Bottega Veneta Handbags and Purses (Page 5)

The brand to turn to for exotic skins is Bottega Veneta. I have never been let down by the skins Bottega Veneta chooses for their bags, from leathers to exotics. When the Fall Winter 2010 collection went down the runway, I had a hard time keeping myself from actively drooling on my keyboard. Not only did I see gorgeous designs, but also there was use of color that worked perfectly for fall and winter while not being drab. One of the colors that immediately caught my attention was a rich hue of blue.

It just so happens the blue bag that I found myself yearning for was also designed in a gorgeous exotic skin. Welcome the Bottega Veneta China Soft Crocodile Fume Loop Bag to your screen. Gorgeous, right?

There are several brand sections that I never miss when I go to a department store – we all have our favorites, and I can’t leave without checking up on Balenciaga and Valentino because they make my favorite bags, but I also don’t miss an opportunity for Bottega Veneta leather-fondling. One touch is all you need to know why the brand’s bags are so pricey.

I usually prefer it when Bottega makes their bags out of solid pieces instead of their famed intrecciato because it makes the quality of the material that much easier to appreciate, and that’s exactly what they’ve done with the Bottega Veneta Cervo Flap Shoulder Bag. It still has the woven touches that make it unmistakably Bottega, but the subtly grained flat leather is the real star of the show.

For the most part, I’ve always considered Bottega Veneta to be a classic, iconic brand. The intrecciato weaving technique is one that can be spotted from across the room or even across a busy street. Personally, it is the classic element of the brand that I love and have come to always expect.

Now, just because there are certain things I expect from a brand like Bottega Veneta does not mean that I cannot appreciate when they think and design a little bit out of the box. Certainly, in order for the design to work, what has *made* the brand what it is needs to be upheld and visible at some point. Thankfully, in this instance, BV tried something a little different and it worked.

On the tails of Chanel‘s New York City bag exhibit and Gucci‘s artisan world tour, Bottega Veneta has whipped up a little special-event parade of its own.

As many of our readers are well aware, Bottega has always offered customization services for its devoted clients – Women’s Wear Daily reports that the brand “has customized luggage to fit the hold of a client’s private plane, created a handbag to match the color of her favorite lipstick, designed custom wedding dresses and produced leather wall paneling for a client’s home.”

Everyone can go into a store and buy a handbag off of the shelf. Many of those bags we buy are very meaningful to us for different reasons. I now have a handbag in my collection that is so meaningful, so special, and so rare, it has a slight golden glow coming from behind it whenever I look at it. This bag did not come from a shelf. It was part of a special order process, considered personally by Tomas Maier himself, for ten PurseForum members.

To quote the title of one of my all-time favorite episodes of Sex and the City, I love a charade. Well, a fashion charade, that is. It almost never fails to impress me when designers are able to take a material that has a certain set of expected characteristics and make it look like something completely different. Earlier this week, I was impressed by how much Maison Martin Margiela made bike reflectors look like sequins, and now I’m feeling similarly pleased with the Bottega Veneta Woven Leather Tote.

On first examination, it looks like a really nice straw tote. And of course, I would expect that any straw bag coming from the Bottega Veneta workshops to be really nice, just like all of their leather offerings. That’s the thing, however – this IS one of their leather offerings. Plus it has a little bit of croc trim, just for good measure.

Ummmm. This, my friends, is the very first time I have been completely confused with a Bottega Veneta Knot Clutch. I have to admit, I feel completely, 100% without a doubt, in love with knot clutches when they first and continued to appear. The design of these clutches wasn’t completely unique and in fact the designs themselves kept repeating one another over and over again. However, I appreciated every aspect each one had to give: the leather, the detailing, the simplicity, the eccentric-ness (is that even a word?). And then, and then I came across this version and I am not really sure.