Bermuda bags

Fashion Synopsis

Bermuda bags? Are those the fancy straw kind with colored raffia flowers that your parents brought back for you when they went away on vacation to some tropical port (unless all they bought you was this lousy t-shirt)? Well, maybe, but the Bermuda bag we're talking about is the simple soft satchel that buttoned onto its wooden handle.

The Bermuda bag was specifically marketed for the young girl, and was usually her first purse. This interchangeable, convertible bag with wooden handles featured a button-on fabric body that allowed you to change the colors and patterns by reversing the current bag inside out, then rebuttoning to the handle. The Bermuda bag was a great at-home or 4-H craft that utilized cute calico fabrics or bright, cheerful patterns.

The two-sided body allowed two different options for the purse, and once they became popular enough to be mass-produced, the purses were sold with several reversible bodies for an almost unlimited number of fanciful options. (Okay, only six, but who’s counting?) What an ingenious idea to train girls to the importance of matching her handbag to the shoes and outfit.