Proenza Schouler Blanket Print PS1, $2290 via Net-a-Porter

I’ve had Proenza Schouler on my list as the next bag to add to my collection for quite some time, but since I made that decision, I’ve spent months dithering over exactly which bag to get. It seems like every new bag that Proenza releases is something I would kill to have in my closet, which makes actually taking the plunge a rather fraught thing to do. Sure, I adore the PS11 right now, but buying Proenza is sort of like buying an Apple product – should I get the awesome thing that I really want right now, or should I wait six months and see what kind of exponentially-more-awesome thing the brand will surely come up with? Big problems, these.

That’s why Megs and I write about nearly every version of the Proenza Schouler PS1 that comes out; I can’t speak for her, but I’m almost always driven to lust by each one of them. Lust and confusion, which is where I’m at right now with the Proenza Schouler Blanket-Print PS1, brand new for Fall 2011. I thought I wanted a PS11?

Our community PurseForum is teaming up with Rebecca Minkoff in a project the likes of which handbag lovers have never seen before. Starting tomorrow, Monday the 10th of October, PurseForum.com will launch a three-week collaboration that will not only have fans vote on design elements to create an exclusive Rebecca Minkoff bag, but also allow the fans to be an integral part of the design process. This means the finished product will be a new shape and style from the Rebecca Minkoff team that was designed by way of direct user commentary from PurseForum.com members.

The entire three-week process will be hosted on PurseForm.com, so make sure you are a registered member of tPF so you can partake in the voting and design of this bag, which will walk down the runway in February at New York Fashion Week! You can’t tell by this post, but I am seriously jumping out of my seat with excitement over such an amazing project!!

Read all about it on tPF HERE!

To start off our new category, Purseonals, I decided to review my Louis Vuitton Damier Ebene Speedy 30cm. I bought this bag a couple years ago to complete my small Speedy collection of a 35cm, 30cm, and 25cm. The Speedy is one of the most iconic handbags in the world and so popular that many of you probably own at least one as well.

Images via Vogue.com

It must be difficult to take over a storied and iconic brand like Hermes, particularly for a designer like Christophe Lemaire, whose most high-profile gig before taking the reins of the French luxury giant was the top spot at Lacoste. Those are two very different posts, but Lemaire has managed to incorporate his own brand of crisp sportswear into the Hermes identity reasonably well. He’s not a showman like Jean Paul Gaultier, but if that’s what Hermes had wanted, they probably would have stuck with him.

If I could make one little request, though, it would be to see Birkins and Kellys on the runway. Hermes Spring 2012 didn’t have any, and with handbags playing such an integral role in the brand’s success, it would be nice to have a more public look at what Lemaire can do with the Hermes’ most iconic products. As Gaultier showed us for all those years, they make an excellent canvas for invention.

Images via Vogue.com

While cutting the photos for yesterday’s post about Louis Vuitton’s Spring 2012 runway bags, I almost missed this little darling. Cutting photos is mind-bendingly tedious work, and it’s easy to glaze over and become something of a Photoshop robot while in the process, particularly for a show as handbag-heavy as Vuitton‘s. Just before I went into full zombie mode, though, I realized that a lone model wasn’t carrying a bag at all, but instead a Louis Vuitton Flask.

But this wasn’t the only flask to make an appearance on the Paris runways. Hermes showed one too, and it had a neck strap so that you wouldn’t get sauced and lose it. How convenient! For a photo of that one (and a Friday-appropriate discussion of all the designer boozing to be done), you have to make the jump.

Congrats to our winner, Shana Levin!!

When Vlad and I visited the Botkier showroom last week, the bag that neither of us could take our eyes off of was the new Small Eden Satchel valued at $495. Monica sent me home with one myself and I can not stop singing its praises. The supple lambskin is absolutely luscious and the colorblocking adds a current spin on a classic shape.

Before the bag is available to anyone else, we’re partnering with Botkier to give one away to a lucky PurseBlog reader. The winner will be able to pick the color combination of her choice (all shown above).