In The Press

Thanks to all of you, we have won the Glam Network Award for Best in Shopping for 2009!! With all of your votes and help, we have won three years in a row now. We have loved the journey Purse Blog has taken; from having only friends and family reading, to having hundreds reading, to having thousands reading. We will continue to bring you fresh content, from designer interviews to giveaways to images, and continue to modify what we do to keep things fresh for our readers. A very special thank you from the growing Purse Blog team to all of you!!

♥ Megs, Vlad, Shannon, and Amanda

Also, check out all of the other fabulous Glam Network Award winners at Glam.com.

How could this week be any better? Vlad flies back from Germany today, tomorrow is Thanksgiving with the family and no work, and today we had a feature in The Miami Herald. We were interviewed for this piece by Kathryn Wexler who met us at our house and had the opportunity to learn more about Purse Blog. Kathryn saw us in our true element, though I did wear a nicer blouse than I typically walk around the house/office in and I had a tinge of make up on. I constantly attest to the fact that we are laid back, and Kathryn will agree with this!

The article, A Virtual Purse Party, lets you in on the ins and out of our website and our business. The boxes of bags that come in for us to review and shoot in our photo studio continue to grow, leaving our front entry wall practically impassable. From $300 to $35,000 bags, our office is constantly seeing the latest and greatest from the designer handbag world. But we are a close knit trio, me and Vlad and my sister. We know the latest and greatest from the fashion world and the runways, but choose to wear jeans and tee shirt and rock out an amazing bag. Kathryn Wexler depicts our story, how our site started, and where our site is going perfectly. Welcome all the new South Florida readers!! And a special thank you to The Miami Herald and Kathryn for the piece.

Article found online at The Miami Herald.

Read the full article...

Our latest press has everyone at Purse Forum very excited! Vlad had been working with Amanda Kwan from the Associated Press on a story about authenticating handbags online. The verdict on the place to go: Purse Forum. Around 1.35 million handbag addicts flock to our forum monthly to discuss handbags and so much more. But early on we saw the need to have areas designated for handbag authentication help. With the help of knowledgeable members and collectors, designated Authenticate This threads have been viewed and updated daily helping members deduce if a bag they are eying is real or fake. While no one guarantees their advice, these threads have ended up helping thousands of people from being scammed and helped thousands of people get a great deal.

We first noticed the story publish on MSNBC, but that was not the end of it. The story has been published nearly fifteen times, and even better, spoken about by two anchors on 13WHAM in Rochester, NY, a subsidiary of ABC News. A special thanks to Amanda Kwan from Associated Press for putting this story together and two all who have helped our forum become the best place on the web to help those who are unsure realize if the bag they are about to buy it authentic or fake.

Here is the list of where the story has been published so far: MSNBC, Boston Herald, ABC News, Seattle Times, AOL, Canadian Press, Nola.com, WRAL, Netscape, The Northwestern, Manufacturing.net, TMCnet.com, and Smart Brief.

If you see the story anywhere else (or in your local paper which it should also hit) please do let us know! Read the entire article below.

Read the article below...

Thanks to all of you who voted, for the second consecutive year Purse Blog won the Glam Network Awards for Best in Fashion! We were in a field of about 30 other websites in the Glam network, so this really is a great honor. Thank you again to all who voted. We will continue to bring you the latest and the greatest in the handbag world. Here is the link to the Awards page where you can read about us and the other winners for 2008.

Nico pairs her signature form fitting jackets with a variety of eye-catching handbags, including the funky Kotur Fane Hitchcock Clutch, Kara Ross Python Bag, Cavalli Leopard Shopper, and her Domenico Vacca Alligator Bag. Her use of eye-catching handbags coincides with her desire to add something to her blasé life.

I was approached to be a guest writer on SeenOn!, covering a piece of the handbags on the ladies of Lipstick Jungle. I had to admit, I have been so busy with the move and work that I have not had time to watch as many shows lately. Luckily, I caught up with the show and now I am totally hooked. Between their high powered jobs, steamy sex lives, and fabulous fashion sense who wouldn’t be tuning in every week?!

Read what I had to say about the women of Lipstick Jungle and their handbags at SeenOn!

As our website and forum continue to grow (and become one of the most active forums on the web!), we are receiving more recognition in the international press. Lara Mai Landa wrote a piece for Elle Canada titled Online Shopping Guide which covers some of the great online boutiques and our website and forum.

Thank you to Lara for putting the piece together and for all of you, our members and readers, for making our site what it is today! We will continue to do our best to keep The Purse Blog one of the most visited fashion blogs today.

SHOPPING AIDS:

The Purse Forum is where die-hard worshippers assemble to discuss all things handbag. Be it a lively debate over the latest “it bag,” verifying a handbag’s authenticity on ebay, or asking for help choosing a purse from other like-minded enablers, TPF is handbag heaven. College sweethearts Megs and Vlad (Meaghan Mahoney and Vladimir Dusil) founded the site in 2005 after meeting on swimming scholarships. Of special note: www.purseblog.com where Megs features the latest and greatest handbag discoveries. Be sure to check out the sub-forums for in-depth deconstruction of your favourite brands. Best of all, (not to mention highly dangerous to the wallet) the “Deals and Steals” forum proves a godsend for finding great sales and killer coupon codes.

Article found at Elle Canada here.

Recently, Vlad was interviewed by USA Today about our take on the designer handbag rental websites. While the idea seems great, it is something we realize that does not appeal to our readers and our members. The fact of the matter is, handbag aficionados want to own their bags first and have them as part of a growing collection. Thank you again to Maria for the interview!

“Our ladies are just too picky — they’re collectors, and they want the sensation of owning the bags,” say Vlad and Meaghan of Fort Lauderdale, co-founders of PurseBlog.com. “Many are repelled by the idea of another woman’s fingerprints or stains or germs.”

Read the entire article at USA Today or see below!

While our site reads “Shallow Obsessing Strongly Encouraged“, there is so much more to the people of Purse Blog and Purse Forum. Boasting over 68,000 registered members, The Purse Forum is one of the fastest growing and most active communities on the web. Nestled in the vast forum are sub-forums upon sub-forums of members. These members have congregated because of their passion for handbags yet in the end have formed much more. Many have met others and become great friends, while groups of members are enjoying meeting up to shop and eat. This past spring a group of Hermes members did just that, resulting in a fabulous weekend and a feature in the New York Times. Christine Muhlke from the New York Times met with the Hermes ladies to see a little bit into their world. Yesterday in a special style section of the NYT was an alluring article about some of the women behind the Hermes group. For a fun read about our amazing Hermes Forum please check out the article at NYT!

Special thanks to all of the ladies who participated and Christine for featuring the fabulous members of our forum!

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Believe it or not, one of the ultra-exclusive Louis Vuitton Tribute Patchwork Bags is making its way into the nation’s capital. A super elite LV customer has ordered the $52,500 which is set to appear later this season. Ylan Q. Mui of the Washington Post interviewed me for her article, Exclusive Status: It’s in The Bag. Read the article below, and thanks again to Ylan!

Forget your Coach purse. Put away your Kate Spade. Even Hermes’s famous Birkin bag seems positively discount.

The Louis Vuitton Tribute Patchwork is this summer’s ultimate status bag, ringing in at $52,500. And it is arriving in Washington by the end of the season, ordered by a woman whose circumstances and identity the company has ever so politely (again and again) declined to disclose.

…

Some fashion followers, however, feel that history should not be sliced, diced and rearranged into one purse.

“Limited-edition handbags give us purse fanatics something to drool over, to lust after, to want,” said Meaghan Mahoney of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who writes the Purse Blog. “But there comes a time when no matter how limited something is, no matter how much fuss goes behind it . . . the product just plain old sucks.”

Still, Mahoney said she would relish the opportunity to see the Tribute Patchwork with her own eyes.

“At least that way, those who are lucky enough to see the handbag in person will gain instant bragging rights,” she said. “After all, the bag is not much more than bragging material by itself.”

Read the entire article at Washington Post.

Image via Forbes

Big news in the handbag world. Chanel has announced the newest limited edition and highly coveted handbag. With only 13 available worldwide, this handbag sits upon the accessory throne as one of the most expensive luxury handbags in the world. The Chanel Diamond Forever Classic Bag will debut in December adorned with 3.56 carats made up of 334 diamonds, 18 carat white gold hardware, and white alligator skin. Five of these ostentatious handbags will be available in the states. The price tag on this number is a staggering $261,000. Yes the price is sky high, but these bags are masterpieces, works of art. With only 13 being made, owning one would be similar to an art collector owning a Picasso.

Let’s discuss: Is this bag worth the price? If you owned it would you carry it or think of it as a piece of art? Who do you think will be one of the lucky 13?

Following up with her first article on the World’s Most Extravagant Handbags, Hitha Prabhakar at Forbes interviewed me again for this article. Article and exclusive pictures below!

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