W'burg's Classiest Bag Lady Is Selling Off Her Personal Collection This Weekend

Anna Corinna is a traveler, a designer, a businesswomen – and a passionate collector of handbags and purses. And when we say passionate, we mean it: in the course of 15 years, Corinna has collected over 1,000 vintage and unique bags from all over the world. Now, she’s decided to clean out her closet and share some of that bag-joy with the rest of the world. Today through Sunday, June 19, Corinna is opening a pop-up store right next to her permanent boutique, Anna Corinna.
Located on 381 Metropolitan Avenue (Corinna’s shop is on 377 Metropolitan), the Anna’s Archives pop-up will feature her extensive collection of bags that she amassed during her travels. “It was a passion for so long, wherever I’d go I’d be looking for bags,” Corinna said of her compulsion to collect the most unique bags and purses she could find.
As part of the company Foley+Corinna, she would travel all over Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world to collect pieces for the store, and would end up shopping quite a bit for herself as well. And although she’s amassed “quite the collection,” as she said, she is still fond of each item she’s gathered over the years.
“It’s my personal archive, they are all pieces that I’ve really loved and wanted to keep,” she said. But she recognized that “it’s time to move on,” particularly since her store is aiming to move away from just fashion and offer more vintage and unique homewares, decor, and trinkets.
One would think that such a personal and massive collection would be difficult to part with, but Corinna said that she’s found the process rather enjoyable. “It got to a point that I had so many bags that I couldn’t enjoy them, but doing this is kind of fun,” she said, adding that packing the bags out of long-forgotten boxes was, in many cases, a complete rediscovery of neglected treasures. “Now, all day long I’m like, ‘Look at that, I love that one! Oh, I forgot about that one!’,” she said with a laugh.
“They’re out now and everyone’s been loving them, and my friends will buy and wear them, and it’s going to be beautiful.”
The pop-up is located at 381 Metropolitan at Havemeyer Street and will be open today from 12pm-8pm, Saturday from 12pm-8pm, and Sunday from 12pm-6pm. Most items will be priced between $25 and $95.