The Art of the Bag

Luxe leather goods designers Lambertson Truex add a softer side to Tiffany & Co.’s panache.

By Linda Marx

Adding another component to the collection of upscale accessories that has made it synonymous with luxury over the years, Tiffany & Co. has launched a line of handbags. Priced appropriately for the Tiffany customer—from $395 for a small tote to about $18,000 for a large crocodile bag—each piece of merchandise offers a snippet of the company’s signature robin’s egg blue.

The idea for Tiffany handbags—aka Tiffany Leather Goods—started when luxury leather designers Richard Lambertson and John Truex became available. The talented pair has designed leather goods for the rich and famous around the world for more than a decade and sold the designs at luxury department stores and specialty shops under the Lambertson Truex label.

Known for timeless style, exclusivity and craftsmanship, the partners’ leather goods were exquisite. But when the recession hurt the label and the designers filed bankruptcy in 2009, Tiffany came to the rescue. The company bought the trademark and hired Lambertson and Truex, winners of the 2000 CFDA Accessories Designer of the Year Award and ACE Award for Design Excellence. They wanted to add leather bags and corresponding accessories to their mix and match of baubles and bowls. “Richard Lambertson and John Truex are the latest in our tradition of inviting the world’s best designers to work exclusively with Tiffany,” says Jon King, executive vice president of Tiffany & Co., who also features Paloma Picasso and Elsa Peretti jewelry designs. “Their vision and mastery of the craft combined with the skill of the finest Italian artisans have produced a leather collection of timeless simplicity.”

And the men are doing a stellar job, because they love their work for the company.

“Working as Tiffany’s in-house design team on handbags and leather accessories allows us the ability to design fabulous accessories all day—every day,” says Lambertson. “We have the luxury of arriving in the office each morning and focusing on design with no interruption. It is rather amazing!”
Adds Truex, who along with Lambertson has been on a national tour meeting customers and made a stop in South Florida in mid-November, “We love Tiffany. We couldn’t be happier.”

Both Lambertson and Truex say that being associated with Tiffany & Co. has allowed their appreciation for great accessory design to coexist with an iconic American appreciation for fine jewelry design. (The Tiffany tabletop line is now mostly available online and less important in newer, smaller stores to keep with the younger customer’s more casual lifestyle.) Their new women’s handbag collection has clean lines and a classic look with modern flourishes. The neutrals and colors, loaded with texture, exude new energy and luster. Bags come in crocodile, calf, suede and snakeskin with custom hardware, Tiffany-blue leather interiors, enamel and the company logo. “The collection captures the spirit of American sportswear and its exuberant approach to life in town and in the country,” says Lambertson. “We also find great inspiration in Tiffany’s timeless style and its heritage of refined accessories.”

Adds Truex: “We might start with a particular color or silhouette and then draw from Tiffany’s world of beauty and sophistication to make a new design. The result is something unique, yet unmistakably Tiffany.”

Some of Lambertson-Truex’s star designs are the large Manhattan Satchel, the Laurelton top handle with a great frame construction, several shoulder-bags and hobos that drape well in different textures, the City clutch—an envelope in gold—and the piece de resistance, the Holly clutch in violet or Tiffany-blue crocodile. (Other clutches come in metallics, skins with pleats, tucks, bows and crystal chains.)