For those of you who have been following us here at Purse Blog for a while, you probably remember reading about handbag designer, Katherine Kwei. Her intricate designs and attention to detail help make her bags the unique masterpieces they are. I fell in love with the Donna Clutch and can’t wait to add it to my collection. There is no way you will find another clutch out there like it.

Well, we have a lovely update for you about all the amazing stuff going on with Katherine Kwei and her line. I love getting a chance to speak with designers and hear about the latest and greatest. It’s as if I am dishing info with a close friend! And since you know me and what a hard time I have keeping secrets, it’s not a coincidence that I am sharing this update today.

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Between the half-shoes/half-claws shown by Alexander McQueen and Chanel Spring 2010 being show in a barn with smirking models, I thought I had seen every ridiculous thing that Paris Fashion Week had to offer.

And then at Louis Vuitton Spring 2010, creative director Marc Jacobs saw fit to attach furry tails to the bags. Yep, that happened.

As far as bags go, the show started…dreadfully. Most of them appeared to be made of dip-dyed cotton canvas in candy colors with coordinating fluffy appendages streaming off the back, which were sometimes bigger than the bag itself. After a dozen looks, I thought I was in for a very unpleasant show.

But after a little while, things started to look decidedly better. I’m not sure if it was just the fashion show version of Stockholm Syndrome, I guess that’s always possible, but things rallied a bit during the middle and end portions of the show. Instead of canvas bags with animal parts hanging from them, Vuitton returned to the leathers and embossed logos to which fans are slightly more accustomed.

Which is not to say the bags were boring – they weren’t. The opposite, in fact. And they weren’t entirely successful, but I appreciate the combination of colors, materials, and textures that Jacobs attempted in order to make something new out of one of the most recognizable logos in the fashion world. The collection was heavy on messengers, and the ones that combined logo leather with smooth in different colors were probably the best bags of the show, in addition to the duffel bags made of similar textures. Please, Marc Jacobs, if you’re out there: please give the tassel-covered bags a rest. Thanks.

The more I look through the bags from the last half of the collection, the more the eclectic ideas and influences grow on me, and I’m not sure what my final opinion will be once the dust of fashion week has settled. One thing is sure, though; adventurous collections like Louis Vuitton, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen are what make Paris the world’s reigning fashion city. New York has some catching up to do.

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Add some sparkle to your step this fall with a sequined handbag. This season it is all about luxe embellishments. Paillettes and sequins adorn handbags that can be worn both day and night. The dazzling surface, texture and color will get you noticed. Simply pair a sequined bag with an all black outfit comprised of skinny jeans for day or with a pretty and minimalist cocktail dress for evening.

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So, what happened last night on Real Housewives of Atlanta? Did the producers get lazy? Did they run out of story lines? Perhaps they just ran out of compelling story lines; at least that much seemed evident.

A bunch of stuff happened, but none of it added up to much. Kim shopped, because all she does is spend Big Poppa’s money and pretend it’s her own. Sheree tried to plan an event, because all she does is plan events that never happen. Nene had a charity event that forced me to look at Dwight’s balls (AGAIN, SECOND TIME THIS SEASON), and that doesn’t seem particularly charitable to me. Lisa continued to not have babies and maybe insinuated that Keith Sweat was an abusive husband. Kandi just made me sad because we all know what’s gone on in her life between then and now. I have no jokes about that.

But if you’d like to hear more jokes about Dwight’s junk, though, I think you know where to find those.

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Thank you Valentino, for continuing to bring us beautiful feminine designs. Valentino handbags have become synonymous with floral and bow embellishments. Most of the time I see Valentino do this, they get it right. I was always a fan of the Rose Shopper but it never looked like it would fit as comfortably as I would like my handbag to fit.

But the Valentino Petal Leather Hobo Bag is hands down stunning. We saw Hilary Duff with this bag on Gossip Girl and it caught my attention. Nice, comfortable hobo shape, romantic ruffles: all the makings of a great handbag.

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In case you have previously considered the idea of wearing a $10,000 purse as a gym bag and ruled it out, Hermes would apparently like you to rethink that decision.

Jean Paul Gaultier’s entire Hermes Spring 2010 collection was a riff on country club chic, and enormous Kellys and Birkins as workout wear, replete with leather tennis ball carriers, were the icing on top of the luxe-prepster cake. Obviously the idea that a white travel Kelly should be slung around the local tennis court is in jest, but the aesthetic does work nicely with the ultraclean lines of Hermes’s signature bags.

Overall, though, I didn’t find myself nearly as blown away as I usually do when looking at a series of the world’s finest handbags. I have wondered before why Hermes doesn’t use more snakeskin in their line, and the oversized python Birkins and Kellys answered that quite nicely – it just doesn’t work. All of the snakeskin bags looked rumpled and, dare I say it, fake. Unless there’s a point that I’m missing, I’m surprised that Gaultier let them walk the runway.

Overall, I find myself a little underwhelmed. The exotic clutches were predictably drool-inducing, and the tennis influence that found its way into the accessories line is very appropriate for brand whose customers probably all count themselves as members of various country clubs. But with the resources and craftsmanship that Hermes has at their disposal, I was hoping for a bit more.

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Like the rest of Chanel’s Spring 2010 collection, the bags that we saw walk their runway (barnway?) were more rustic-chic than classic Parisian. Whether that’s your thing or not, Karl Lagerfeld certainly seems to believe in it.

The problem with Chanel, though, is that for better or for worse, they have a lot of aesthetic history to consider when a new collection is designed, and Lagerfeld usually chooses to acknowledge that history. What that means is that mostly, Chanel doesn’t innovate. They do something different here and there, and a lot of their bags are quite lovely, but rarely do we see them starting new bag trends.

I don’t know if that’s a positive or a negative – it just sort of is. If you like their aesthetic, then I’m sure you’re completely fine with what they do and how they do it. If you don’t, there are plenty of alternatives on which to spend your money. There are a few unexpected things in this accessories, but mostly it’s just the same bags we’ve seen with slightly frayed edges. I can totally understand if that’s what they want to send to retail, but I also can’t help but wish Lagerfeld & Co. would embrace the fantasy of the runway a little bit more in the accessories department.

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I must disagree, strenuously and vociferously, with the reintroduction of the wood-bottom clog to the high fashion lexicon. Even when these particular wood-bottom clogs are from Chanel Spring 2010. I will not stand for it.

What I do like, however, is smiling. Models smiling. When was the last time that you saw model after model, looking reasonably happy and human, in a major fashion show. In the fashion show of Paris Fashion Week? And do my eyes deceive me, or was supermodel Sasha Pivovarova talking on a cell phone on the runway?

And is that hay? Did Karl Lagerfeld turn the Grand Palais into a barn?

Yes and yes.

Quite honestly, regardless of the clothes (which were reasonably fabulous, but not the best of the week. Like I said in a previous post, Alexander McQueen already won), Chanel’s show appeared to be the most joyful. At my college, we had a saying: our team may occasionally lose a football game, but we’ve never lost a party. And that’s exactly what Chanel did this week: they won the party. I mean, they even had a live band! With Lily Allen! Was there a keg? If there was a keg, I bet it was really nice beer.

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Unless you weren’t already convinced of Alexander McQueen’s dark genius by the pictures of the clothing from his show, we submit to you: the shoes.

What we got from this collection (among other things) is perhaps the most ostentatious, progressive approach to footwear that we’ve ever seen from a major designer, at least in recent memory. The shoes were, on average, a full ten inches tall with huge platforms in the front to make them at least somewhat functional for walking. I pray for the models’ poor little ankles, but it was worth it to see these looks in their full form.

They came in three main varieties: first, ultra-high booties that looked more like prosthetic lobster claws than shoes you might see on the racks at Neiman Marcus, in keeping with the apocalyptic-aquatic theme of the show. These came in exotics, smooth leathers, and a variety of exterior embellishments, including shards of turquoise. The second type were booties that looked like something a resident in Wall-E’s post-apocalyptic Earth might wear. The heels were covered in an amalgamation of industrial metal, creating perhaps the most wearable shoes of the collection. The third type were intricately carved porcelain platforms that were reminiscent of a coral reef, held on to the foot by clear plastic straps.

These are the shoes that a mermaid would wear, if a mermaid had feet. Luckily, the ones in McQueen’s show did.

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