The Judith Leiber gallery

"It's going to be gorgeous."

Those were the first words out of deputy director of art David Brown’s mouth about the Judith Leiber gallery in the new Taubman Museum of Art.

The exhibit will display several of the designer’s miniature evening bags from the collection donated to the museum by Rosalie Shaftman of Roanoke, who has been collecting Leiber bags for more than 30 years.

The array now includes 92 of Leiber’s designs — launching the art museum into the No. 1 spot for largest collection of Leiber purses in America.

Leiber’s bags are world-famous and are as much works of art as they are handbags. The intricate crafting and detail — which often includes rows of light-catching crystals — is done by hand. Prices for finished bags range from $600 to almost $8,000.

Originally from Hungary, Leiber moved to the United States in 1947 and began designing her intricate works in 1963 .

The new display for her handbags will be radically different from the exhibit in the former art museum, Brown said. He worked with Randall Stout Architects to create a gallery that would bring the pieces to life.

Brown’s inspiration? The bags’ dazzling colors and unique designs, including shapes of a rabbit and a ladybug. Upon viewing the collection for the first time, the image of a garden appeared to him, he said. He used that vision as a starting point for the new space.

He described the sweeping curved walls of the small gallery where the bags will be on display, culminating in a point in an almost leaf-shaped design that accentuates the garden theme. The stands upon which the bags will rest will appear as linear stems coming up from the floor. The “blooms” will be bags themselves.

“It’s an intimate space in an intimate manner that offers a beautiful way to interact with the works,” Brown said.

Adding to the intimacy are the black fabric walls that will accentuate each individual bag, which will be spot lit .

Not all pieces will be on display at once. Instead, about 30 works will be on view at a time, then rotated out periodically.

The space is the art museum’s response to the well-known Faberge exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

Said Brown of the Judith Leiber gallery, “I think it will be one of those attractions like the Faberge display in Richmond where once people learn of it, they will come in near and far to see it.”