PurseBlog

You should know up front that Carey Mulligan looks slightly terrified in several of these photos; the paparazzi attention that comes with being a world-famous actress doesn’t agree with her, and she seems to avoid it. Luckily for us, the paps did get a few snaps of Carey and her bag collection for our looking pleasure, and since the country (or at least the fashion industry) is currently in the throes of an intense obsession with The Great Gatsby, it seemed only right to explore the handbag choices of Daisy Buchanan herself.

Louis Vuitton will never let us down when it comes to finding a way to add in its iconic monogram logo onto each new season of bags. It’s part of the genius behind the brand; the company has a knack for continuously showing us its logo on anything and everything they create. Maybe you aren’t into the logo, but clearly millions of people are, and that’s clear from the massive sales numbers and easily recognizable monogram.

Dita Von Teese recently looked every bit the part of “couture Snow White” at a party for designer Prabal Garung at Chateau Marmont, thrown by Vogue and MAC Cosmetics. She rounded out her retro fairytale ensemble with a rather dramatic bag choice – a Charlotte Olympia Pandora Perspex Clutch. You can snag a patterned version of this whimsical bag for $995 at Moda Operandi.

Over the weekend, I went out to eat and shop with a friend. We decided to browse new shops and ventured outside of the usual SoHo area to explore. Next thing I knew, I found myself in a really interesting store named ØDD, and guess what, it was odd. But it was odd in that I wish I could wear this all the time kind of way.

If there’s a word in fashion that’s more overused and abused than “couture,” then I don’t know what it is. (Maybe “curate,” but that’s another rant entirely.) Instead of referring to designer clothing in general, which is how so many people use it, “couture” is a subset of luxury goods that are made by hand, on order, and offer the finest materials and craftsmanship available.

The more people get used to shopping for luxury goods online, the more they want options, especially when it comes to things that are vintage, pre-owned or no longer available in regular stores. (Or sold in very limited retail locations, like Louis Vuitton or Chanel.) Several types services, from dedicated luxury re-sellers like Portero to flash sale sites like Rue La La, to traditional auction houses like Heritage Auctions that now offer online options for luxury goods, have sprung up to meet those desires, but some retailers like ShopBop are taking the search for vintage designer handbags into their own hands.

Just when you thought that Givenchy might be the only brand not to hop on the Celine-inspired flared gusset bandwagon, the brand new Givenchy HDG Tote pops up, brand new for Pre-Fall 2013. Although we’ve seen a lot of these types of totes in the past two years, I must say that the nail-head handle attachments on this one are pretty fabulous.

Actress Minka Kelly is the very first celeb we’ve spotted carrying one of the limited edition Coach x Krink bags from Coach’s latest capsule collection. (For the extended deets, check out Amanda’s full write-up on the Coach x Krink collab.) Here’s Minka landing at LAX, carrying a Coach x KRINK Leather Weekend Tote, which obviously makes a most optimal carry-on.

Last night’s Real Housewives of Orange County episode was an odd one. The Housewives all got out of town, presumably because everyone, including Bravo producers, knows that sending a cast on a trip is one of the best ways to force them all to spend time together and manufacture the kind of drama that viewers love. This trip was nominally about picking wine for Wines by Wives, Tamra and Vicky’s mail-order wine club, but as with all Housewives trips, it was actually about drinking too much and arguing.