In old Europe, only the nobility had their portraits painted.  As merchants gained more wealth and power, they struggled to have their authority taken seriously in a society where lineage was prized over affluence.  Commissioning a portrait became a way for the new bourgeois class to assert itself.  For better or for worse, this changed the role of portraits.

In today’s world of easy and endless photographs, a painted portrait can be a bit more distinguished than a photographic one, but it is hardly the status symbol it once was.  Instead, it’s the designer handbag that so eloquently announces an individual’s standing and priorities.  Which leaves just one question: why are those priorities so appallingly cookie-cutter?

With these bags, I am instituting the portraitist handbag and also giving the victims of fashion’s wicked It trends a break.  This is one bag that can’t go out of style until you yourself do!  Do you want your portrait on a bag?