Ilene Hochberg Wood: My Purse-onal Favorites

Meet the woman behind the world’s most extraordinary handbag collection.

A curated selection of novelty and vintage handbags from Ilene Hochberg Wood’s personal collection, including a chicken-shaped handbag, a sculptural translucent purse with gold accents, a jewel-embellished minaudière, a minimalist black leather clutch, a crystal-covered evening bag, and a vintage tapestry handbag with a deer motif

I have the largest handbag collection in the world, nearly 8,000 bags. When Ac Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Karen Giberson asked me to choose my favorites, I felt like I was being asked to pick a favorite child. How does one choose? And how many? 10? All of them?

This is a wholly subjective selection. On any given day I might pick 10 others, or 300 others, as I recently did for my traveling museum exhibition, “My PURSE-onal Favorites: 300 Handbags from the World’s Largest Collection.”

But in the spirit of brevity, here are 10 standouts, each representing a category near and dear to my heart…

See the full article or explore the entire Winter 2026 issue.