Jolie helps locally made clutch score a ‘Knockout’

It’s the bag that lived up to its name.

The compact clutch named the “Knockout” for the brass knuckle-like finger holes punched into its sturdy handle has become a champion for Seril, the Vernon-based leather goods company not yet a year old.

It started when Angelina Jolie made the style a staple of her wardrobe on and off the red carpet. Images of Jolie carrying the washed-lamb leather bag at the January premiere of “God Grew Tired of Us” were the beginning. “We started getting calls as far away as the Netherlands and Japan,” says the designer, Marjori Seril.

Since then, the $545 Knockout has become a bestseller, as well as the collection’s signature bag. Jolie’s stylist, Jennifer Rade, has come back for new fall versions for her star client, in finishes including patent, washed leather and shimmery mock python and boa. And Seril’s tough-chic bags, wrist cuffs and studded belts have been picked up at such retail hot spots as Barneys New York, Madison and Bleu.

This could be one “It” bag with staying power: Weeks after Jolie carried the bag, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art requested one for the permanent collection.

valli.herman@latimes.com