Vintage Betsey Johnson Nautical Striped Wristlet Clutch Red Bow and Cherry Zipper
Betsey Johnson
Adorable vintage Betsey Johnson wristlet made with white and blue stripes and a huge red bow. A large cherry adorns the zipper pull, making this an excellently whimsical piece.
measures 8.5” wide x 5.5” tall
Condition: Excellent
“In 1977, she launched her own label with a business partner, a fashion sales rep and former model named Chantal Bacon. Johnson gave Bacon half the company up front. “I wanted someone to work as hard as I worked,” she told me. A year later, she opened her first namesake store, on Thompson Street, in Soho. “There was the downtown girl who would buy my clothes,” Johnson said. “There was a customer that just grew between the cement.” At first, Johnson and Bacon funnelled any profits into expanding the brand to other cities. “We’d go to places like Boston, on Newbury Street, sit outside, have a cup of coffee, and just check out if there were any girls who we think might wear my clothes,” she said. In New York, when they would scout new store locations, in their Fiorucci spike heels, Johnson said, “The police used to think we were hookers.”
In the eighties and nineties, Johnson’s business exploded. Johnson began showing at every New York Fashion Week, ending all of her runway presentations by doing a cartwheel. Daryl Hannah wore a velvet Betsey dress dotted with rosebuds to an Oscars party. Rock stars bought the clothes. “Debbie Harry was a Betsey girl. The B-52s were Betsey girls,” she said. “Linda Ronstadt—she bought one dress and then she copied it.” “Betsey” chronicles Johnson’s heyday in a peppy, dishy voice laced with bravado. Of her early collections of lycra leggings and Day-Glo crop tops, she writes, “Basically, it was activewear as streetwear, which was unheard of back then.” Of her corporate expansion, she writes, “I began to feel like the Mildred Pierce of retail. There is a line in the movie where Mildred says ‘Everywhere you went I had a restaurant.’ In my case, everywhere I went I had a store.””
Betsey Johnson
Adorable vintage Betsey Johnson wristlet made with white and blue stripes and a huge red bow. A large cherry adorns the zipper pull, making this an excellently whimsical piece.
measures 8.5” wide x 5.5” tall
Condition: Excellent
“In 1977, she launched her own label with a business partner, a fashion sales rep and former model named Chantal Bacon. Johnson gave Bacon half the company up front. “I wanted someone to work as hard as I worked,” she told me. A year later, she opened her first namesake store, on Thompson Street, in Soho. “There was the downtown girl who would buy my clothes,” Johnson said. “There was a customer that just grew between the cement.” At first, Johnson and Bacon funnelled any profits into expanding the brand to other cities. “We’d go to places like Boston, on Newbury Street, sit outside, have a cup of coffee, and just check out if there were any girls who we think might wear my clothes,” she said. In New York, when they would scout new store locations, in their Fiorucci spike heels, Johnson said, “The police used to think we were hookers.”
In the eighties and nineties, Johnson’s business exploded. Johnson began showing at every New York Fashion Week, ending all of her runway presentations by doing a cartwheel. Daryl Hannah wore a velvet Betsey dress dotted with rosebuds to an Oscars party. Rock stars bought the clothes. “Debbie Harry was a Betsey girl. The B-52s were Betsey girls,” she said. “Linda Ronstadt—she bought one dress and then she copied it.” “Betsey” chronicles Johnson’s heyday in a peppy, dishy voice laced with bravado. Of her early collections of lycra leggings and Day-Glo crop tops, she writes, “Basically, it was activewear as streetwear, which was unheard of back then.” Of her corporate expansion, she writes, “I began to feel like the Mildred Pierce of retail. There is a line in the movie where Mildred says ‘Everywhere you went I had a restaurant.’ In my case, everywhere I went I had a store.””
Betsey Johnson
Adorable vintage Betsey Johnson wristlet made with white and blue stripes and a huge red bow. A large cherry adorns the zipper pull, making this an excellently whimsical piece.
measures 8.5” wide x 5.5” tall
Condition: Excellent
“In 1977, she launched her own label with a business partner, a fashion sales rep and former model named Chantal Bacon. Johnson gave Bacon half the company up front. “I wanted someone to work as hard as I worked,” she told me. A year later, she opened her first namesake store, on Thompson Street, in Soho. “There was the downtown girl who would buy my clothes,” Johnson said. “There was a customer that just grew between the cement.” At first, Johnson and Bacon funnelled any profits into expanding the brand to other cities. “We’d go to places like Boston, on Newbury Street, sit outside, have a cup of coffee, and just check out if there were any girls who we think might wear my clothes,” she said. In New York, when they would scout new store locations, in their Fiorucci spike heels, Johnson said, “The police used to think we were hookers.”
In the eighties and nineties, Johnson’s business exploded. Johnson began showing at every New York Fashion Week, ending all of her runway presentations by doing a cartwheel. Daryl Hannah wore a velvet Betsey dress dotted with rosebuds to an Oscars party. Rock stars bought the clothes. “Debbie Harry was a Betsey girl. The B-52s were Betsey girls,” she said. “Linda Ronstadt—she bought one dress and then she copied it.” “Betsey” chronicles Johnson’s heyday in a peppy, dishy voice laced with bravado. Of her early collections of lycra leggings and Day-Glo crop tops, she writes, “Basically, it was activewear as streetwear, which was unheard of back then.” Of her corporate expansion, she writes, “I began to feel like the Mildred Pierce of retail. There is a line in the movie where Mildred says ‘Everywhere you went I had a restaurant.’ In my case, everywhere I went I had a store.””