It’s fug time. This is a bit more than just a plain Blah bag, its fuggilicious! Usually I love Marc Jacobs bags. I love their new quilted bags. But I ran into this thing, and it’s not doing anything but making me wanna run the other way. The Marc Jacobs Mink Flap Shoulder Bag makes sure to follow the trend setting with using exotic fabric, mink, but the overall bag has absolutely no appeal. Let me start with what I can like by itself first, then move to what I hate. First I actually really think the mink looks gorgeous (it should right? It’s mink!). Umm I guess the leather lining with the inside pocket would be fine too. But what I don’t like is the goldtone double chain strap with the absolutely hideous mink accents. Seriously, it looks like some of those arts and crafts puffy balls you used in Pre-School when being creative. This fug bag measures 10″H X 9″L X 2″W and sells for a whopping $2,900 through Saks.

Some bags just don’t do it for me. There is just some special spark missing. When I looked at this Celine Small Leather Messenger Bag I thought to myself, “Yea, so what?” Not that the bag isn’t cute, but there is nothing special about it that makes it stand out from so many other brown bags and makes me want to buy it. Especially with the price tag. Now, I am sure some of you are remembering my liking the Kooba Sienna brown bag just a few days ago, but I truly liked the shape of that bag and thought it had some character. This bag is a petite messenger bag made of supple leather with polished silvertone hardware. The sumptuous leather drapes on the flap closure which gives an overall bland feeling I think. The only different thing about this bag is the shoulder strap, which looks harsh and uncomfortable with all of the silvertone links and blaison-embossed studs. Not that the links and studs don’t add something special, but that is where all the weight of the bag will be laying – on your shoulder, and I just see that getting quite uncomfortable quite quickly. The inside does have a zip pocket, a cell phone pocket, and an open slot pocket. This bag is called a messenger bag, but unless you are carrying an apple around town, the bag doesn’t offer much other room. The measurements of the bag are only 11″ x 6″ x 5″. When you think about that size and how the bag can be worn, all I can think is how silly it would look on a tall woman or almost any woman unless she is petite like whoa. Looks like I have given this bag a bad review. All I can say is, “So what?” Pricing in at $895 via eLuxury, this bag will not make it onto my wish list.

I may be a little late on that one. Still, there is over 4 days left on Yahoo!’s Fashion for Relief auction, a charity event under the direction of no other than Naomi Campbell. The proceeds from all 95 remaining auctions directly benefit the AmeriCares Fund – Hurricane Katrina Relief. Tons of high class glam goodies are up for grabs, worn by the biggest names in fashion. Best part is that you don’t even have to be a millionaire in order to score a fabulous premium designer dress – check the listing of items for something that works with your life savings and get shopping for a good cause.

With so much going on here at The Purse Blog and The Purse Forum, I have implemented a new way for all of you to contact me if you have questions or comments. I have registered an AIM screen name, PurseBlog, which I will be on from time to time as a new way you can reach me. Hope that may give some of you an easy means of contacting me (try not to just talk for fun, as much as I would like to, I’m a busy woman!). Have a great night everyone and see you all on the forums!!

Sometimes I just wonder about styles. Vlad hates (I mean hates) the look of slippers. I always kind of liked them with the right outfit. How about you gals? Do any of you like them or own any? My biggest issue is that since I am tall, I wear a size 10 shoe- I swear I’m not some monster, just a tall girl! I tried one pair of slipper like shoes on, and hated them. Ever since I have not given them a chance. Maybe I should reconsider. For a girl who has a big shoe size – but narrow feet- could these slippers be pulled off? What do you all think- or do you have any personal experience with shoes like these?

The Delman Suede Ballerina Slippers are made from a curry/golden colored suede with tonal grosgrain trim and a cute little bow on the vamp. The toe has a peep toe opening (which is not my favorite) and there is a 3/4″ covered kitten heel (which is a plus for me since I am already 5′10). If you want to have your toes twinkle in these shoes, buy them for $225 via Bergdorf Goodman.

With so many stores doing spring cleaning – you can really get some great deals. Old-fashioned fashion rules no longer apply in most parts of the world (especially in places like Southern California, because they don’t really have seasons there). So if you still want a hot Spring bag, now is the time to buy.

Zappos.com has knocked down the prices on the Spring bags of my favorite Purse designer: Rafé.

For those of you not familiar with the designer, Rafé Totengco has been around since 1994 and his accessories are sold at Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, and many other upscale boutiques. He anoints his handbag lines with charming names like Key West, and Ibiza, and like most trendy designers he names the bags after famous actresses like Mary Kate and Mischa. The unique style of Rafé bags isn’t just in their nomenclature, but in their clever designs. To put it simply, this isn’t your mother’s purse company. Rafé doesn’t resort to large tacky monograms to make them stand out, their vibrant color and fabulous seasonal prints do that just fine. And these bags aren’t just flashy and fun, they are also extremely high quality and feature signature nickel hardware, interior logo lining, and magnetic closures. If you aren’t familiar with this brand, now is the time to check it out.

But enough with the blah-de-blah, we all know it’s about the eye candy.

Here is my personal favorite: The Martinique Kirsten
Dimensions: 13″ wide x 4″ deep x 8″ high. Link to Bag.

This bag has a fun gumball print, and laminated Italian cotton canvas. After personally carrying this bag around for the summer, I was impressed how well the canvas repelled stains. The convenient pockets at the front of bag have magnetic closure for easy access. This print even inspired the pen company Cross to make a matching pen and notebook set. Right now, it is a steal- $105.95, that’s 65% off the original price.

Here’s another cutie: The Newport Reggie
Dimensions: 15″ wide x 5″ deep x 8″ high. Link to Bag.

This bag is a duffel style handbag made of Italian cotton canvas with Teflon coating for protection. Most handbag fans will notice a similarity to the hard to find Coach Side Pocket Satchel, and at $145.95 (56% off) it is another great deal.

Here is a huge bag, which happens to be a huge deal: The Key West Reese
Dimensions: 15 3/4″ wide x 5 1/2″ deep x 10″ high. Link to Bag.

Yet another fantastic seasonal print on Italian cotton canvas with glazed leather trim. The shoulder drop is 8 ½”, and it has rounded shoulder straps for comfort. This lovely lady has been marked down to just $114.95 (68% percent off.)

And finally, here is a smaller bag for people who prefer clutches: The Ibiza Shirley
Available in pink or yellow. Dimensions: 10″ wide x 1″ deep x 5″ high. Link to Bag.

There has been some debate on this site about butterflies being a “trend”. But, seriously, can a species of insects really go out of style? Butterflies are like cockroaches, they’ll be around forever, but unlike cockroaches they’ll be featured on our accessories for decades to come. At least, I hope a designer doesn’t put out a cockroach purse. The bag sells for $82.95 (58% off).

Once Zappos.com sells out of these styles, they won’t get anymore. I hope you enjoy these great deals before they are gone!

I’ve come to the sad and dire conclusion that my love for handbags is utterly not affordable. If I could, I would buy a new bag each and everyday. Problem with that is the lack of funds. Because of this, I feel like joining my lil bro in his quest to win the lotto. His ultimate goal in life right now (he’s a male, it happens) is to win the lotto and live on the beach forever. As of now, he hasn’t won and is still wishing one of us (as in me, my sister, my brother, or my parents) would support him for life in turn for his taking care of the landscaping. Ha. My dad, Mr. “I Work My Ass Off to Provide For my Family” Business man, is thinking No. Brothers are great. While I join him in the quest to win the lotto, I’d still like to buy some stylish bags from time to time.

Many brands are huge right now, and Kooba is one of them. I love the shape of the Kooba Large Sienna Suede Bag. I’ve been searching for another new fall bag and this Kooba bag made of suede with its whipstitch detailing, rounded rivets, and brass hardware really is quite fashionable. Other features include the Kooba lining and side pockets. The dimensions are 13″ L x 7″ W x 9 1/2″ H. The bag is wallet-friendly enough that I don’t have to hit the lotto to buy it, but still is chic enough that I’d love to wear it. The bag can be purchased through Bergdorf Goodman for $595.

Thanks Heavensent for the tip!

I received a somewhat random email from Grace (if you are out there, feel free to reply and say hello!) with a link to this cute little clutch. I’m glad she sent it, for whatever reason, because I think it’s super cute! The Fiona Lambskin Clutch is simplistic with a touch of style. The clutch is made of red lambskin and has a focal point with its gold plated ring and its embossed leather ties. The inside is lined with black bengaline lining. You can access the top by its snap which both opens and closes the cute little bag. Measuring 6″ x 10″ and not costing an exorbitant amount like many other bags we feature, this clutch is available through Wrapables for $129.95.

I knew that the blogosphere would be all over this one. Thanks to the good folks at Boing Boing and several other techie news related blogs, this fantastically unique creation lit up my Mac’s RSS newsreader. Unfortunately, it appears to be just a design feature to tease the nerd masses, no production in sight. Still uber cool beyond belief, held in recycled plastic keys and what seems to be a canvas lining on the inside. CTRL-ALT-DEL, anyone?

We are both really pleased how quickly and wonderfully our Purse Forum has evolved since its recent launch roughly two weeks ago. We have great people participating in many threads with way over 500 posts so far. Props people, great work!

However, we know that there’s a great amount of potential contributers who silently lurk in the background. Whether it’d be close to 2,000 bookmarkers who hit our purse blog on a daily basis or the steadily increasing number of folks who syndicated our RSS feed with their newsreaders, there is still tons of knowledge that is yet to be tapped or questions to be directed towards our forum members. Sure, many don’t participate in online communities for whatever reason, perhaps little free time, shyness or whatever else may hold you back. Yet, I believe there is still plenty of lads and ladies who just don’t know how to work that darned thing! The internet can be a tad tricky, I reckon. Thus, I’ve compiled detailed instructions on how to get postin’ below!

A great start is to register at the Purse Forum! In order to contribute information or seek answers to your questions, this is an absolute must. All you need is a working email address and a nickname of your choice. Once you fill out the registration info and submit it, you will need to check your email and click the confirmation link to activate your account. We use this feature to make sure we deal with real human registrations and not sneaky, exploitive script bots.

Without registering with our vBulletin forum program, you will certainly get the following access permission error when trying to reply to threads or create some of your own:

Registering will take care of that message for you.

Now that we’ve registered and confirmed your email address, you are ready to roll! Once you navigate to the forum’s main index, you are faced with a selection of 5 sub-forums that you can post in – the 6th one is a read-only forum with the rules and guidelines for our community, most of which are pretty straight forward and self-explanatory. Still, you should take a peak at what the do’s and don’ts are at the PF.

Let’s just jump right into the General discussion and see what we can do! The rows of links you see are called threads. Threads are started by forum members with topics they want to share with the readers. You can freely post threads in our forums, but please make sure your topic relates to the sub-forum that it’s posted in. The thread listing of a sub-forum also shows you the popularity of the thread by displaying its views and posted responses – makes it easy for you to keep up with the hot topics.

See the New Thread button?

Click it and you get to the text editor that allows you to define a title for your thread and the actual body of your message. Don’t worry about all the additional features and text attributes yet, I will get to that later. Once you are done compiling your message, click the Submit New Thread button and you’ve successfully posted a thread. Voila! As easy as that.

Clicking on any thread in the thread listing, you will soon realize that the thread-starting post is listed first, followed by all the replies in ascending order – oldest first. Want to contribute your own reply to a thread? Not a problem – hit the

button and you get to the same interface that allows you to start threads. Very easy, isn’t it? Want to reply directly to someone’s prior post? Hit the

button and a quote of the earlier post will be included in your reply.

In addition, the Purse Forum has the Quick Reply feature enabled, allowing you to swiftly add your two valuable cents to an ongoing discussion. Just scroll down the thread, click your mouse cursor into the text field, type your reply and hit Post Quick Reply.

That is it for the basic online forum how-to! Was not all that bad, was it? I hope this cleared up some of the issues that may have held you back from registering and contributing to our fantastic community. Should you encounter any more questions, feel free to email me at vlad[at]purseblog.com or simply use the old comment function to formulate your questions below. Tomorrow I will talk more in-depth about the advanced functions and abilities of our Purse Forum.