Prada Handbags and Purses

Looks like our friends at Rue La La are listening to our every want and need: they are filling their boutiques with designer handbags. Almost hidden within the other offerings, the European Luxury Renaissance boutique from Rue added both Fendi and Prada bags. I am more of a Prada girl than Fendi, and these cool Prada Python Bowler Bags caught my eye.

The prices are marked down nearly $1,000 on each bag, which is quite nice considering all of these bags are easy to consider classics. Each Prada bag features exotic python skin in a variety of different colors, my vote personally goes to purple. → Read More

Hands down, Prada has designed my favorite line for spring. The brand’s throwback designs infuse touches of Cadillac cars and flames reminiscent of the movie Grease. Prada’s shoes have wowed me and I can’t stop thinking about the entire collection. In fact, if someone threw me $20,000 just for funsies, I might spend it all in one place, and that place is Prada.

I have held back posting about this collection from a purely selfish standpoint, I practically hoarded all Prada items in my saved browser tabs so I could stare at them daily and figure out how to buy them all. The shoes may very well be the best part of the offerings and this is largely because of their flame detail and tail lights. No seriously, you read that right – flames and tail lights. While it sounds entirely kitschy, Prada has pulled this off so amazingly I feel like I am jumping for fashion joy.

The Prada Flame Wedge Sandals may not be my favorite shoe from the line, but when I was perusing Eleni’s cookie store in Chelsea Market this week I realized I am not the only person having a full-blown Prada love affair. → Read More

Images via Vogue.com

This may sound a tad odd, but I’m consistently impressed with Prada’s dedication to designing quirky, intellectually rigorous, thoroughly modern runway collections that won’t sell particularly well to anyone other than slavish fashion devotees. Few companies of a similar size are willing to put things as broadly inaccessible as Prada Fall 2012 down the runway, and that continued bravery is something that gives me a great deal of respect for Miuccia Prada as a creative force.

Whether you like these bags will hinge largely on whether or not you find Prada’s signature retro-modernism enchanting. I do, so the loud 60s prints and even larger gemstone embellishments on trim, minimal bags were right up my alley. The tiny embellished minaudieres with leather shoulder straps were another odd highlight; I don’t think I’ve ever seen bags with quite that combination of elements, which says a lot when you consider that I spend 40-60 hours per week looking at handbags. Another treat? Unlike most designers, Miuccia paired every single look in this show with a corresponding handbag. If only more brands would get on board with that idea. → Read More

Images via Fashionista.com

We love a good ad campaign around these parts. Because most brands rely on accessories (as well as cosmetics and fragrance) to make ends meet, ads often put the bags and leather goods that we’re most interested in seeing front and center in a way that the runway never does. Prada’s ads are always reliably lovely, and the campaign for Prada Spring 2012 features my favorite of the collection’s runway bags – the framed satchel!

You have two eyes, so I’m sure you can tell that these photos were shot at a service station as an homage to the 1950s greasers and car culture that inspired the clothes. Fashionista.com tells us that Steven Meisel shot five models for the campaign, most notably Natasha Poly, and the results are good, clean Americana fun. Check out two more shots after the jump. → Read More

Prada Raso Jeweled Clutch, $2100 via Neiman Marcus

With Prada, resort collections are always a good indication of what’s coming when spring debuts, and the cutesy appliques on some of Prada’s Resort 2012 bags certainly belie the flames and cars we saw on the Prada spring runway. Among those very style-specific bags, though, are a few that will likely have a much broader audience.

My favorite of the group is the Prada Raso Jeweled Clutch above, which follows in the footsteps of previous Prada evening bags and covers its entire front flap in shiny, sparkly goodness. We have a sampling of the collection’s other distinctive bags after the jump, plus their price and purchase information. Not all of them have twee appliques, we promise. (Although we kind of like the lip bag? Maybe? A little bit?) → Read More

Images via Fashionista.com

Handbag lovers often get the shaft on the runway, but when it comes time to move some product and keep the company in the black (namely, ad season), brands are all about giving us lots of pretty pictures of exactly what we want to see. If you needed any convincing of that fact, just take a look at Prada‘s new Resort 2012 ads from the lovely ladies of Fashionista.com.

The shots, featuring model Lea Seydoux, at times literally feature more clutches than one person can hold. There’s great variety among the bags too – bright exotics, ruched leather flap bags, bejeweled box clutches. If you don’t look closely, you might miss a great piece, but don’t stop at the bags. Prada’s brand new jewelry line, launching next month, is also represented heavily. And are those a couple of Prada Bear Bag Tricks that I see? More photos and a behind-the-scenes video, after the jump. → Read More

Images via Fashionista.com

You guys, it’s Friday. May I repeat for everyone who’s glazed over in front of the computer at work: IT’S FRIDAY. So it’s time to have some fun, ok? Today, I’d like to do that with these images from our friends at Fashionista.com of the latest and greatest Prada Tricks, which is what the company calls its absolutely adorable bag charms, which are often ursine (Fancy word for bear-like, y’all. Haven’t used that one since the SATs.) in nature.

Fashionista scanned these images out of the new Prada Gifts lookbook, which is why they’re a tad wonky, but these little guys and gals are totally awesome nonetheless. From a thinly veiled take on Axl Rose to bears dressed as crystal-studded robots, these are the kind of whimsical, silly little things that I actually would hang from my bag with a great deal of joy. Fashionista estimates that they’ll cost around $150, and we’ll update you when they become available. Check out the rest of the Tricks in the gallery after the jump. → Read More

Images via Vogue.com

I have a few favorite days of the year: Christmas, Halloween, the first day of college football and New Prada Day. Luckily, New Prada Day comes twice a year (or four times, if you count Resort and Pre-Fall, which I do if I’m feeling desperate), and one of those days was yesterday! Naturally, Miuccia didn’t disappoint – Prada Spring 2012 was playful, feminine and incredibly smart.

Prada’s bags tend to ground her more fanciful and esoteric collections, and although this was an relatively accessible line that didn’t need as much grounding as past seasons, the bags were still classic Miuccia. Glossy, structured satchels on a ladylike scale were given counterpart in crocodile clutches with elaborate midcentury hardware reminiscent of chrome automotive fixture from the era. If you’d rather go the extremely literal route, there are also a couple of clutches with leather cars stitched onto them. Check out the full gallery after the jump. → Read More