Esse Purse Museum in Little Rock Arkansas

My wife and I spent a day in Little Rock recently as part of a long weekend. In search of some light food to eat we Googled “farm to table Little Rock” and found The Root Cafe. This place was fantastic and in a very cool part of town. I had the Banh Mi eggs which were wonderful. Nearby we explored the farmers market which was still going on, a cool design store called Moxy Mercantile, and also we took time to check out the Esse Museum which happened to be right next door to the restaurant.

 

Esse Purse Museum 01

I feel like I’m in a Swiss Design Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the museum moves in sequence through the decades, though there are a few cases grouped by other criteria such as exotic leather and fur. My wife commented that it would be nice if they provided more specific commentary on each of the individual bags, but the text associated with each case did do a good job of setting the bags within a historical context.

My wife and I had a great conversation with furniture / jewelry designer Morgan Hill who is the store’s creative director. She gave us a bit of background about how the museum came to be and the surrounding neighborhood. Her faceted wooden jewelry was for sale in the store and can be seen in my last image below. My iphone through the glass did not capture how cool these pieces are, her website linked above is worth a look!

 

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Each floor case contains purses from one decade

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My favorite purse from the 90s is made of stamped steel

Esse Purse Museum 06

This looks like a great project for my 3D printer!

Esse Purse Museum 10

If you look closely, you can see that there is a pin on each side holding all of the plastic strips together.

Esse Purse Museum 13 Esse Purse Museum 14 Esse Purse Museum 02 Esse Purse Museum 03 Esse Purse Museum 04 Esse Purse Museum 05 Esse Purse Museum 07 Esse Purse Museum 08 Esse Purse Museum 09 Esse Purse Museum 11

 

Esse Purse Museum 17

Jewelry from the very talented Morgan Hill is available in the gift shop

 

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