To reinvent oneself. To continually renew the message. This is the goal of every artist and every museum. A case in point is the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, founded in 1930 by the sculptor and art patron Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. A museum that emerged in 2015 as one of the cultural epicenters of downtown New York when it moved into the futuristic Renzo Piano designed building that faces the High Line at 99 Gansevoort Street and is now celebrating its 5th anniversary.

It just happens to be the anniversary shared by another notable icon, the Whitney Bag, created by Max Mara in collaboration with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop to celebrate the opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art. “Aesthetic” and “technical” are the fundamental concepts of this bag, which is directly inspired by the façade and proportion of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York through the purity of its design and the careful selection of materials.

The Whitney Bag made its first appearance in April 2015 at the opening of the new Whitney Museum of American Art building in the Meatpacking District of New York. Made from soft luxury leather, the Whitney Bag is characterised by an elegant surface featuring hot preformed ribbing that tapers off to become one unified section. Real “graphic cuts” recall the modular appearance of the façade of the new Whitney Museum. The Whitney Bag is part of the permanent collection of the New York Fashion Institute of Technology museum.

“The Whitney bag has been designed to be timeless, and after five years it still represents a modern, elegant and simple way to design, where details and craftsmanship really matter.” Elisabetta Trezzani, partner RPBW.

These graphic lines are created using traditional leather craft with innovative industrial techniques. Brass plates are used to mold the strips of leather that are then topstitched together to construct the pattern on the bag. In describing the Whitney Bag, all metal detailing is based on the observation of the structural metal components of the architectural project by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The façade of the building is used as inspiration for the buckles, while the inside pocket and the unmistakable snap hook act as a signature feature of the bag.

Whitney Bag, the making of