Hobos

I’m kind of shocked, really – a Prada leather bag for less than a thousand dollars? At first I wondered if the price was correct, but it hasn’t changed in the couple of weeks that the bag has been on the Saks website, so it must be correct. I doubt this is the brand’s response to the recession – Prada doesn’t seem like the type of brand that intends to acknowledge it at all – but for whatever reason they chose to produce the reasonably priced Prada Vitello Shine Hobo, and I’m pretty pleased with it.

Odds are that the gorgeous purple color is making me more enthusiastic than I would be otherwise (it reminds me of my favorite Balenciaga color of all time, 2007 violet), but color is such an important part of a bag’s personality that I’m completely okay with that. Prada always uses excellent leathers and high-quality construction, so I don’t doubt that the bag will last for quite a long time indeed. The only thing left to consider is the structure: it’s boring, I’ll admit, but it’s also highly functional, and the beautiful shade of purple makes up for the simple shape. Considering the price of this bag relative to others in Miuccia’s arsenal, I’m pretty pleased. Buy through Saks for $995.

One of my favorite parts of every new handbag season is waiting for the new Balenciaga colors to start hitting stores and websites. They’re my favorite brand and consistently product some of the most vibrant leather colors of any high-end designer. Since their bag shapes are simple and iconic, it lets the ever-changing leather shades take center stage, where some become highly sought-after and collectible.

My favorite from Fall 2009 is Pommier, a beautiful bright green that this photo doesn’t do justice. From what I’ve seen, it’s more of a Kelly shade in real life, and I couldn’t think of anything more beautiful to wear with the blacks and greys of fall. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a green like this from Balenciaga, which is refreshing – they’ve taken to repeating some of their most recent hits in the past few seasons. I’d prefer it with giant silver hardware (since I prefer everything with giant silver hardware), but I’d settle for the regular hardware pictured here if I had to. Maybe if I can save my pennies, I’ll have one of these lovely bags to show you ladies in the future. Buy through Barney’s for $1095.

Under normal circumstances, I hate a gimmicky bag. With a normal designer, the need to make jokes in order to make a bag interesting always makes me think that whoever is behind that brand’s handbags is out of good ideas. The thing with Maison Martin Margiela, though, is that he’s not your average designer. Not by a long shot.

The man has reportedly not been photographed since the 90s, yet he continues to churn out increasingly popular collections of edgy, current clothing and accessories. Some reports are that he’s no longer involved with the day-to-day operations of his label, but the company that now owns it disputes that claim. Either way, part of his shtick has always been adding in a sly joke here and there, and the Maison Martin Margiela Leather Shoulder Bag fits into that category nicely. It looks as though the bottom of the bag has been folded forward, but really the outside zippered pocket has been stitched and fitted with tiny silver feet in order to give the appearance of the bag’s bottom while still being a functioning element of the bag’s design. And that’s why I’ll let this gimmick go – it doesn’t take away from the bag’s functional purpose, and the joke fits is incorporate in such a way that it enhances the bag instead of detracting from it. The man may be a hermit, but his humor still translates.

Buy through Saks for $1445.

Logo bags are kind of five minutes ago, right? They’ve been kind of five minutes ago for a couple of years now. But despite the fact that I’ve never been a big fan of bags with branding all over them, I’ve always had a soft spot for Gucci. I like the pattern that their traditional logo fabric creates, and I like how it looks when it’s embossed into their Guccissima leather. I think it works because even if it didn’t serve as a logo, it would still be a fairly simple and attractive pattern.

And that’s why I like the Gucci New Jackie Guccissima Shoulder Bag. Last season when the New Jackie came out, I wrote about how much I like the functional and comfortable shape of the bag, and that hasn’t changed a bit. When you combine super soft, matte leather with the Guccissima embossed logo, it provides great texture without having to mess with the bag’s structure or premise. The color of this bag seals the deal for me – grey is an enormous, important color for Fall 2009, and this grey is a perfect, blue-undertoned, medium grey that will go with almost anything in the average woman’s wardrobe. It’s mighty expensive for regular leather, thought, which is a major deterrent for me adding it to my wardrobe. Buy through Saks for $3250.

Well, isn’t this just the ray of sunshine I’ve been looking for! Here in South Florida, we are in the midst of our rainy season. While I have become accustom to afternoon storms, the past week has been full of doom and gloom. Rain in the morning, thunder in the afternoon and a nice combination of the two in the evening. So, I’ve definitely been on the hunt for a handbag to brighten my day.

The Devi Kroell Degrade Wide Hobo uses bright colors in all the right ways! Python leather adorns this wide hobo (11″ x 17″ x 6″) perfectly. For me, exotic skins almost always look good on clutches or small handbags, but the same skin on larger bags can sometimes look a bit sloppy. If the sunflower inspired python wasn’t enough, open the bag and you’ll see a silk lined interior. Sure, I might worry that my keys or perhaps a pen (I never leave home without a pen and lip gloss in my bag) could snag the silk, but this is a risk I’d be willing to take. This bag is a complete hit, I love it! Buy through Barney’s for $3490.

Just a heads up to all of you who loved the Diane von Furstenberg Stephanie Hobo, it is back! Shop Bop is carrying it in both the large and medium size. I have the large and absolutely positively love it. It can be a tad heavy at times, but this handbag looks entirely different from every other in my closet. Buy the medium through Shop Bop for $875 and the large through Shop Bop for $995 before they sell out again.

Leave it to Anya Hindmarch to find a way to combine metallics and lots of woven leather without being over-the-top, gaudy, or flashy. That she was able to do it at all is impressive, and that she was able to do it in such a sophisticated, usable way is even more so.

This bag would make a great everyday bag for cold weather – the gold wicker-weave pattern is beautiful and would coordinate with virtually any outfit, and the black trim looks supple and soft. In my past experience, Hindmarch’s woven bags are just as soft as any of her regular creations, so I wouldn’t worry about this one being rigid or rough in person. I have kind of a general aversion to hobos that have flap closures because I think it makes the bag’s contents harder to access without taking them all the way off my shoulder, and I wish this bag’s strap was a tad longer, but those are both flaws I can overlook because the general look of the bag is so successful. It’s not quite flashy enough for my personal taste, but if anyone out there is looking for a stylish, structured shoulder bag without lots of external branding, this is the best choice I’ve seen lately. Buy through Saks for $1350.

I’ve mentioned this phenomenon both here and on PurseBlog Savvy, and I’m surprised that I haven’t seen it written about on many other fashion websites, but the Fall handbag collections are making it obvious: black is back. Big black bags (BBBs), small black bags, any kind of black bags – they’re everywhere and in a variety of looks. Industrial details seem to be the prevailing trend among them, though, and all I can say to that is HALLELUJAH. Black bags with industrial hardware and finishing are among my favorite looks of all time, and there have been so many to choose from in the past week or so that I almost don’t know what to write about next.

But what I’m writing about now is the Ted Rossi Screw Hobo. It’s a clean, simple design, as most of Rossi’s are, but the small details and exceptional materials make it special without need for extra complication. The bag is made entirely of super-soft, matte black lambskin, which means it’s probably the most wonderful and supple thing upon which you or I have ever put our hands. Soft black leather is all it takes to convince me, but they gave us the extra bonus of modern, dark silver oversized screw heads at the base of each handle, which gives the bag an industrial edge without being overpowering or too costume-y. You could wear it to a Nine Inch Nails concert or to the mall with your girlfriends, and a bag that can fit in at two such divergent events is one that I absolutely need in my closet. Plus, for all that lambskin, the price isn’t bad at all. Buy through Singer22 for $948.

Few people love a slouchy bag more than me. In my own handbag collection, I mostly eschew structure in favor of soft, slouchy, slightly bohemian shoulder bags and oversized clutches. I worship soft, wearable leather.

Which makes the Costume National Ruched Hobo all the more disappointing to me – this is a bag I could have easily loved if the design had been decent at all. But it’s not – instead, it’s just really awkward. Although it’s a hobo, the body of the bag protrudes unreasonably far up past where the handles are attached, creating a weird pooch of material above where you would expect the bag to stop. It breaks up what could have been a clean but slouchy line and makes the bag look a little home-sewn, to borrow a phrase from Project Runway. The black iteration of this bag is somewhat less expensive (probably because black is a color notorious for being flaw-friendly), but the dark brown does nothing but highlight the considerable number of design issues we have here. I’m all for avant garde, but this is just ill-conceived. Buy through Saks for $1125.

As we wait for Fall 2009 bag collection to slowly (really slowly) hit stores, some collections are bound to come out earlier than others. In the past few days, a number of new Burberry bags have been popping up around the Internet, so if you see a lot of them in the near future, that’s why.

One of my favorites of the new crop is the Burberry Metallic Leather Hobo. It’s well-documented that dark silver or pewter is my favorite of all the metallics and probably my favorite neutral, and this is a great example. It has a great shimmer without being too shiny and over-the-top like lighter silvers can tend to be, and it would work well in any kind of weather. Also, I’m usually very anti-logo, but I think the way that Burberry subtly embossed their signature plaid into the soft leather is really creative – it gives the bag a bit of branding and visual interest all wrapped in one. If you’re looking for a slightly glam neutral for fall, I’d go ahead and pick this one up. Buy through Nordstrom for $1795.