Looking for “LOVE”? Our AZ Tiki Oasis pop-up shop will offer a rare chance to shop vintage Enid Collins of Texas bags offline, in person
Karen Adler examines a vintage Enid Collins of Texas box bag before refreshing it for sale. Photo by Michael Maloy, Empirical Media.
Anyone who covets the whimsical jewel-adorned vintage handbags created by Mid-Century designer Enid Collins knows that finding even one can be like discovering buried treasure.
Usually, the hunt happens online, as would-be buyers swipe through dubious images on e-commerce platforms, where bags that are rare or in good condition are quickly snatched up, often for hundreds of dollars.
As New York Times Styles Editor Alexandra Jacobs notes in her 2021 article, “Is It Time for an Enid Collins Revival?”, the brilliantly spangled bags that once graced the windows of Saks and Nieman Marcus are now “perfect fits for the photo grids of eBay, Etsy, Pinterest and Instagram.”
But buying them virtually leaves a lot to chance.
Even when lucky enough to score one of the prized pocketbooks, shoppers may be in for a shock when their item arrives.
“Sometimes when I receive bags I’ve ordered online––let’s just say it: it’s a disappointment,” says Karen Adler, a Colorado cultural anthropologist who studies Collins’s work and since 2011 has been building a professional collection of nearly 600 original Collins-designed box bags and more than 200 totes.
“Even if you understand vintage well, there can still be problems you don’t expect because a lot can happen over 60 years,” she explains. “The handle leather is cracked. Latches or hinges are broken. They’re missing jewels. Sometimes, the bag’s not even useable. And there’s that mustiness. What you see online is not what you get.”
Since launching her small social enterprise Finding Enid with LOVE, Adler has conducted what she calls “purse anthropology” on bags that Collins created from the mid-1950s to 1972. Collecting and studying hundreds of physical artworks using direct observation and other professional methods, she’s become an expert at authenticating Collins works and identifying the deceptively simple-seeming faux-jewel patterns that made the designer famous from small-town Texas to Fifth Avenue.
She’s also helped people identify and replace missing jewels through eBay since 2011 and sold refurbished bags through Etsy since 2013. Highly rated on both platforms, she’s routinely praised for professionalism, knowledge and exceptional levels of quality and care.
As one cheeky reviewer put it, she’s “a ‘gem’ to do business with.”
Now, she’s bringing her glittery goods and expertise to Scottsdale.
To give Collins collectors and others an opportunity to see – and touch and smell –– the real bejeweled-bag deal, Adler will hold a “Collinsiana Cabana” pop-up store as part of Arizona Tiki Oasis, a four-day mega-meet-up of Tiki and Mid-Century style enthusiasts to be held at the end of April at Hotel Valley Ho.
Visitors to the shop will be able to browse scores of original Mid-Century box bags and totes by Collins of Texas, plus a selection of Enid-inspired imitators.
The shop will also offer signed copies of “Enid,” a 2021 memoir by Collins’s son, George Philip “Jeep” Collins, a jeweler based in Fredericksburg, Texas, not far from the family’s former ranch. The book braids excerpts from his mother’s correspondence and journals with personal memories about the curious mix of ranch life and high fashion.
In addition to the sparkle, color and hands-on feel of physical vintage Collins bags, the opportunity to experience so many together in one place is important, Adler notes.
“You almost never see them in bulk like this,” she says, adding that even auctions of collections are mostly held online now. “There’s so much to learn by seeing lots of them together. You get a better understanding of her design process, her worldview and her writing style.”
That experience is what Finding Enid with LOVE is all about, she says, adding that it may also be the secret something behind the Collins craze.
“What happened, over and over among those of us who love Enid Collins, is that it started with an accidental discovery of just one bag. But that one spoke to us, told us we had to have it because it was so strange and wonderful. Look at how taken we all were by just a single bag. Can you imagine walking into a whole room of them?”
