There may be deals that you should not miss out on! Gilt is having their Accessories Final Sale which will have handbags, shoes, and more for prices up to 90% off retail. We have all seen 50% off, even 60% off, but 90%?? That is crazy! Starts at Noon EST today.
I’m not a big makeup girl. If you open my bag you will find a tube of chapstick and lip gloss. That is why I do not need a large cosmetic case. And that is also why I adore the Prada Small Vela Cosmetic Case, it is cute and perfect for to throw into your handbag with your makeup essentials. The other major perk is that it is made with Prada nylon, which is easy to clean up any spills. The size, 6½”W X 3″H X 1½”D, is ideal if you want to take some makeup with your for everyday use without it weighing down your bag. I checked my local Prada boutique, Saks, and Neiman Marcus for pink nylon and none of them carried it. Buy through Saks for $150.
With all the recent news about swine flu, everyone has clean hands on their mind. We use our hands all day everyday. There was a recent study that is not entirely shocking but rather disturbing. I am going to go out on a limb and say that most handbag lovers on Purse Blog and Purse Forum are entirely conscious of keeping their bags clean and off the ground. Either way, our hands pick up germs everyday and our handbags are on the receiving end of man-handling our most prized accessories. So keep your hands clean and your handbags in turn may stay a bit cleaner. The other other advice given is to wipe down your bag with a sanitizing wipe and not place your bag on the ground. What do you think?
We wanted to find out what kind of germs a woman’s bag might pick up along the course of a day. A lab tested more than two dozen handbags for traces of various bacteria. Even the scientist who conducted the tests was surprised at what she found.
“I had no idea that it would be that much bacteria,” said microbiologist Amy Karren of Nelson Labs.
This was not just the harmless kind of bacteria you find around your house, this was the kind that makes you sick.
“We found pseudomonas, staphylococcus aureus, E-coli family and salmonella”, she said.
Pseudomonas can cause eye infections, staph aureus can cause skin infections and E-coli and salmonella can cause serious intestinal problems.
The test found leather or vinyl purses were generally cleaner than cloth bags and women with kids tend to have dirtier purses than singles.
If this bag was made to appeal to anyone in particular, it was made to appeal to someone like me. I like buckles, I like industrial stuff, and I like copious amounts of black leather in whatever texture it may come. And just in case anyone was wondering – no, this does not extrapolate out to my personal life.
But the Jimmy Choo Bardia Shoulder Bag just isn’t doing it for me, and it’s mostly because the whole idea for the bag seems a little bit half-baked. Instead of really playing with the idea of a bag inspired by industrial style, it looks like the folks at Jimmy Choo merely took a really boring black hobo and but some nonfunctional buckles and straps on the sides. At best, it looks like a bit of an afterthought and at worst, it looks totally contrived. With so many outstanding bags of a similar style on the market for fall, Choo is going to have to try harder next time. Buy through Saks for $1750.
Doesn’t it seem like a million years since we saw the last season of Project Runway? Anyone remember who won that season? It was Leanne Marshall, the the mousy Pacific Northwesterner that made clothes with lots and lots of wave-like ruffles. Part of her prize for winning the competition was that she would make a collection to be distributed through BlueFly.com, and apparently she finally got around to doing that!
The collection hit BlueFly yesterday and it’s a rather limited line of skirts, tops, and dresses, some of which include Leanne’s signature wave motif. Prices for the items range from under $100 for t-shirts to almost a thousand for the evening gown that we have pictured here. I don’t mean to be a hater, but for how long it took Leanne to get this stuff released, it’s not all that exciting. Most of the pieces are perfectly serviceable and wearable, which is nice, but the limited range of colors and styles is disappointing, considering Leanne’s considerable talent. One nice aspect of the line, though, is that it’s eco-friendly; it looks like her speech about sustainable design practices on the season finale wasn’t just a lot of hot air. Buy through Bluefly for $98-$990.
Ever look at a bag and just think, “Uh, no,” before you can even really decide why you reacted like that? That was the case when I laid eyes upon the Dolce & Gabbana Miss Lexington Satchel. On the surface, there’s nothing obviously offensive about this bag – it’s not covered in glitter or tie-dye or massive amounts of fringe. In fact, it’s fairly subdued and, with some slight tweaks, could be a great everyday bag.
But the proportion is the problem. Instinctively, you know it when you look at the bag, because your brain is programmed to pick up on it. It takes a second longer to consciously realize when you’re being apprehensive, but the size and shape of this bag in relation to the size and shape of its handle is just…off. The handle is too narrowly set and would be better if it was a bit longer and attached a bit further toward the edges of the bag (and it also looks like intestines, but that’s a different issue entirely). Or, alternately, if the handle was as it is now and the bag wasn’t quite so wide in relation to its height. I’d opt to change the handle, though, since I don’t like its wrinkly, shrinky-dink current incarnation. Then this bag would be fairly awesome. Buy through Nordstrom for $2150.
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.
Our fabulous intern Anna had the chance to meet with Tory Burch last month for an intimate preview and discussion with Tory herself. While Vlad and I could not make the event, Tory Burch sent us some of her favorite bags from her new collection to review. Let me start off by saying that the bags we received were not some of the Tory Burch logo bags I have come to expect. Beyond pleasantly surprised when I opened the box, I found a new appreciation and love for Tory Burch bags.
Tory Burch and Palmilla have partnered together to offer an incredible summer giveaway. Enter daily and the prizes include a Tory Burch prize along with the grand prize, a Tory Burch Wardrobe and 4 night getaway at the Palmilla Resort in Cabo. This is a great way to celebrate summer! You can enter everyday to increase your chances of winning.
It’s here, it’s here, IT’S HERE!!!! The Alexander Wang Coco Duffel has decided to finally, FINALLY grace us with its presence in online stores after months of rabid anticipation from handbag enthusiasts. The bag first came to our attention months and months ago when one of its first iterations was worn repeatedly by Mary-Kate Olsen, who had obviously been gifted with a very, very early version of the bag by the designer.
And it was a brilliant move on Alexander Wang’s part – I can’t remember another bag that’s been so desperately hunted since the It-Bag heyday of Fall 2005. It disappears online virtually as soon as it’s posted, so the ShopBop link I’m about to give you may not work when you click on it. If you want the bag, though, bookmark it – that’s where you’ll be able to find it when the store restocks, as they have several times in the past day or two.
As far as the bag’s design goes, I adore it – the leather is plush and soft-looking with a ton of texture and the multitudes of gold studs that cover the bottom are both hilariously irreverent and really cool-looking. It’s not for everyone, by any stretch of the imagination, but bags with a lot of style and personality never are. Plus, for an It-Bag, the price is really reasonable; he could be charging twice as much and a lot of people would still be clamoring for it. Buy through ShopBop for $850.
