.