EXCLUSIVE: Handbag Designer Marcela Calvet to Open Bellevue Boutique

We first featured Argentinean-born designer Marcela Calvet and her line of luxe handbags in November 2009 (read it here), but today we’re breaking news that she’s making the move from her by-appointment-only Newport studio to a Bellevue Avenue storefront. “I am looking forward to contributing to the ‘new landscape’ on Bellevue!” she says. The designer’s first flagship shop will open it’s doors in an intimate space at 59 Bellevue, across from the Redwood Library and Athenæum in April.

Calvet comes from a legacy of luxury design. In 1928, le Maison Calvet in Paris partnered with the haute couture label Callot Soeurs, a legendary fashion house which opened in 1895 (see an exquisite Callot Soeurs gown in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute by clicking here). The House of Calvet continued to design and produce couture fashion under the Callot label while expanding their perfume line.

“A limited number of made to order exotic skin handbags were hand-crafted for the label’s clientele to complement their couture ensembles,” Calvet explains. “The stunning designs were made in fashionable Buenos Aires.” In 1937, the Maison Calvet completed its acquisition of the quintessential Parisian luxury label of feminine chic and under the new leadership, and the sophisticated designs continued to bear the Callot label. Since then, style has continued to run through the Calvet veins for decades, with Marcela’s grandmother’s social circle including friends like Coco Chanel and Newport’s own Doris Duke, and her mother rubbing elbows with Newport’s most famous style icon, Jacqueline Kennedy.

Today, Marcela Calvet leads her family’s legacy of fine design into the twenty-first century. “Each glamorous collection is a tribute to this iconic history, bringing back the elegance, sophistication and glamour that defined an era,” she describes. Come April, Calvet will continue to add to the chic history of her family’s name, and storied history.