When were Mark Cross handbags made?

Answer 1

In 1998, Sara Lee Corporation closed down Mark Cross' 7 stores in what would have been the corporation's 153rd year (according to The New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E1D61731F934A1575BC0A961958260).

In her biography, Everybody Was So Young, A. Vaill, recounts, "Patrick Murphy talked himself into a job with an up-market saddler and harness maker, Mark W. Cross, whose shop on Summer Street was the only one boasting a brick facade. His stated position was salesman, but soon he was forming, and expressing, opinions about the stock: why he asked Cross, didn't they try to adapt fine-quality saddle leather, as well as the hand-stitching methods used for harnesses to smaller personal items like wallets, cases and belts?" Murphy buys the store after Cross dies. His son, Gerald, who works there sporadically - preferring the arts to retail - ultimately pulls the store from the clutches of bankruptcy in 1934. Gerald seems to have been a sort of "J. Peterman" character. A gifted and unconventional artist, he scours Europe for wonderful and useful items. He introduced a cologne line. He hired savvy people with design sense to bring stylish and elegant household wares to the store. A. Vaill writes, "He had evolved a number of signature designs, too: There was a leather drawstring bag inspired by the feed bags used by the grooms at Longchamp racetrack. Robert Benchley, who had one of the first models, called it a 'Noah" bag because you could put everything in it you would need on the ark, and the name stuck. And there was a smart, boxy purse like a small version of a man's attache case, which was such a symbol of elegance that Grace Kelly carried one in Alfred Hitchcock's movie Rear Window to show how chic she was." (Everyone Was So Young, pg. 295)