JulieBeth Handbags, based in Houston, Texas….a luxe handbag line known for its high-end fashion and variety which includes the Longhorn bag, above, its most popular bag, available in many skins & textures.
JulieBeth Handbags, founded in 2007, by Tomball native, Elizabeth Younger Purpich (Beth) began when she and and her best friend and then partner Julie, designed their first handbag prototype on a cocktail napkin. Her career stems from a love of design that she attributes to her grandmother, a former Home Economics department head. She also spent her formative years at her family’s cattle ranch in Tennessee that she visited quite frequently. Through her visits there and global travels as a pro basketball player for Australia, she obtained her inspiration for rich hues and knowledge of leathers, hides and textures that made the design and manufacturing of handbags a natural for her. She took her sketches to NYC, hired manufacturers and began her business as the sole owner, designer and manager of her business. Many of her bags are now made by a boutique team of artisans and craftsmen in Monterey, Mexico.
As the JulieBeth Collection continued to expand so did her customer base. Beth found a demand not only for the JulieBeth collection for contemporary clients but also the Elizabeth Purpich Collection became the answer to the clients that requested more couture like pieces. Her handbags range in price from contemporary leather styles at $150-170 to her exotics that range in price from $1800 to $2200.
The designer says she does a very large business at Rodeo time, however she is finding more and more demand for day-in-day-out fashion looks such as patent leather, more textures and colors such as marigold and gunmetal, and the expansion into items such as credit card holders and leather cuff bracelets, which she has been adding to her capsule collections. These collections are shown regularly to her customers such as Pinto Ranch, Texas National Outfitters and Events here in Houston. She says that areas of Colorado such as Denver and Telluride do particularly well with bags such as the Aspen bag. She also does quite well in Santa Fe…..all of these shops and markets feel very natural for her design talents.
1. Americas 2. Longhorn 3. Aspen 4. Bridesmaid 5. Galway 6. Versailles 7. Cocktail Napkin 8. Montmartre 9. Anna
The Designer, Elizabeth Younger Purpich (Beth), is the distinguished Designer in Residence at Houston’s Esperson Gallery at Green Street where her studio and sketch room for both collections are housed. Her Spring 2017 Collection is complete, is being photoed now and should be available for clients to review at her studio in the not too distant future.
photography by Candace Moore