Press

Museum of Bags and Purses
in the Top Ten of International
Fashion Museums

The large and unique collection of bags, purses and accessories did not escape worldwide attention. The Museum of Bags and Purses, also known as Tassenmuseum Hendrikje, was very frequently praised by national and internationally acclaimed newspapers and magazines, and it was regularly included in the top 10 fashion museums worldwide.

Visitors rated the museum á 9.1 and the famous fashion high tea with special delicacies in the shape of bags and shoes with 8.7 points

The museum received lots of free publicity in general and specially about the interesting exhibition the museum organized in a year. Beginning at a few hundred thousand Euros annually, this publicity finally equaled 1.9 million Euros a year. That’s quite something compared to the world-renowned Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum with its more than two million Euros worth of free publicity.

Some examples
of free publicity

2011 – Fodor’s Travel included the Museum of Bags and Purses in its Top 10 of the World’s Best Fashion Museums. Fodor was impressed by both the ‘most important collection of bags in the world’ and its location on Amsterdam’s famous Herengracht. The Tassenmuseum Hendrikje shared this honor with several internationally renowned fashion museums such as London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Paris Palais Galliera, Musée de la Mode, and the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, to name a few. Read the article

2012 – The Amsterdam Time Out Magazine voted the Museum of Bags and Purses winner of Amsterdam’s ‘Best Speciality Museum’. Read the article

2014 – Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool voted the museum store of the Museum of Bags and Purses the very best store in town in which to shop after a museum visit. ‘After viewing hundreds of beautiful bags and purses on display, you may want to take one home for yourself.’ Read the article

2015 – According to the Guardian the Museum of Bags and Purses was ‘A museum that you’ve probably never heard of, but you must see.’ Read the article

2015 – Forbes’ journalist Laurie Werner sang praises about the museum and described it as ‘Not the typical Amsterdam museum: a jewel box devoted to purses’. Read the article

2015 – Condé Nast Traveler judged the museum among sixteen of the World’s Greatest Fashion Museums. Among those were the Christian Dior Museum and Garden in France, the Italian Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Simone Handbag Museum in South Korea and the Gucci Museum in Florence.
When is a purse more than a purse? At the Tassenmuseum, purses are historical artifacts. Their collection, which has pieces from as early as the 16th century, includes men’s and women’s bags and shows how their form and function has changed along with our culture: for example, they went from being worn under clothes to being carried outside of them; and celebrity culture inspired bags named for stars like Grace Kelly. The museum is, unsurprisingly, home to one of the best gift shops in the city, and its tea room is one of Amsterdam’s finest.—L.M. Read the article

2015 – Signature Luxury Travel & Style (Australia) rated the museum 11th in its Top 15 Best Fashion Museums. It stressed the fact that the museum is the largest museum of bags and purses in the world. Read the article

2016 – The Art of Style rated the museum among sixteen of the World’s Greatest Fashion Museums. ‘The museum is, unsurprisingly, home to one of the best gift shops in the city, and its tea room is one of Amsterdam’s finest.’ Read the article

2016 – stylecaster.com ranked the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje at 5th place in its “10 Best Museums Around the World for Fashion Lovers”: ‘It is the largest museum for the accessory in the world, and traces purses from their role as a carryall for Bibles and money for men in the Middle Ages through their prized place in a modern woman’s luxury wardrobe. Read the article

2019 – Christies was most impressed by the Museum of Bags and Purses and viewed it as ‘the best museum for handbag collectors’. Read the article