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Roberta di Camerino Vintage Bags – A Tribute to Timeless Elegance

Roberta di Camerino: the Venice house behind velvet bags and woven leather, the two bags I own, and why I would choose an original over a later one.

By Gracie Opulanza3 min read

Roberta di Camerino vintage bag in dark leather with two red flap pockets and twisted black braid handles

I own two Roberta di Camerino bags, both from the 1950s or 1960s. The woven leather one I found in a vintage shop in Venice, when I was staying there in 2021, during the pandemic. The other I bought in Lucca. They are my favourite bags.

Until I walked into that shop I had never heard of Roberta di Camerino, or of Giuliana Camerino, who started the house in Venice in 1945, after the war. Once I had held one of her bags I wanted to know everything.

Small black woven handbag on a wooden mooring in front of a gondola on a green Venice canal

What makes Roberta di Camerino rare?

It is a Venice house, and it looks like one. The bags were carried by the women everybody was watching at the time. Grace Kelly was photographed with a Roberta di Camerino on her arm in 1956.

But for me the names are not the point. The point is how the bags are made.

Open woven bag with a gold frame and plush red lining, beside a navy woven bag and a red and black leather one

The velvet bags

The velvet bags came in deep reds, greens and blues, in patterns you recognise across a room. Velvet is soft to the touch and it is tougher than it looks. These have lasted.

Buying one second-hand is also the better choice for the planet. Nothing new has to be made for you to carry it.

Woven leather, before anybody else

To my eye, Roberta di Camerino was weaving leather before the houses that are famous for it now. Bottega Veneta came to it later.

Dark leather Roberta di Camerino bag with red front pockets and braided handles, seen from above on a tiled floor

Leather and brass from the gondolas

My two bags are made from Venice gondola leather, and the hardware is gondola brass. The same materials the boat builders used. Every clasp has weight. You feel it when you open the bag.

The black patent bag below is not mine. I photographed it in Venice. The red and black leather bag, the navy rope bag and the striped velvet holdall in the other photographs are not mine either. I saw them in shops.

Black glossy leather Roberta di Camerino frame bag with a brass clasp, in a shop beside red shoes

Why I would buy an original over a later one

The house has changed hands since Giuliana’s day. The Italian group Sixty bought it in 2008, and a majority stake later went to a Chinese investment fund.

At the markets, and in shops in Arezzo, I now see new Roberta di Camerino pieces, and some are offered as vintage. To me they look like cheap copies next to an original. This is how I tell them apart.

  • The hardware and the leather. On an original it is gondola brass and gondola leather. Pick the bag up and you know.
  • The stamp. The originals have the name printed inside the bag, in ink.
  • The velvet bags are different. Their hardware is not the same as on the leather ones, so compare velvet with velvet.

In the video above I put a real one beside a later one, so you can see for yourself.

Navy woven rope bag with brass clasps and ball-tipped fittings, resting on red brocade
Holdall in olive, mustard and brown velvet stripes with black handles and gold-tone buckles, among designer bags

An original was made in Giuliana’s time, by her people, with those materials. That is the one I want.

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