Bloomingdale's Big Brown Bag Just Got an Art World Makeover

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From now until Sunday, the next purchase you make at either the midtown Bloomingdale's or the Soho location can be paraded around in a bag worthy of the Whitney. The renovated museum, which opens to the public at 99 Gansevoort Street tomorrow, has already inspired a limited-edition Max Mara bag, and now, Bloomingdale's has created their own tribute to the institution, in the form of shopping bags featuring the artwork of Whitney artists Elizabeth Murray (pictured), Roy Lichtenstein, and Edward Hopper.

It's the first time since the seventies (when the iconic Brown Bags debuted) that Bloomingdale's has changed their bags for something that wasn't a seasonal campaign. "Frankly, we have never done shopping bags for a cultural institution before," Bloomingdale's executive VP Jack Hruska told WWD. "We usually do them with designers. Shopping bags are very important to a store. They're part of our iconic brand imagery. They're reusable, and they're walking advertisements. No one else changes up their shopping bags to the degree that we do. They are themselves pieces of artwork."

The 59th Street store has also dedicated their windows—which will be up until Tuesday, May 5th—to the new museum's construction process.

As for the other two bags, here's the Roy Lichtenstein:

And the Edward Hopper: