Chloe Handbags and Purses (Page 2)

I’ve already asked many questions of you guys today, which is probably not fair for a beautiful Friday in early spring, but I have just one more: Do white bags make you nervous? They make me very nervous, for a couple of reasons. First, I’m not a particularly careful person. If someone out there is going to have a little ketchup on her finger after lunch, that someone is going to be me. I try, but I’m just not detail-oriented. Second, I wear a lot of dark clothes. Dark clothes mean dye transfers when you’re dealing with light leather. Third, I don’t think twice about putting my bags on the ground when necessary. They’re bags, they’re meant to be used!

Even considering all that, I’m still totally smitten with the Chloe Madeline Runway Satchel. Graphic white and minimalism go together like peanut butter and jelly, although perhaps I shouldn’t use a food metaphor with such a pristine bag; I can almost see the grape Smuckers fingerprints now…

The more I look through the handbags from Chloe Fall 2011, the more I wonder who the Chloe girl is. I also wonder if Chloe’s accessories designers know the answer to that question, or if they’ve chosen instead to hope that they can make everyone feel like a Chloe girl by creating a collection that eschews a unifying aesthetic in favor of encompassing a group of ideas that are seemingly not related.

If you like hard-lined, ladylike handbags in exotic materials (or bags with actual animal heads), Chloe has a bag for you. If you spent all of your childhood lusting after your mom’s Coach bucket bags, well, there are plenty of designs that look like those as well. Are you a hippie who likes colorblocking and whipstitching? You’re not left out, either. Of course, bags aren’t sold as a collection; they’re sold as individual pieces to individual women who probably don’t care what the rest of the bags in the collection look like as long as they love the pieces that they’re buying. Still, though, I can’t shake the impression that this is a collection without an identity, and I’m not sure how you go about marketing that.

I actually love when a brand knows a good design and keeps it in their repertoire for seasons to come. Chloe knows they have a hit on their hands with the Marcie, so now we see it come back time and time again in different renditions. And actually, while I am typically drawn to the simple versions, the Chloe Embroidered Marcie has just enough added oomph to make me consider it as an addition.

The Chloe Marcie Satchel has never been among my favorite bags, but lately it seems to have conquered my favor with brute force of will and nonintuitive staying power. With this new laser-cut version coming down the pipes for Spring 2011, you can consider me a full convert to the Marcie’s charms.

Maybe it’s the thick, nasty layer of leftover snow and ice that’s still on the ground here, or maybe it’s the sad realization that it’s going to continue to be cold for months on end, but the off-white color and boho edge of this version of the bag in particular are making me think warm thoughts right now.

About a year and a half ago, we asked you if still had any interesting the Chloe Paddington Bag. Your responses were mixed, but that hasn’t stopped Chloé from trying to reintroduce The Little It Bag that Could back into the fashion conversation. With the release of several bags alone the lines of the Chloé Pure Paddington Duffle, it seems as though the brand’s efforts to relive the Paddington’s glory days are stronger than ever.

Are you buying it? I’m not. There are a variety of ways to make a really sharp black duffle, and adding details from a bag that was popular five years ago is not among them. Nostalgia is great, but before I can have nostalgia in any meaningful way, I need for the original to go away long enough for me to miss it. That has yet to happen with the Chloé Paddington, and it seems as though it never will.

When trying to design a high-end bag, mixing materials can turn into a risky proposition. If too many are used, or the use of the materials has a lack of sophistication, the final product can look patchworked and cheap very, very quickly. Luckily, the Chloé Billie New Small Messenger Bag manages to stay on the right side of the line.

By constructing the main body of the bag out of leather and canvas in shades of tan, Chloé gave this design texture without adding fussiness or confusion. Keeping the shiny black patent for use as trim only gives the bag a pleasantly vintage feel and even more wardrobe versatility.

Shocker of all shockers: Chloe’s Spring 2011 handbags embrace New Minimalism. I’ll give you a moment to recover.

With the exception of the duffel bag above, which also comes in a lovely shade of cement grey and will surely be embraced by celebrities and fashion people alike, the offerings from this collection are a bit underwhelming. Minimalism crosses the line to boredom very quickly in a few of these bags, but thankfully Chloe included two over-beaded evening bags to balance out the simplicity of some of the other styles. A brand really only needs one hit bag to make a collection a success, though, and it looks as though Chloe will definitely accomplish that goal for Spring 2011.