WHAT, THIS OLD THING? Some women think about killing out of jealousy or love. Others for a Judith Leiber handbag. To fans of Leiber’s work, “handbag” is a dirty word; they prefer “minaudière.” They’ll speak breathlessly of the tiny sparkling jewels or the shapes: the asparagus, the springer spaniel, the polar bear. Never mind that the purses can cost thousands of dollars—some collectors have dozens of these objets d’art. This month you can drool over more than 150 of them at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, in College Station, which opened “Fashioning Art: Handbags by Judith Leiber” January 23. And if the jewels rekindle an interest in chic apparel à la Audrey Hepburn’s famous Givenchy, you may want to survey “Always in Style: The Essential Little Black Dress,” which goes on display February 28 at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, in Canyon. More than a dozen designer dresses will be presented, including the circa 1947 Traina-Norell and the 1980 Geoffrey Beene. And if, like Eve in the Garden of Eden, you glance down and blush, suddenly ashamed (in your case, of those tattered jeans), consider a visit to the San Antonio Museum of Art’s “Gilding the Lily: Women’s Styles in Ancient Greece and Rome,” which will open February 7. A toga always puts outerwear in perspective. (See San Antonio: Museums/Galleries; and Elsewhere: Museums/Galleries.)
