I bought my first TANO purse in 1964 - 8th Grade!

Right around the same time "I Want to Hold Your Hand" hit the radio, I purchased my first TANO Handbag. Believe it or not, if you had asked me then if I thought Tano was better than the Beatles' music, I would've chosen Tano.

Yes, it's true. My favorite handbag designer in 1964 was TANO. I was 14 and already addicted to style and fashion. In those days, we sewed much of our clothing, traded, borrowed from each other, and saved our money to buy Gloria Vanderbuilt designer jeans! Buying a new purse was the most important task of all because back then, you had only one purse.

I remember my first Tano purchase as though it was yesterday. My school friend and I saved our money for a Tano barrel bag. It was cool! All the girls were carrying them. At least the cool ones -- so we thought.

Our little Midwest hometown wasn't much when it came to fashion as it's stated nowadays. Nonetheless, we had a few really cool clothing stores downtown and a handbag store -- Hollebs, Garbs and Elliots! The handbag store, Garbs, sold all the best bags available -- Coach was probably one of the highest styles at that time. And, there was Tano.

We loved the Tano styles because they were cool, affordable and made well. Nice to know not much has changed when it comes to Tano quality. We saved our babysitting money and bought our Tano bags, and it made us feel cool.

I wish I had a picture of my first Tano purse! The bag was a barrle shape, had double straps to carry over the arm. The body of the bag was partially covered with a heavy woven burlap style twill cloth, and it had complimentary black leather trim. The front of the purse closed with a flap front and a turnlock closure.

I'm telling you, this Tano barrel bag became one of the icons of the mid-60's. Gee, I wish I could remember the price, and I wish I still had that bag, or just a photo of it now. But, the memories still live on. The images I remember of those days include a teased, bubble hair style, white sneakers with nylon panty hose stockings and a very cool, black Tano handbag.

I have Tano to thank for creating fond fashion memories.

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