In my mind, calling a bag a “wristlet” is a precarious thing to do for a manufacturer or retailer. The word “wristlet” brings about a very specific type of simple, relatively inexpensive small accessory; personally, I use a wristlet to hold the small pharmacy that I carry around inside of my real bag. I wouldn’t ever pay a thousand dollars for something like that.

While the Burberry Leather Wristlet is, in fact, a wristlet like its name would suggest, it’s also one of the nicer wristlets I’ve ever seen in my life, and a full-fledged leather clutch with multiple structured compartments. Don’t let the w-word fool you, this bag is a lot more than just an accessory to your accessories.

Even the strap on this bag is pretty swanky. All the wristlets I own use a flat, thin piece of leather to secure the pouch to your wrist, but Burberry instead chose to go with a full-on rolled leather handle. That little touch goes a long way to explaining how unexpectedly luxurious the rest of the bag is, from the dual interior compartments with a cell phone slot to the tonal woven leather exterior.

The tan strap and blue body of the bag go nicely together, and the darker aqua trim is a great finishing detail. If you were ever going to consider spending four figures on a wristlet, this one’s a good place to start. It’s actually a full-fledged clutch in disguise, and you can always remove the handle if you’d like the general public to see it that way. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $1195.

With that in mind, it brings me great joy to show you the Burberry East-West Buffalo Tote, which not only offers an elegant style but is also priced very reasonably. The little sliver of my hear that wants so badly for Burberry to succeed at handbags is jumping for joy right now.

Burberry East-West Buffalo Tote, $1,195 via Neiman Marcus

With a slightly slouchy silhouette, this bag’s classic design shines through with deep plum buffalo leather and golden hardware. I love how unexpected and demure the color choice is, especially on a leather this thick and durable.

You know me well by now, I am a sucker for shoulder straps and this bag has one with curb chain ends along with double top handles. The top of the bag has a zipper with a logo clasp and overall dimensions are 9.5″ x 15″ x 7″. And here is the second best part behind the appearance, the price: a mere $1,195 via Neiman Marcus, which in the handbag world, is a steal.

Burberry and I have an odd relationship. I find myself lusting after the brand’s ready-to-wear and outerwear every season without fail, and often its boots as well, but my feelings about the British brand’s bags are often a tad…fraught. I can honestly say, though, that there’s not a single bag from Burberry Spring 2012 that I wouldn’t carry.

Perhaps the biggest surprise from the collection was how little leather it included. In fact, only a few of the woven clutches were entirely leather and a couple of the larger totes were suede and croc (be it real or faux, I’m not sure), but the overwhelming majoring were woven raffia with croc trim. That’s something of a departure for the brand, and the resulting totes and clutches felt on-trend (expect to see lots of raffia for spring) and modern. Particularly the fun little clutches, which may have a rather small retail audience but which I’d be delighted to carry to any summer party.

Like any brand, Burberry has created bags that I’ve both wildly loved and totally hated over the past few seasons. There have been moments of both happiness and confusion at the brand’s accessories, but based on the success of the bags in the Fall 2011 runway show and the beautiful Burberry Buffalo Tote from Pre-Fall 2011, I’m feeling nothing but optimism about Burberry handbags. Plus, I’ve seen a few shots of the brand’s Resort 2012 bags, so I have it on good authority that the dog days are over.

Something about the color of this bag is hitting me in just the right way. Extremely light grey feels so pretty and unexpected in the midst of a season full of bright colors, and even though this isn’t necessarily the shade that I’d pair with brights, the pre-order won’t come in until July anyway. By that time, we’re all going to be sick of our summer clothes and waiting for those first few non-sweltering nights in late August, and when those days hit, this bag is going to feel like a brilliant option for the seasonal transition. Plus, the price isn’t bad either. Buy through Neiman Marcus for $1095.

Combining the iconic check pattern with the fashion-forward belt buckle wrapped body, the Burberry Mini Check Clutch is an attention grabber. I like seeing the classic plaid pattern broken up by the leather and the way Burberry implements this gives their design an edgy appearance.

Help out and fill in the blank so we can see what you think of this bag. Buy via Neiman Marcus for $795.

Fill in the Blank: The Burberry Mini Check Clutch is ___________.

To say that I was critical of the last Burberry Prorsum handbag collection might actually be an understatement; I didn’t like the bags at all, and based on your reactions to our review, I wasn’t alone. Well, it looks as though Christopher Bailey’s accessories crew may have righted the ship in time for Burberry Prorsum Fall 2011 handbags – along with the collection’s splendid outwear, most of the handbags that hit the runway were intensely covetable.

I still don’t understand why Burberry insists on using its novacheck logo fabric on runway bags instead of relegating it to the regular line as most brands tend to do, but thankfully most of the tasseled satchels and smart, structured clutches were all leather. Burberry showed quite a bit of what appeared to be embossed crocodile as well, giving a collection full of texture yet another layer of visual interest. I would be happy to have every single structured clutch and all of the non-logo satchels from this show in my closet immediately.

Photos via Vogue.com.

Sadly, yes, this is all we get. Despite some accessory success several seasons ago and a few nice-yet-completely-unmemorable bags popping up every few months, Burberry’s handbag efforts have left much to be desired for some time now. I can only hope that the best is yet to come and that Bailey will throw us a bone of some sort in the near future. In the meantime, what in the world does he want us to do with this?

I just…I can’t. I can’t work with this. I’m not 12, I’m a grown woman, and I don’t want studded heart shapes covering anything on which I’m expected to spend $1500. I can get behind well-intention irreverence and I’m always up for a little bit of whimsy, perhaps even more so than the average Burberry customer, but this design reeks of immaturity.

I can barely think of anything articulate to say about this bag because the only thing that keeps popping into my head over and over every time I look at it is WTF. And that’s not particularly articulate or interesting, but it may indeed be an accurate and fair reaction. Burberry can do better than this with leather – just look at their Spring 2011 jackets – and I hope that someone in the company’s accessory department steps up to the plate soon. Buy through Neiman Marcus for $1495.

While shoe shopping yesterday, I encountered a sales associate that very much wanted to tell me all about the trends for Fall 2010. I worked retail in college, so I never mind letting someone do their sales spiel without interruption, even if I already know what it’s going to contain. This time, though, I had to stop the poor guy when he got to the part about studs. I’m so over studs. When I told him that, he made a face like I had just kicked his puppy and sounded appalled that I would make such a bold declaration.

I hadn’t given much specific thought to whether or not I still thought studs were cool, but when the sales associate was waving a pyramid-covered combat boot in my face that I had no intention of ever trying on, let alone buying, it became clear – I’m done with them. But is fashion done with the trend, and more importantly, are you? With the appearance of this Burberry Studded Leather Travel Bag on Net-a-Porter yesterday morning, it looks like some retailers hope we’ll buy in to heavy metal for at least a few months longer.

This particular bag isn’t bad, it just looks like it should have come out a year ago. The shape and color of the studs give the bag a nice variable shine from a distance, and it’s fairly neutral, which always plays in a dying trend’s favor. But for a bag that big, it seems like so much metal would make the bag nearly prohibitively heavy to carry. Although if you like your accessories to double as weapons, you could probably beat up a potential mugger with this bag quite effectively. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $2195.

For all the intricate leather work that clearly went into the jackets, the handbags were shown none of the same attention by Christopher Bailey & Co. In fact, they were arguably the lowest point of a line I really, truly loved in almost every way. I don’t mind purses being used as bright, poppy accents to a larger look, but designers should at least take the time to make the bags special as well. The latticed python seen on a few pieces was an interesting-enough technique, but the simplistic shapes don’t do anything to help the cause. Full pictures, after the jump.

Photos via Style.com.

Winter white (which is just a warm tone of ivory, but we’ll go with the season-appropriate name) came around as a trend a couple of years ago and never really went away, and it’s a nice alternative to not only the dark colors of fall dressing, but also the outdated rule that one shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day. If any of the people who still subscribe to that notion can look at the Burberry Quilted Patent Tote and tell me truthfully that it wouldn’t be beautiful with a charcoal sweater and dark denim, I’ll be very surprised.

I might normally regard this bag as too simple for me, but the shiny gunmetal hardware has totally won me over. Instead of skewing traditional, as most people probably expect of Burberry, the clean-lined buckle takes on a modern military look that’s as cool as it is unexpected. The bag’s shape is classic, the color is lush and the details are trendy, which is a formula that almost always equals a great bag. Buy through Nordstrom for $1395.