First Look: Mark Cross Handbags Relaunch at Saks Fifth Avenue

Welcome back, Mark Cross! The American heritage leather goods brand is resurrecting in time for the holidays through an exclusive partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue department stores. StyleList got a sneak peek. The line will launch with 11 handbag styles, all polished, unfussy and steeped in the company's history -- the purse equivalent of the perfect trenchcoat. If the name leaves you scratching your head, grab a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "Tender Is the Night" or roll Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller "Rear Window." Fitzgerald's characters echo one of the Lost Generation's golden couples: Gerald and Sara Murphy. Gerald's family ran Mark Cross, a leading luxury leather goods maker since the 1880s. When Gerald took over the company in 1934, he burnished the company's reputation for elegance by spinning out luggage, cigarette cases and jeweled evening bags. In the Hitchcock flick, meanwhile, iconic beauty Grace Kelly ravishingly shows Jimmy Stewart what can fit into a Mark Cross overnight case. The case epitomizes the brand's look: understated and sophisticated, yet still practical. After some tumultuous years, the company closed in 1997. But it found a champion in new CEO and president Neal J. Fox. Fox admired the brand for its workmanship and timeless style. "It was America's Hermès, America's Gucci," he asserts. Elizabeth Taylor once snapped up 70 pieces of matched Mark Cross luggage for herself and Richard Burton. "I really became enamored of the brand," Fox recalls. After it shut down, he and a partner scooped up the trademark. The bags are now produced in the Pacific Rim, using French and Italian leathers.