SPECIAL POST! The "Cherry Coke" (Color!) Handbag Trend of 1946-1947

1940s brown patent clutch with acrylic (Lucite) clasp, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. This 1940s bag is the closest we have to the "cherry coke" color and fabric.

The "Cherry Coke" (Color!) Handbag Trend of 1946-1947

Forty years before there was Cherry Coke™ in a can, there was "cherry coke" the trademarked patent leather color. But there's more to its history than just a cola-monikered hue that complemented clothing in a richer tone than basic black.

Original photo from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. On the back there is a handwritten note that says, "Easter 1946," which coincides with peak popularity of the "cherry coke" handbag trend. Could she be wearing a cherry coke bag?

Bag similar to the one worn by the woman in the photo above, April 13, 1946, The Times Leader. Clipped via Newspapers.com.

If you do a Google search of the origins of cherry coke the drink, you'll see that it was a cherry syrup-flavored cola sold at drugstore soda fountains, diners, and movie theaters in "the early 1900s." The earliest reference we could find to the beverage in the newspaper archive was an article about it being featured at a midwest soda fountain in 1916.

The first fashion reference that we could find was Revlon's 1941 "Cherry Coke" lipstick, cheek color, and nail enamel, described in ads as "a sparkling brown red." It was marketed along with Revlon's other new "American-ism" colors, "Hot Dog" and "Rosy Future." 

Revlon's Cherry Coke was apparently very desirable. We found a US government document that included a memorandum dated December 2, 1946 stating that operations gifts requested for WWII informants in China included Revlon Cherry Coke lipstick and Parker pen and pencil sets.

Revlon ad in the April 7, 1941 issue of Life magazine, showing their Cherry Coke lipstick. Clipped via the Internet Archive.

Revlon trademarked the name Cherry Coke (see below) in 1941, along with separate trademarks for their Hot Dog and Rosy Future colors, to include claims to women's outerwear and undergarments. As Revlon made cosmetics, they presumably would be contracting with clothing manufacturers for cherry coke-colored apparel. 

Revlon's cherry coke 1941 trademark for apparel, screenshot from Google Books.

Some Revlon newspaper ads showed the cosmetics with coordinating clothing and accessories, including cherry coke bags and pumps. A 1941 Revlon ad (below) was the earliest mention of cherry coke handbags that we could find, but the cherry coke handbag trend didn't take off until 1946. 

Revlon's Cherry Coke cosmetics, along with coordinating apparel and accessories. March 30, 1941, The Baltimore Sun, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Before we get to the maker of cherry coke patent leather, here's a summary of what was happening to the US leather goods industry during WWII. Leather was among a number of different materials used in consumer products that were needed for the war effort, which caused commercial shortages. So, from February 1943 until October 1945, consumer purchase of shoes was limited, and required a ration coupon. 

WWII-era shoe ration coupon, from the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

Leather handbags, however, did not require a coupon, and were still available in stores, even though handbag makers were unable to get the quantity and quality of leather they had access to prior to the war. This leather shortage led to shoe and handbag manufacturers use of alternative materials for their products, including a variety of plastics.

While plastics were in use as a material for handbags and bag hardware before WWII, there was an upswing in the innovative ways plastics were created and utilized in the 1940s. We've written articles about a few of these, including Plasticflex (patented 1941), which combined plastic "plaques" and leather laces as a handbag base, and Plasticoil (patent filed 1945, granted 1946), the fabric used to create handbags that are referred to today as "telephone cord purses."

Plasticflex and Plasticoil handbags were sold in large quantities, but it appears that women more often opted for plastic handbags that resembled leather. Three of the companies that created leather-like plastics were Bakelite Corp., maker of Vinylite; Firestone, maker of Velon; and BF Goodrich, maker of Koroseal.

Original Koroseal ad from the December 8, 1947 issue of Life magazine. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

These faux leather bags were often less expensive than genuine leather bags, and marketed as washable, welcome traits for frugal post-war consumers.

This brings us to Colonial Tanning, a Boston, Massachusetts firm (est. 1924) that was known for its patent leathers. The Vintage Purse Museum acquired an envelope from the corporate stationery of Colonial Tanning Company, postmarked 1944, and made out to Modern Medicine Publishing Co., a Michigan publisher founded by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. It may have once held a check from Colonial to pay for ad space in one of Modern Medicine's magazines, although we can't know for sure.

Colonial Tanning Company envelope, postmarked 1944. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum.

The envelope has the name Kivie Kaplan (1904-1975) penciled on it. Mr. Kaplan's father founded Colonial Tanning, which was later run by Kivie Kaplan and his brothers. An early civil rights activist, Kivie Kaplan marched for equality alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mr. Kaplan was a pioneer in that he actively sought to employ Black Americans at his family's factory, and he eventually became national president of the NAACP. He also employed military veterans, and established profit-sharing bonuses for his factory workers in the late 1940s. Kivie Kaplan and his wife Emily Rogers Kaplan donated substantial funds to the Jewish Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Boston, Massachusetts, which led to the addition of a 156-bed wing in 1955. 

Kivie Kaplan and Emily Rogers Kaplan (left) at the opening of the hospital wing they endowed, Jan 2, 1955, The Boston Globe, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Cherry coke patent leather was a minuscule part of Mr. Kaplan's remarkable story, but we reached out to his relatives (names withheld for privacy) to see if there was anyone in the family who might remember this product. The family graciously responded with a number of possible online sources. They also mentioned a massive 1961 factory fire at Colonial's Hartnett Tanning division in Ayer, Massachusetts (about 40 miles from Boston), that more than likely destroyed any records from the previous decades' production.

Considering this fire, and with most resources focusing on Mr. Kaplan's labor relations and civil rights work, we knew it would be a challenge to find out more about cherry coke handbags. One of the biggest issues was that even though we could pinpoint cherry coke's fashion-related popularity from about 1941 (primarily for Revlon's cosmetics) until 1946-1947 (the peak for cherry coke handbags and shoes), we weren't sure if it was genuine leather or a plastic that resembled leather. The two ads directly below contradict each other. One calls it plastic, and the other says the material is patent leather.

May 15, 1946, The Montreal Star, clipped via Newspapers.com.

August 28, 1946, the Lansing State Journal, clipped via Newspapers.com.

Colonial Tanning's 1946 trademark registration claims use of "cherry coke" starting in 1940, which corroborates the 1941 Revlon ad featuring leather shoes and bags that matched its cosmetics. Charles Revson (1906-1975), founder of Revlon, and Kivie Kaplan, co-owner of Colonial Tanning, were just two years apart in age, and both were born in Massachusetts to parents of Lithuanian descent. We don't know if they knew each other, and could not find evidence of an agreement between their two companies to collaborate on the cherry coke color trend.

The 1946 Colonial Tanning trademark (below) also says it's "for apparel, belts, and shoes of leather, rubber, fabric, or combinations thereof." The implication is that Colonial could produce this color in genuine leather and other types of materials. 

Colonial Tanning's 1946 Cherry Coke US trademark registration, screenshot from Google.

Newspapers and magazines alternately advertised cherry coke shoes and handbags as "patent leather," "plastic patent," or just "patent." There is a difference. Patent leather is genuine leather that is treated to have a shiny appearance. Plastic patent is just that—shiny vinyl-like plastic. Our first thought was that it was probable that Colonial made leather and plastic in the same trademarked color, particularly in light of WWII leather shortages and the subsequent rationing of leather shoes. We then found several Colonial Tanning advertisements indicating that they were, indeed, manufacturing plastics as well as leather. (See below.)

Boot and Shoe Recorder, December 1, 1946, clipped via Oldnews.com. We believe this ad was originally printed in color. Prior to being called "Colonial Plastics Company," this division of Colonial Tanning was known as "Colonial Synthetic Leather."

In 1944, the Kaplan brothers established Colonial Synthetic Leather (later known as Colonial Plastics Co.) at 183 Essex St. in partnership with Mark Bortman (1896-1967), owner of Bortman Plastics, which was already at this address. 183 Essex St. was just a few minutes from Colonial Tanning at 207 South St. Sources indicate that Essex St. was a multi-business building rather than a manufacturing facility. This means it is possible that Mr. Bortman, a renowned plastics expert, as well as author, historian, and philanthropist, had his main office there, and subcontracted his plastics and textile manufacturing concerns to independent factories, under his supervision and specifications.

In Boot and Shoe Recorder's April 15, 1947 edition it was reported that Mr. Bortman attended a Colonial sponsored dinner at a leather show. It said, "An inspiring talk was also given by Mark Bortman, president of the Bortman Plastics Company and a managing partner of the Colonial Plastics Company. It is Mr. Bortman's department which did such excellent work during the leather shortage in providing synthetics for the handbag trade as well as the shoe industry."

It's likely that cherry coke was first produced in leather, then in plastic, but what color was it, exactly? All newspaper ads and many magazine ads were in black and white during this time period. We saw one newspaper advertisement that referred to it as "cherry coke brown," and another that said, "gleaming plastic in a deep bronze shade," and yet another that said, "red, gold, copper, all fused into one glowing color."

One of our resources is Google Books, which often gives us glimpses of vintage trade publications, catalogs, legal documents, etc. We discovered that page 212 of the 1947 Montgomery Ward Spring/Summer catalog has a color picture of a cherry coke handbag. Because many Google Books' items only offer snippets (due to copyright or other factors), we couldn't see the full page. We then thought, if Montgomery Ward had this product in its catalog, perhaps its competitor Sears Roebuck did as well. (If you have the Montgomery Ward catalog, and would like to email a photo of the page to us, we will happily credit you here.)

Thanks to the website of Catalogs & Wishbooks, we found the 1946 Sears Fall/Winter catalog, which shows a model wearing what may be a cherry coke or similar brown handbag. Catalogs & Wishbooks also has scanned pages of the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog, which shows shoes identified as being in the cherry coke color.

Screenshot of a page from the 1946 Sears Fall/Winter catalog, from Catalogs & Wishbooks. Her handbag appears to be similar to the cherry coke color, but there is no text in the catalog that identifies the color or fabric of the handbag. 

Screenshot from Catalogs & Wishbooks of a page from the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog. The shoe identified as cherry coke is on the lower left. 

Another screenshot from the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog. The shoe identified as cherry coke is in the top center of the page. Screenshot from Catalogs & Wishbooks.

A third screenshot from the 1947 Sears Spring/Summer catalog. The cherry coke shoe is at the lower left. Screenshot from Catalogs & Wishbooks.

The 1946 Sears catalog features a handbag in a reddish brown that is very similar to 1947's cherry coke shoes, but it does not have a description alongside it. There were a number of bags and shoes in browns that resemble this color that aren't made of the trademarked cherry coke material produced by Colonial.

At the top of this page is our 1940s patent handbag that is a dark brown bordering on maroon. This bag is unlabeled and has a coordinating fabric lining. It appears to be darker than the shoes in the 1947 Sears ads, so we don't think it's cherry coke, but a similar color by a different manufacturer. It is the closest bag in our collection to cherry coke in terms of color, material, and age.

We found newspaper advertisements for cherry coke shoes by different makers, including well-known names such as Palizzio, Marquise, and Paradise. However, all of the ads that we found for cherry coke handbags did not share any maker names, although Colonial was often listed as the material's manufacturer. It is possible that Colonial sold its fabric to just one or two handbag manufacturers that wholesaled bags to shoe boutiques and department stores. It is also a possibility that the shoe manufacturers contracted with a wholesale handbag manufacturer to make cherry coke bags to match the footwear sold under their labels.

April 1, 1946, The Miami News, clipped via Newspapers.com.

It would have been ideal for us to get potential clues from old packaging such as a shoebox, or perhaps a receipt that showed the purchase of a cherry coke handbag or pair of shoes. But, as you can imagine, our search for "cherry coke" led us on an entirely different path, meaning what mostly came up was the canned soda that premiered in 1985. So, one question you may have is how did a big company like Coca-Cola allow the use of a variation of their name, even way back in the 1940s? We wondered, too. And—well—it did. Until it didn't.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Coca-Cola first started using the nickname "Coke" in advertising in 1941, then legally trademarked it in 1945. 

In September 1946, the footwear industry publication Boot and Shoe Recorder wrote an advertorial about a group of young people being the "Coke Crowd." This led to the publication receiving a letter from an attorney representing the Coca-Cola Company, and Boot and Shoe Recorder's subsequent, somewhat apologetic column, which you can read directly below.

First part of Boot and Shoe Recorder's column, screenshot via Internet Archive.

Second part of Boot and Shoe Recorder's column, screenshot via Internet Archive.

This missive from the attorney related to the potentially infringing usage of "cherry coke" as a fashion color, as well as Boot and Shoe Recorder's use of "Coke Crowd" in their previous advertorial. Months after the appearance of Boot and Shoe Recorder's acknowledgement of their "error," Coca-Cola took out the following ad in Boot and Shoe Recorder.

Coca-Cola's ad in the June 1, 1947 Boot and Shoe Recorder, screenshot via Internet Archive.

If any company, large or small, sees what it considers trademark infringement, it's up to them to protect their brand. It seems Coca-Cola's legal department was heavily scrutinizing the continued use of "cherry coke"—the shoe and handbag material color—which appeared in both upper- and lower-case in ads in leather industry publications, fashion magazines, and newspapers. The fact that they didn't trademark the word "Coke" until 1945 answers the question of why Coca-Cola didn't legally enforce it in 1941 when Revlon first came out with its lip color and coordinating apparel. 

It wouldn't be surprising if the cherry coke color trend had run its course by late 1947, as happens with fashion in general, but its discontinuation could very well have been helped along by potential litigation. That said, we could find no legal filings regarding the use of "cherry coke" as a color in any historical court case databases. (Revlon also discontinued its "Cherry Coke" and "Hot Dog" cosmetic colors by 1947, but "Rosy Future" is still being produced.)

It is, however, very easy to continue manufacturing a material that was once called "cherry coke," and rename it something fancy—and not trademarked—like "burnt mocha," an actual handbag color name we saw in a 1948 ad (unrelated to Colonial Tanning). Or perhaps the color wheel of fashion had spun to its newest preferred shade by winter of '47. 

We did find a few later references to "cherry coke," including one in the 1960s as a shoe color, but it quickly disappeared. Today we'll occasionally see a hair dye or clothing color referred to as the more generic "cherry cola."

This was a fascinating—albeit niche—topic for us to research. Some of the facts about the cherry coke color trend may be lost to time, but if we learn anything more about it during our continued study of handbag history, we'll be sure to update this article.

This article c2026 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Special thanks to the family of Kivie Kaplan. Thanks also to Sarah Cleveland and Basil Cleveland, President & Co-Founder of the Boston Leather Guild, for their kind response to our email, and for researching the archives of the Widener Library at Harvard University. Resources used were Myheritage.com, Oldnews.com, and Newspapers.com, to which we have paid subscriptions. Other resources were Catalogs and Wishbooks, Familysearch.org, Internet Archive, Encyclopedia Brittanica, and Google. Please do not use information or photos from our website without permission, vintagepursemuseum@gmail.com.