'Da Vinci's Handbag': Turning a 500-year-old sketch into modern fashion

A Leonardo Da Vinci sketch from 1497 has been made into a handbag. Photo courtesy of The History Blog.

Renaissance man Leonardo Da Vinci can now add handbag designer to his list of achievements. His design has been tucked away for decades in The Codex Atlanticus, a 12-volume set of notes, drawings, and ideas the famous scientist and artist created between 1478 and 1519. According to The History Blog, Carlo Pedretti identified one Da Vinci sketch as a handbag design back in 1978 which historians are dating back to around 1497. Now Italian leather company Gherardini have made the beautiful drawing come to life in the form of a calfskin handbag.

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Designer Carla Braccialini created the "Pretiosa" handbag, which is Italian for precious -- a logical name for a design that's survived more than 500 years. While it incorporates 15th century details, the feminine, detailed bag somehow still appeals to our current aesthetics. Each purse features a hand-sewn embroidery and a hand-etched brass handlebar that carefully mimic Da Vinci's sketch.

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"Pretiosa" was on display for three days (January 11-13) at the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, the first art school in Europe which was founded in 1563. A limited run of 99 purses were created and will go on sale March 1. With a legendary designer and fancy Florence craftsman behind them, we'd expect these bags to have a waiting list and cost a pretty penny.

You might be wondering how Gherardini was given the opportunity to create a handbag with such an incredible history, but we assure you it was not a random selection. Lisa Gherardini, whose descendants founded the fashion house in 1886, was born in 1479 and married a successful silk merchant, Francesco Del Giocondo. In 1503, Del Giocondo commissioned Leonardo Da Vinci to paint a portrait of her. After three years of working on the piece, he officially gave up the commission, but he continued to work on it for the rest of his life. After Da Vinci died in 1519, the painting was purchased by King Francis I of France. The portrait now sits at the Louvre and is -- yup, you guessed it -- the Mona Lisa.

Perhaps one day more of Da Vinci's untapped designs will be transformed into great works. In the meantime, watch this video and see how Gherardini made this masterpiece of a handbag using the old sketch.

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