I believe I have outwardly voiced my love of the giant hardware Balenciaga bags previously, the silver hardware to be exact. It is not that I do not love gold, in fact I have found a new love of gold jewelry. But when it came to BBags, I thought silver hardware was the perfect color. Now I am questioning myself. After seeing some of the new combinations of giant gold hardware on some Balenciaga bags I am torn.

For almost everyone, I think Balenciaga is one of those brands that you either understand or you don’t. Yes – they make more or less the same bags in different colors year after year. Yes – many of them haven’t changed drastically in design since they were first introduced. Yes – many people are happy to do what basically amounts to buying the same bag in a bunch of colors.

Whether or not you believe that clothing and accessories can qualify as art, you have to look at the Balenciaga Metallic Crocodile Wristlet and see, first and foremost, an art object. It’s uses (and, most likely, it’s production) are decidedly limited, but if I was to get my hands on it, I think I’d probably just hold it and stare at it anyway.

The first version of the Balenciaga Giant Lattice City that I saw was the smaller multicolor version, and let’s just say that my feelings were, at best, mixed. The combination of colors seemed kind of muddled, and the abundance of blue trim sorta took away from the effect of the latticed leather. But today, I stumbled across the black and white version, and my opinion changed immediately.

And now, for something completely different…Balenciaga Fall 2009 is certainly a big departure from the ultra-structured, futuristic, at times minimalist collections we’ve seen from Nicolas Ghesquière over the past couple of years. There’s nothing space-aged about these strongly Parisian clothes, and that only serves to prove what a versatile designer Ghesquière is and will continue to become. Anyone that can do suits so structured that just looking at them improves my posture and silk dresses so languid and airy that I want to laze around all day in them is worth whatever amount of money the Balenciaga’s parent company is paying him.

I think that one of my favorite things about Bluefly is that their selection is so vast and random. They carry brands that are rarely found elsewhere on the Internet and bags that may not have made it onto the radar of the casual aficionado, in addition to lots of reliable favorites. A perfect example of the breadth of their available bags is the Balenciaga Lune Tote.

I’ve written about many a clutch on this site. At barely 23, I find myself at a time in life when clutches are possibly the most important bags I have – they have to go with the largest variety of outfits and fit in to the largest variety of situations. Dive bars, bottle service at a club, dinner out at a variety of restaurants, shopping with friends the next day when I’m too lazy to switch back to a day bag – my clutches go everywhere.

And now I have more visions of myself driving along the coast in our old-timer on our way to a weekend getaway. The old-timer is not had and I haven’t had a weekend getaway in quite some time. Who doesn’t daydream about it though? So back to my dream world. Anyhow, in that dream world I would have the ultimate travel bag.

If you were to ask me what one of the most coveted and famous handbag was I would tell you the Balenciaga City. Of course there are others, but from Balenciaga the black city is a classic. Of course Balenciaga is known for their colorful array of dyed leathers, but black is time-honored. Balenciaga was one of the first brands to start the huge craze in the handbag world.

My love of Balenciaga continues to grow and I often find myself wondering why is it that I literally do not own one Balenciaga bag? I know, it is some sort of travesty that I do not own a Balenciaga bag. My collection is vast and covers many designers, but for an amount of time I could not see the craze behind the bags.