This is a shoulder bag which my aunt hand crocheted herself, during the 1970s. It is chocolate brown and I believe it matched a pair of brown espadrilles she had purchased at J.J. Newberry's on Foothill Blvd., across from Sunland Park. I am almost certain that she purchased this brown cotton crocheting thread from there, and probably the fabric for the liner, and the zipper, because I remember many times going with her to the fabric and notions department of Newberry's, which was located in the "basement" of the store. (The store was actually split level, with an escalator in the middle, and the basement door on the back side of the store faced the daylight, and the cement roller skating rink at Sunland Park.)
My aunt was a champion crocheter, and knitter, as was my godmother, Elsie, and most of the Italian women on my father's side of the family. When we visited my godmother at holiday times (Christmas and Easter) her furniture was covered with hand-made scarves and antimacassars. Sometimes I thought there was a competition between these female relatives to see who could doll up their habitats, and themselves, the most. This is why I remember this bag.
When my aunt slung it over her shoulder and took it with her to one of our "gone-a-calling" visits, one of our female relatives oo-ed and awed over it, commenting on how it resembled something she'd seen in a fashion magazine. In my aunt's mind, I'm sure she thought "mission accomplished."
Beyond that though, during that period when fashion was very much out of reach to the middle class, and when a spirit of self-sufficiency prevailed (through the gas crisis, the unemployment crisis, soon to be followed by an international crisis in Iran), I'm sure, to my aunt, the fact that she could create of her own hand and within her own budget, the means to garner a type of respect from other women, was empowering. I won't comment on capitalism and desire, and the way they tend to devour at the same time they seem to empower, because my aunt lived and died in a time before feminism really had its most meaningful impact on the lives of middle class women, whether those middle class women wanted to acknowledge it or not (I believe this happened during the Reagan era, and even the post-Reagan era, when the acknowledgement of "the glass ceiling" occurred).
As a post-script to this post, I noted that in a recent issue of Vogue Magazine, a crocheted, Ralph Lauren bag was listed at retail for $995. Definitely out of my reach. I wonder if seeing this bag in a fashion magazine today would have inspired my aunt to update her creation, or begin again, in ecru.
