Exotics

I’ve always had the vague feeling that a lot of exotics were a bit of a scam. Price is a measure of perceived value, particularly in fashion, and if all designers drive their prices for exotics sky-high, then over time, consumers will come to expect that exotics will cost those prices and convince themselves that they’re so high because they have to be. I’m not claiming that exotics don’t cost more to farm and are often more delicate and difficult to work with; I believe all of that. But I do think that prices have been artificially high for some time now, and bags like the Ted Rossi Pleated Eel Clutch make me think I’m right

This bag does appear on a discount website, and it is made out of one of the less-expensive exotics to begin with, but it IS exotic and fairly intricate in its construction. The pleating is gorgeous and the shine of the eel skin is subtle and glamorous. Sale prices often indicate what the price of a bag SHOULD be (since, theoretically, if a bag has to be put on sale then it was priced too high for the market anyway), and when you take the mark-down into account, this sleek little clutch is a steal for an exotic skin in a shape and size that you’ll use on nights out for years to come. Buy through Bluefly for $402.

I’ve had mostly positive things to say about Dolce & Gabanna bags lately, but I just can’t get behind the Dolce & Gabanna Miss Dalia Hobo. My problems with it are similar to those of a bag of which we’ve spoken recently – the Jimmy Choo Metallic Hobo.

They obviously look nothing alike, but I can’t help but feel that this bag might be an afterthought as well. At they very least, it’s perilously under-designed and without much personality. There’s a bit of animal print, a bit of exotic leather, a bunch of suede…so how, exactly, did the folks at Dolce manage to make that boring? And not just boring, but also, possibly, a bit 90s. Particularly for it’s hefty price tag (almost two grand – egad!), this bag just isn’t cutting it. It’s too simple and lacks creativity. Next. Buy through Saks for $1995.

When it comes to shoulder bags, particularly hobos, it’s fairly well-documented that I have a penchant for slouch. I like things soft and even a bit saggy when it comes to that type of purse, and my taste rarely deviates from that. When you look at handbags for the majority of your day, you come of with different theories of what makes a good bag and what doesn’t work for particular shapes, and while none of those ideas is monolithic, I rarely find myself digging something that deviates far from my own personal bag ideals. The Roger Vivier Faceted Python Hobo is one very, very notable exception however.

Vivier is not known for slouch or shapelessness, and this bag is a highly structural hobo that uses its panels to highlight the differences in the python skins used and the colors featured. I’m still on the fence about the colors used (I love the red and white, but would have preferred another bright to the beige/grey), but I love the structure and differentiation between the panels, and this bag may make more of a high-fashion statement than any that I have seen recently. Buy through Luisa Via Roma for €2900.

You know what I love? An exotic bag of any kind for under a grand. It’s hard to come by, even in snakeskin, and particularly from a well-known designer. Well, the Michael Kors Templeton Snakeskin Clutch meets all of those requirements. It’s a beautiful cobalt clutch made of real snakeskin that any of us would be lucky to have in our closets. And it’s not tiny, either. It’s a full foot wide and looks like it would easily be big enough to hold my BlackBerry, oversized key ring (I’m a janitor at night, don’t tell anyone), and a lip gloss or two.

And then there’s the great color; it encompasses shades shades of bright and deep blue and several in between, and would look amazing with almost any kind of sundress, particularly a white one. It’d also work during colder weather – just imagine how much it would pop when worn with a black dress and a great pair of boots. The price is great for an exotic from any designer you’ve ever heard of, and it might still be more than I want to pay for a clutch, but I’m going to ignore all of that and just imagine taking it out this weekend. Buy through Nordstrom for $895.

I’m having some trouble with the Stuart Weitzman Fiocco Bag. I can’t figure out what it’s made of, and the Internet isn’t being particularly helpful. The Bloomingdales.com description calls it hornback, and from what I have gleaned from some Googling, that’s the less-desirable part of a crocodile. Most fine handbags are made of the smooth, flat belly portion, and the hornback is just the opposite – the ridged, rough, bumpy back scales. We’ve all seen it used before, usually in men’s shoes and wallets…and this doesn’t look like hornback. It looks like faux snakeskin.

And I’m not saying that to be judge-y, because I actually quite like the bag. I like the layering and the double chain-and-leather straps and the natural colors of the hornback/snakeskin/God-knows-what. But I can’t find this bag anywhere else on the Internet, including Weitzman’s official site, so I remain unconvinced that this is actually made of any kind of crocodile. But if it is, then it’s a pretty awesome deal for a croc bag, even if it’s hornback. $1055 for an exotic, and an attractive, useful bag at that? Not too shabby. Buy through Bloomingdales for $1055.

How does Hilary Duff continue to pay for all the amazing bags that we see her carrying? When was the last time she worked? Am I just too old for her to be on my entertainment radar, outside of the handbag realm? I mean, I’m not that old, am I? I’m only 23, I can’t be that old. Well, anyway, she does have some cool handbags that she likes to tote around with her, and since the paparazzi still follow, we still get to see them. One of my favorites is the Ted Rossi Python Hobo Bag.

It’s not really a hobo, though, since it has two straps – it’s a “tobo.” Tote, hobo, get it? Ok. Well I really like it, particularly in this natural python pattern. When you’ve got a skin, particularly an exotic, that’s nice enough, you really don’t need a bunch of pockets or ruching or seaming, you just need a clean, simple design to show off the natural attributes of the skin, and that’s what we’ve got here. The snake is the star of this bag, and we can just all hope to bask in its beautiful, exotic glow. At 21″ wide, I wonder how many snakes we’re talking about here. Buy through Singer22 for $2495.

Ostrich is a material that we don’t tend to talk about all that often. Of late, it’s been overshadowed by other exotics like python, and it’s not as common that you see it. Some brands still do an exceptional job with it, though – Hermes and Mulberry come to mind. Another brand that’s know for it is Nuti, who are lesser known but have so far done a great job when it comes to their specialty material.

A couple of weeks ago, I got the chance to see the Nuti New Yorker Ostrich Hobo in person in Atlanta, and I was absolutely blown away. The version that I saw was a deep, rich purple similar to Balenciaga’s Fall 2007 Violet, and the leather was amazing. I sometimes shy away from ostrich because of its resemblance to the skin of an enormous chicken, but this bag is truly gorgeous. The variations of the leather are all the visual interest it needs, and the handle is artfully constructed and unique, compared to the afterthought leather straps we normally see. In my mind, they’ve got a big, big winner here. Buy through Saks for $3400.

As much as we love the established designers with their signature handbags, we get giddy for new designers offering handbags that we must have. It does not happen often that there is a bag that I see that I absolutely MUST HAVE. I can rave about specific bags and even profess my love, but if I am not out buying them up, they are not on the same level. Recently, I had to have the latest DvF Bag, and I went out and bought it. Of course there are pricing restrictions, but once you catch me raving incessantly, that is most likely a bag that will be added to my collection.

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I don’t really want to like this bag, but I think I do. The problem I have is that the Carlos Falchi Tigersnake Shopping Tote is a shape that really, really annoys me. For the prices that designers charge for their bags, I’d like them to give me some structure or hardware or SOMETHING to indicate that the bag was actually designed. But this is just a flat bag with two handles that would probably fall off of my shoulder, and that annoys me. What really DOESN’T annoy me, though, is the colors. In fact, I find the color and pattern so non-annoying that they almost make up for the boring structure. The watersnake is hand-painted in silver and cobalt blue, which gives it an imperfect, slightly bohemian or artistic feel that makes the bag subversively chic, despite its rather banal shape. It’d certainly pep up a boring outfit, and probably gives the wearer an aura of subtle fashionable-ness that more obviously “designer” bags simply don’t have. Buy through Saks for $850.

Thud.

I just fell off my couch.

The Notting Hill Design Westbourne Tote is just that beautiful. Never heard of the designer? Me neither. Nor has basically anyone, but they somehow snuck the Westbourne Tote into an upcoming episode of Gossip Girl, on the arm of none other than Blair Waldorf herself, and that will set the fashion folks a-chatter more quickly than almost anything. As the name suggests, the brand is based in West London and has a small collection of several bags in a variety of exotics including python, crocodile, alligator and ostrich as well as calf, deer, goat, and buffalo leather. Their bags are simple but architectural in design, and the attention to detail paid when using the exotic skins is incredibly exact.

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