Some people buy photographs and paintings to decorate their homes. Well, we buy handbags to gussy up our wardrobes.

We're not the only ones to consider our purses to be works of art. Meet Katie McShane and Lois Eliason. The two met when McShane enrolled in Eliason's graduate seminar on Italian Renaissance sculpture at the University of Minnesota. These art historians found common ground in the aesthetics of the past and in current fashions.

So together, they started Post-, but you can just call it "post." The name represents those art-historical periods (Post-Modern, Post-Impressionist) that introduced provocative stylistic ideas.

True to their academic roots, the two launched their handbags with the Bramante collection, inspired by renowned Italian Renaissance artist Donato Bramante. The brass medallion hardware was designed to resemble his architectural renderings, specifically the spoked wheel that decorates the arches of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Though the exotic mini-clutches are really reasonable, a less expensive collection, inspired by the Pop Art of the 1960s, will be out soon.

Renaissance proportions and symmetry in a carryall? That's the kind of art we patronize.

Post- handbags: leather ($525); python ($2225); small leather clutches ($44 to $54); and small exotic clutches ($65 to $86). Available at Picky Girl, 1326 Grand Av., St Paul, 651-698-4107.

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