Skinny Tote

Era

cashin-or-post-cashinE2

Designer

bonnie-cashin

Confidence

tentative

Status

published

Skinny Tote

The Skinny Tote is a 1970s Coach silhouette with a kiss-lock exterior coin purse and a Talon brass zipper, attributed to Bonnie Cashin in the Tier 3 dealer record [yourgreatfinds-collectors-guide]. An earlier variant — informally called “The Original Skinny Tote” — carries features that point to a late-1960s or early-1970s production date: no leather piping at the base, different handles, and a small metal interior tag rather than a creed patch. Both the attribution and the introduction year are unconfirmed, and the standard Cashin-timing problem applies: the 1970s span the back half of Cashin’s tenure (through 1974) and the immediate post-Cashin in-house era. Without a 1962–1974 catalog page or a UCLA Cashin papers cite, the entry holds the attribution at likely and the overall confidence at tentative.

Description

Per the dealer compilation [yourgreatfinds-collectors-guide]:

1970s production, “designed by Bonnie Cashin.” Features kiss lock coin purse exterior and Talon brass zipper.

The defining elements of the silhouette as documented are therefore:

• A kiss-lock coin purse mounted on the exterior, a Cashin-vocabulary feature consistent with her use of the kissing-lock closure on coin purses and bag accents through the 1962–1974 period (see research/C-cashin.md §3).
• A Talon brass zipper, which aligns with pre-mid-1970s era diagnostics (see research/E-authentication.md §5: Talon was the common zipper maker on Coach bags before YKK became dominant from the late 1970s onward).
• Solid brass hardware consistent with Cashin-era and early NYC-era construction.

Specific dimensions, colors beyond the chamois example noted in the dealer record, and closure variants are not pinned to a primary catalog source in the archive’s working references; this section will be expanded once a dated catalog page is matched to the bag.

The “Original Skinny Tote” variant

The dealer record [yourgreatfinds-collectors-guide] distinguishes an earlier variant from the later 1970s Skinny Tote by three tells:

1. No leather piping at the base — the later 1970s production has leather piping along the bottom seam; the original lacks it.
2. Different handles — the original’s handles differ in shape and/or attachment from the later production.
3. An early metal interior tag in place of a creed patch.

These tells are consistent with the E2a / E2b sub-eras in research/E-authentication.md §8: a small metal interior tag only is the diagnostic of early-1962-to-mid-1960s Coach manufacture (E2a), and a leather stamp inside with no creed patch is the late-1960s to early-1970s diagnostic (E2b). An “Original Skinny Tote” with a metal interior tag therefore reads as early-to-mid-1960s production on the era diagnostics — pushing the introduction of the silhouette earlier than the dealer record’s “1970s” framing for the standard Skinny Tote, and squarely inside Cashin’s contracted tenure.

A chamois color example of the original variant is noted in the dealer record [yourgreatfinds-collectors-guide].

The two-variant picture (early metal-tag original; later 1970s production with piped base and revised handles) is the strongest internal signal that the silhouette pre-dates 1974 in some form, even if the named “Skinny Tote” entries in dealer compilations cluster in the 1970s. It does not by itself confirm Cashin authorship.

Designer attribution — the timing problem

Cashin’s contracted tenure at Coach ran 1962–1974, full stop [wwd-coach-early-years, vintagecoachie]. She was a contracted designer, not an employee; the contract ended in 1974 and that date range is not negotiable. Bags introduced from 1975 onward — even ones that use her vocabulary (kiss-lock, side pockets, brass turnlock, saturated color) — are by definition not Cashin designs.

The Skinny Tote’s “1970s” framing in the dealer record [yourgreatfinds-collectors-guide] is therefore ambiguous in the same way the Mailbox and Musette entries are: a 1970–1974 introduction is plausibly Cashin’s; a 1975–1979 introduction is plausibly not, no matter how often the community calls it a “Cashin design.” The Cashin attribution table in research/C-cashin.md §4 marks the Skinny Tote (listed there as “Slimline / Skinny Tote”) as likely Cashin pending a pre-1974 catalog cite; that is the ceiling the evidence currently supports.

The “Original Skinny Tote” variant complicates this in Cashin’s favor: if the original carries a metal interior tag (E2a era diagnostic, early-to-mid-1960s), the silhouette itself plausibly originated inside her tenure even if the named-and-numbered “Skinny Tote” reached its later form in the 1970s. That is suggestive, not conclusive — era diagnostics on a single dealer-described example cannot stand in for a catalog page or a UCLA Cashin papers attribution.

Verification path — any one of the following would resolve the attribution:

1. A 1962–1974 Coach catalog page showing the Skinny Tote (or a “Slimline” / “Original Skinny Tote”) in production.
2. A UCLA Cashin papers [ucla-cashin-papers] entry attributing the silhouette to her — design illustrations, contracts, or correspondence referencing the bag by name.
3. A primary press piece (period WWD, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, NYT) with Cashin credited for the design.

Absent one of these, the attribution stays at likely and the entry is honest about what it does and does not know.

Authentication

Authentication of a Skinny Tote claimed to be Cashin-era depends on reading era diagnostics off the bag itself, then asking whether those diagnostics are consistent with a pre-1974 introduction.

• Talon brass zipper — pre-mid-1970s. A Talon zipper aligns with the pre-mid-1970s zipper-maker diagnostics in research/E-authentication.md §5; YKK became dominant from the late 1970s onward. A Skinny Tote with a YKK zipper is consistent with later 1970s or post-Cashin production rather than a Cashin-era example.
• Small metal interior tag — early 1960s (E2a). Per research/E-authentication.md §1 and §8, a small metal interior tag with no leather creed patch is the diagnostic of early-1962-to- mid-1960s Coach manufacture. An “Original Skinny Tote” with a metal tag reads as E2a — squarely inside Cashin’s tenure, though the era diagnostic on its own does not establish her authorship.
• Leather stamp inside, no creed patch — late 1960s / early 1970s (E2b). Bags from this window also fall inside Cashin’s tenure through 1974.
• A numbered creed patch places the bag in the mid-1970s or later. The numbered creed with a 1970s xxx-xxxx digit-only serial format was in use from roughly the mid-1970s onward [coachbagrehab-dating]. A Skinny Tote with a numbered creed could therefore be either pre or post Cashin departure — the format itself spans 1973/1974/1975/1976+ and does not cleanly resolve the attribution.
• Kiss-lock coin purse exterior — Cashin-vocabulary consistent. The kissing-lock closure was a Cashin signature (see research/C-cashin.md §3). Its presence on the Skinny Tote is consistent with Cashin authorship but, like the turnlock on later bags, is a vocabulary signal rather than an authorship signal — the closure variant continued in use after 1974.
• Solid brass hardware — magnet test. Brass is non-magnetic (research/E-authentication.md §4). A magnet that sticks to the zipper pull, kiss-lock, or any other hardware indicates plated steel, which is post-vintage and immediately rules out a Cashin-era bag.
• Glove-tanned cowhide, raw or burnished edges. Painted glossy edges on a “Cashin-era Skinny Tote” are a strong fake or reproduction signal — Coach NYC-era construction does not paint edges (research/E-authentication.md §7).

None of these diagnostics by themselves resolve the authorship question. They establish that a given Skinny Tote is consistent with Cashin-era production; they do not tell you whether the silhouette was introduced during her tenure.

Open verification items

Listed explicitly so any future contributor knows exactly what would upgrade this entry’s confidence:

1. Dated Coach catalog page showing the Skinny Tote (or “Slimline” / “Original Skinny Tote”) in production, ideally from the 1962–1974 window. The PurseForum vintage-Coach catalogs thread (member-uploaded scans, browser-only) is the most likely free source.
2. UCLA Cashin papers [ucla-cashin-papers] reference attributing the Skinny Tote to Cashin — design illustrations, named correspondence, or contract addenda. The online finding aid is at https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9z09q97x/.
3. Primary press feature (period WWD, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, NYT) with Cashin credited for the Skinny Tote / Slimline design.
4. Stephanie Lake’s Bonnie Cashin: Chic Is Where You Find It (Rizzoli, 2016) — check the Coach-period chapter for any direct reference to a Skinny Tote or Slimline.
5. Style number and dimensions — neither is recorded in the working references.
6. Resolution of the “Skinny Tote” vs “Slimline” naming — the research/D-models.md table lists them together; whether Coach used both names or whether one is a community coinage is open.

Until at least one of items 1–4 lands, this entry stays at confidence: tentative and the designer attribution at likely. The community’s aggregate volume of “Cashin Skinny Tote” claims is not sufficient to upgrade either tag; only primary evidence is.

Sources

• [yourgreatfinds-collectors-guide] — Yourgreatfinds, “Collectors Guide to Vintage Coach Bags” (D1). Source for the “1970s production, designed by Bonnie Cashin” framing of the Skinny Tote, the kiss-lock-coin-purse-exterior and Talon-zipper feature description, the “Original Skinny Tote” early-variant tells (no leather piping at base, different handles, early metal interior tag), and the chamois color example. Tier 3; the attribution requires primary corroboration.