Punk Studs from the ’50s |

Like it or not, spikes and studs are still very trendy at the moment. Go to a luxury shop, a high street store or a DIY market and you will find leather jackets, shoes, sneakers, bags or smaller accessories such as collars covered in metallic embellishments. Yet if you think that studs are a punk thing, you're definitely wrong.

The images in this post are taken from a 1950 issue of Grazia magazine (from my personal archive). They show a bucket shaped brown leather bag decorated with a metallic handle and rows of golden studs and spikes. The bag was designed by Franco Bertoli.

Among the first Italian designers, Bertoli started his career designing bags in the '40s and opening a small shop in via Manzoni, Milan. In later years he also created garments, but his main passion were bags and accessories.

A hit with American buyers, Bertoli was considered as a very original designer. Like Ferragamo, when he couldn't find the proper materials for his pieces during the war, he would experiment with other options: in the '40s he used dog collars for the handles of his bags or made entire bags out of leftover grosgrain ribbons. Knowing how he recycled things for his bags, I wonder if the metallic handle on this bag actually came from a real bucket and in case where the studs and spikes came from. Any suggestions?

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