Chloe Gabby colorblocks in all the wrong ways

I love colorblocking. I love the way the seemingly simple trend took over the fashion world quickly and had everyone feeling like some novel idea was introduced in a ground-breaking manner. Yet the trend works so well on everyone, showcasing solid colors paired together to give a sleek yet bold look. The handbag world has taken to the trend as well, with many designers releasing versions of the trend that they believe will get people buzzing. But as always, some do it in a way that draws us in, and others totally miss the mark.

Chloe missed the mark with its Gabby Bucket Bag and its sister bag, the Chloe Gabby Mixed-Snakeskin Duffel is just as bad, if not worse.

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Go behind the scenes with Neiman Marcus to see how the Marc Jacobs Stam is made

If you’re here reading this, odds are that you’ve spent thousands of dollars on handbags and accessories in your lifetime, but how well do you understand what goes into making them? I’m betting that most bag lovers have only a vague idea at best, but wouldn’t it be fun to be able to take a peek behind the curtain?

Thanks to an excellent series of videos of Neiman Marcus’s blog, we can do just that with the famous Marc Jacobs Stam as our guinea pig. The four clips take us all the way from conception to manufacturing, and all of the important details of realizing an idea are there, from making the patterns to dying the leather to bending the metal for the Stam’s signature frame. My favorite video is the fourth one, above, which shows how the Marc Jacobs bag is actually assembled. You can check out the first three after the jump and view the original posts at Neiman Marcus Daily.

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Save, Spend, Splurge: The Season’s Best Wallets

We don’t spent a great deal of time discussing wallets around here. That’s not because we don’t love them – we do! – but bags do a fine job grabbing all of the spotlight, leaving wallets and other small leather goods with little attention to share among themselves. And that’s silly, because those pieces are just important to our everyday lives as bags are.

In the spirit of reminding ourselves of exactly that, let’s take a look at the three wallets, in three very different price ranges, that I’d love to be pulling out of my bag for the season ahead. No matter if your budget is tight or extravagant, your wallet can be just as chic as you are.

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Versace makes a bag I like at a price that I don’t

We aren’t known to be the biggest Versace supporters at our site, but we’ve been feeling a it warmer lately. I know some people absolutely love the brand, but Donatella’s accessories almost always go over the edge of overt opulence; they’re often too ornate for my liking. However, upon seeing the Versace Structured Snake-Effect Leather Tote I felt true excitement. Sure, the overall design is simple, but the python print along with the coloring screams “fall statement piece.” (It also sort of screams “Valentino Fall 2011,” but that’s another post entirely.) The sad news is that PurseBloggers, we have a problem: the price.

When the description read snake-effect and the price showed $3,995, I was certain there was a mistake. A mistype, perhaps? But no, this bag’s faux finish is printed on leather; it’s not exotic python skin. And no matter how much I want to tell you all that Versace is getting it right, the brand is still getting its prices all wrong.

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This with That: Agent Provocateur and Prada

Agent Provocateur Leopard Print Calf Hair Driving Gloves, $500 via Net-a-Porter. Prada Calfskin Tote, $2500 via Neiman Marcus.

Good news: Megs and I have returned to Manhattan! Bad news: We’re still getting back up to speed, so things will be a bit slow today and then totally back to normal tomorrow, and we hope that readers who were affected by the hurricane are also well on their way back to normalcy. For now, though, I’d like to spend a moment touching on my aversion to black bags.

Black, as a color, is one of my favorites. It always has been, even during childhood when most little girls fawned over pink; when everyone else in my first grade class had a pair of white Keds, I had black ones. But now, because I wear so much black clothing, wearing black accessories and shoes just feels really…dull. Even a black bag as beautiful and functional as the Prada Calfskin Tote can’t make it into my wardrobe without a good game plan for spicing it up. I think that the Agent Provocateur Leopard Print Calf Hair Driving Gloves would do just the trick for fall.

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Gallery: In-Depth Look At Ferragamo Resort For 2012

I never shared my experience of the Salvatore Ferragamo Resort 2012 show with you. Shame on me because it was drop dead gorgeous, the kind of gorgeous that made me pinch myself to see if what I was experiencing was a dream. Held at the James B. Duke Mansion, this was the first time Ferragamo has shown in NYC and many celebrities and fashion insiders were in attendance. The paparazzi were out in full force trying to photograph the likes of Eva Mendes, Emma Roberts, Minka Kelly and more. I thoroughly enjoyed the celebrity spotting as well, but the show itself was what I was there for and it was breathtaking.

When the music began, the models began their walk through the mansion and the collection reminded us that resort is all about chic. Blue, white, and silver took over the runway and for twenty minutes I forgot where I was and was transported to the resort world of Ferragamo.

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Bottega Veneta gets pretty tough with metal lace

Bottega Veneta Metal Lace Karung Knot Clutch, $3980 via Bottega Veneta

One of my favorite parts of fashion is the gift of imitation. I remember being blown away by the pleats printed on the flat skirt of a Prada dress when I was younger, and the ability to trick the eye and make something expected out of something totally unexpected is one of the best visual treats you’ll find. It’s the kind of creativity that reminds us all why we pay these prices.

That’s exactly the kind of reaction that I had to the Bottega Veneta Metal Lace Karung Knot Clutch when I first saw it. On initial visual inspection, it just looks like regular black lace overlaid on a cream-colored fabric; a nice clutch, but not a particularly fascinating one. The reality, though, is much more interesting.

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Marie Turnor bases a bag on brown paper lunch bags

Growing up, I had my lunch made for me every morning by my mom. In a brown paper bag, she meticulously packed healthy foods that no one wanted to trade for at lunch (thanks mom, you were ahead of the curve!). My childhood was filled with brown paper bags, and for this reason the Marie Turnor Picnic Bag called out to me from the first time I stumbled upon it.

You can’t tell me there is not a tinge of nostalgia you feel when you see this bag. Whether you had an awesome hard case lunchbox or bought lunch everyday, the brown paper bag was part of all of our lives in someway or another. Marie Turnor uses this design to give us a pouch-like bag that can easily work as a clutch or be placed inside of a larger bag to hold some essentials.

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Oscar de la Renta is the most expensive store in America

Image via Bundle

Denying it is impossible: Even with most of the economy at a standstill, luxury goods continue to boom and the products that make up the marketplace continue to reach higher and higher price points. All of the husbands and boyfriends (not to mention jealous officemates and frienemies) out there who nearly keel over at the price tags on handbags should take a look through the back pages of any major US fashion magazine – accessories are expensive, but clothes are out of this world.

Considering that, it’s no surprise that a recent survey by Bundle and Citi found that Oscar de la Renta’s Madison Avenue flagship is the most expensive store in the country. When cocktail dresses start at more than a thousand dollars and sometimes stretch up into the five figures, it’s not hard to see where the boutique’s $3217 average ticket comes from. Naturally, I have a few theories about these results.

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The Outstanding Pieces of Chanel Pre-Fall 2011

Photos via Chanel

I’m taking the day off tomorrow. Yep. Mental health day! Don’t worry, though, Megs will be here to hold down the fort and update the blog, but I’m going to have a three-day weekend. I don’t take many days off, and I intend to frolic.

It would be awful of me to leave you without something memorable, though, which is why I present you with the Chanel Pre-Fall 2011 Outstanding Pieces. We already saw the exotics from Chanel Paris-Byzance, and now we have a proper Pre-Fall collection full of aubergine alligator and gold python, in addition to the usual suspects. As always, all the pictures can be found after the jump.

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Alexander Wang’s makes one of fall’s most perfectly sized crossbodies

Alexander Wang Raphael Crossbody, $680 via Neiman Marcus

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself eating lunch in Soho with a friend while the Alexander Wang sample sale was in full swing. When we walked by and saw that there was no line, we could help but go in and poke around. I found a pair of amazing black brocade leggings from Resort 2011 that I can’t wait to wear once the weather is cold enough, but the thing that caught my eye the most was the Alexander Wang Raphael Crossbody Bag.

Sadly, since this is a Fall 2011 piece, it wasn’t for sale. Instead, it was being carried by some of the girls working the sale, presumably to hold the tasers they surely need in order to keep an unruly sample sale crowd under control. It took all the self control I had not to snatch one off of an employee and sprint as quickly as I could for the Spring Street subway station. (I never would have made it. I would have been taken out by running into a tourist group standing absentmindedly in the middle of the sidewalk. It’s Soho, after all.)

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