Summary

The collection consists of over one hundred shopping bags, primarily produced by Bloomingdale's department store and acquired by Cory Benett, a Bloomingdale's employee, for his personal enjoyment. The mostly paper bags feature art and design work by major designers, artists, and photographers of the late 1970s through the early 1990s. The collection also contains a small number of bags from other retailers.

Abstract Fashion illustrator Michaele Vollbracht (1947-2018) graduated from Parsons in 1968, and returned periodically as a visiting critic. After working as a design assistant for Geoffrey Beene, Donald Brooks, and Norman Norell, Vollbracht turned to fashion illustration and portraiture. In 1985 Vollbracht published Nothing Sacred, an illustrated memoir, and in 2000 Parsons mounted an exhibition to celebrate the release of an updated version of the book....