Yesterday morning I woke up to a handful of congratulatory emails for our mention and quote in Women’s Wear Daily. While I knew this piece would come out at some point, I had no idea when. Talk about a nice way to start off the week.

About two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to speak to Women’s Wear Daily about accessories firms and their social media involvement. Social Media has taken a crucial, supportive role for our Purse Blog brand, as we have active Twitter and Facebook accounts that allow us to directly connect to our readers.

Like virtually all fashion bloggers, more and more designers and fashion houses are actively present on Facebook and Twitter. Some of our favorite designers to follow on Twitter include Louis Vuitton, BCBG, DKNY, Tory Burch, Diane von Furstenberg, and Rebecca Minkoff. On Facebook, the most active fashion fan page belongs to Coach, who partnered with us to exclusively preview the upcoming Kristin line.

Some designers and representatives approached the social media world with trepidation, but are now flocking to join social media sites to reach out to clientele and fans. Just as independent blogging changed the way information is shared and delivered globally, social media is enabling big corporations to connect to the marketplace. As we continue to see designers and companies embrace this new age media, expect more customer-to-designer interaction, which is just what most are looking for – customers and designers alike.

Here is the part of the article we are mentioned and quoted in. For the full article visit WWD.

Firms also are linking up to popular fashion blogs, such as Bagsnob.com and Purseblog.com. These forums often help spread a new handbag trend or have been known to discover talent. Designer Jessie Randall of Loeffler Randall attributed her company’s success to the exposure she gained from these sites. [...]

While brands at the luxury level have generally taken longer to link in, Meaghan Dusil, who started Purseblog.com four years ago, said she’s been contacted recently by high-end firms looking to pitch stories or send samples. The 210,000-member forum partnered with Bottega Veneta on an “exclusive” day that featured styles entirely by the line.

“People are looking to feel close to designers,” Dusil said. “I see a lot of passion, especially when buying handbags. People think a lot about designers, and being able to read about them and get to know them is great. Why not give a customer what you’re channeling for next season?

We will be leaking information on our next fabulous giveaway on Facebook today before we announce it on PurseBlog. Make sure you fan us to learn a bit about the giveaway before the rest of the world!

I am going to go ahead and speak for the entire Purse Blog team when I say, this is a great Tuesday. I’ve said it before, but collaborations are the best! And today, I get to share with you yet another amazing, I mean, super amazing collaboration we’ve started. This time, we are working with the oh so posh and glamorous Beverly Hills Lifestyle Magazine!

I was beyond thrilled to hear about the opportunity to partner with this fashion forward magazine. Anything and everything related to fashion can be found in this magazine. You don’t have to be a resident of the Beverly Hills area to appreciate the magazine. In fact, this is the kind of magazine that will set trends, set the tone and show you everything you need to know about fashion. As you can imagine, we are in love! Head over to Beverly Hills Magazine to check out not only what they have to offer but also how we are involved (pay attention to pages 12, 58-59). We hope you enjoy this partnership as much as you do!

♥ 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.

Meaghan Mahoney is awaiting her next batch of buttery Salvatore Ferragamo satchels. The bumpy croc shoulder bags by Nancy Gonzalez shouldn’t be far behind.

Right now, she’s got all manner of purses by Treesje, Hayden-Harnett, Elliott Lucca and Linea Pele piled up in her Fort Lauderdale townhouse. The python and ostrich bags by Kempt were just shipped back.

Mahoney is a purse fiend. Luckily for her, she’s found a way to make a living out of her habit.

In 2005, when she was finishing college at Ohio State and her handbag lust was more hobby than obsession, Mahoney and then-boyfriend Vlad Dusil bought the URL for purseblog.com. She filled it with tips on buying discount handbags online and renting them from sites like bagborroworsteal.com.

Four months later, Yahoo! chose her site as Blog of the Day. And Mahoney awoke to find that 300 daily readers had ballooned to 20,000 overnight.

”We realized if we put more effort into this, we could really make it grow,” said Mahoney, 25, now married to Dusil.

“I never thought it would be my full-time job.”

But as one of the most successful handbag blogs out there, with 1.9 million hits a month, according to its owners, Mahoney has hired her sister, Shannon, to help write and manage the site.

Connoisseurs of ultra-luxe handbags have flocked to online forums like purseblog.com, including baglist.com, bagforum.com, bagtrends.com, whatshauteblog.com and bagbliss.com.

Fashion and handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff, whom Mahoney and Dusil have befriended, attests to the power of such sites.

”I attribute a large growth of my business to those blogs,” Minkoff said. “What I liked about Megs and Vlad is they’re more personal and they have such a passion for it.”

The site that has made ”Megs and Vlad” virtually famous contains chatty dispatches with a chummy, girlfriend-to-girfriend appeal. The blog is light, and reads like the diary of a woman whose biggest worry is that her Jimmy Choo Zulu clutch has gone missing.

”Today I find myself laying in bed with my laptop watching Regis and Kelly and not feeling like starting the day,” Mahoney wrote recently. To distinguish their site from the numerous competitors, the Mahoney sisters interview designers and post the interactions online. They also lobby designers to send their latest handbags, which Dusil shoots in his new home studio.

”We’re trying to really showcase the craftsmanship,” said Dusil, 28, who handles the technology and marketing for the site.

To get those interviews and those samples — almost all of which they must return — purseblog.com must play nice.

Shannon, 26, recently reviewed a Bottega Veneta she wasn’t crazy about: “Don’t the toggles remind you of those spice drop candies?”

Bagsnob.com, had this to say about the same bag: “toggles as if for a traveling clown? . . . This just shows poor taste and lack of creativity.”

The online Megs is remarkably like the actual Megs: polite, understated, unpretentious. On this day, she pads around the townhouse in Paige jeans, a Theory blouse and Unisa sandals. She doesn’t bother with pedicures or highlights.

”We’re pretty low-key,” Mahoney said.

The couple is not what you’d expect in a world where Valentino-crazed collectors circle designer bag offerings on eBay like sharks. The typical visitor to the purseforum at purseblog.com can authenticate a Fendi spy bag handbag based on the ridges in a rivet or the hue of teal leather.

Mahoney is the first to admit she wasn’t born into this esoteric clique, but found her way slowly, years after her very first designer handbag purchase in college, a monogram Louis Vuitton Wapity clutch.

So when readers this summer urged her to blog about her own handbag collection, she did so with trepidation. Her cache of about 40 then (she now has more than 60) included an Hermès Blue Jean Birkin at a cost of $8,000 (an expenditure that immediately induced a stomachache). But Mahoney knew that plenty of her readers wouldn’t be bowled over — Birkin or no Birkin.

”I was very insecure,” she said. “People on our forum have hundreds of bags.”

When Dusil posted the photos he’d taken, indeed some readers sniffed.

‘They said, `you’re supposed to be the purse queen and that’s it?’ Even though it’s $60,000 worth of bags,” Dusil said. “People just like to be nasty about it.”

But the couple — more than anybody — understands the handbag elitism they’ve fostered and nurtured.

And they certainly don’t expect to compete.

”A diamond-encrusted Hermès bag is $180,000,” Dusil said. “We don’t operate in that realm.”

”Nor,” Mahoney added, “can we afford to.”

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.

NEW YORK – It was the peeling hologram sticker in her new Fendi bag that made Chrys Reyna suspicious.

She wasn’t able to afford the black leather bag’s $1,100 retail price, so when she bought it on eBay for $415, she considered it a triumph in bargain shopping. It was only through a Web site designed to spot counterfeits that she realized she’d bought “a really high-quality five-star fake.”

In an increasingly troubled economy, shoppers who used to be able to afford luxury goods are turning to third-party retailers that promise big discounts. But these amazing savings aren’t always the real deal, and some consumers are using the Internet to police them.

Counterfeit products have cost the U.S. economy between $200 billion and $250 billion each year, according to recent estimates from the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration and customs enforcement branch.

Major online auction sites such as eBay say they police their listings, but with millions of new auctions added each day, many buyers unknowingly spend hundreds on shoddy replicas.

“There’s no way we can have an authentication service for every category,” eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said.

That’s where The Purse Forum, a popular online message board, wants to lend a hand. An offshoot of The Purse Blog, a handbag enthusiast site with the motto “Shallow Obsessing Strongly Encouraged,” the board encourages buyers to post photos of purchases they’d like to make.

“We realized early on that there was a lot of counterfeiting going around the eBay marketplace” and other online merchants, said Vlad Dusil, the blog’s 28-year-old co-founder. His site lets shoppers post the photos for critiques by other Forum members who may be more knowledgeable about a specific bag.

It was through The Purse Forum that Reyna found the truth about her Fendi bag. She reported the fraud to eBay after she and her fake Fendi seller were unable to settle independently, but the auction site was unable to recover Reyna’s money. EBay has refused to comment on Reyna’s claim, citing privacy agreements.

Reyna now suspects that her other eBay-purchased designer bags are also knockoffs. Altogether, she has spent $1,000.

“In a way, they’re the experts of those bags,” she said, describing the members of the discussion board as “a community that just really loves bags.”

How to spot a fake
Becoming a bag connoisseur takes work, and in some cases, a lot of cash. Rebecca Vanard, 22, is one of seven unpaid moderators for the Louis Vuitton discussions. She uses her own collection of 52 Louis Vuitton bags as references. Vanard began studying the brand’s bags in late 2004, when she noticed an increasing presence of the brand’s Multicolore bags.

“I wondered, ‘How come so many people had them when they were such expensive bags?’” she said.

Louis Vuitton bags are the most researched items on the forum, according to Dusil, who said he created the forum as a favor to his bag-loving fiancee and co-founder, Meaghan Mahoney.

The Vuitton discussion thread has been viewed nearly 1 million times, with 70,000 messages posted. Vanard, a psychology student, sees her posts there as a public service.

“I feel that it’s like a little community where we can all help each other out,” she said. Moderators answer within minutes of most queries and often defer to others for second and third opinions. Any member is allowed to authenticate, but “if you’re wrong on items, people will correct you,” Vanard said.

Juan Mata, 21, a grocery store department manager, spends up to three hours each day helping to confirm authenticity for other members, but said sellers have other ways to sell their fakes.

“Many fall victims of the bait-and-switch scam, where the seller posts pictures of a real bag in the auction, then sends them a fake bag instead,” explained Mata.

EBay said it removed 2.2 million listings of counterfeit items and suspended about 50,000 members in 2007 through its VeRO program, which reports listings of potential knockoffs to their respective designers.

Constance White, eBay’s style director, recommends researching items, checking sellers’ ratings before placing a bid, and asking sellers lots of questions.

“The best sellers are totally transparent,” White said. “If they’re unwilling to answer questions, it’s a red flag.”

Although she’s confident in the collective expertise of The Purse Forum, Reyna doesn’t buy her designer bags on auction sites anymore.

“I go to reputable retailers, like eLuxury, or the boutique itself,” she said. “You know, that way I know it’s real.”

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!

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.

“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

Can’t afford that high-end handbag? Just rent it

You can rent a car and rent a DVD — but rent a handbag?

Thanks to the Internet and Americans’ infatuation with high-end designer handbags, rent-a-bag is a concept that a growing number of women are embracing.

MORE: Get a handle on handbag rental websites

Because who really has closet space for scores of handbags? Why spend the equivalent of a mortgage payment on a bag that might languish in the closet after one season? How do you get the next “It” bag for a special occasion?

Today there are two websites operating in the USA — BagBorrowOrSteal.com and FromBagsToRiches.com — plus at least three in Britain, one in Germany, one in Australia and one in Canada. Although neither U.S. site will say exactly how many, the sites are believed to be renting thousands of bags a month to women all over the country.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: DVD

“It’s a great idea,” says Jennifer MacNeish, 42, of Melrose, Mass., who has rented dozens of bags in the past year from BBOS. “You can spend a lot of money buying handbags, and no matter how fabulous the bag, a month later you want the next one.”

The two sites are differ in some details: BBOS, for instance, has a vintage-bag curator who buys expensive designer bags, such as an Hermès Crocodile Birkin bag available to rent for up to $6,010 a month (to get a new one you have to join a years-long waiting list). FromBagsToRiches also operates a related consignment site, called BagBanco.com, where women can sell their used handbags and get back up to 80% of the sale.

“Women feel empowered” by toting designer brands, says Samuel Mangiere, chairman of FBTR. “It’s not about ownership, it’s about the experience of having a designer bag for even a brief period of time.”

The media coverage has been widespread and laudatory. But some bag blogs, such as PurseBlog.com and BagSnob.com, are not keen on the concept. Among other things, bloggers worry about hygiene, although the sites say bags are routinely cleaned.

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

The sites generally work like this: Browse the bags online, ranging from costly Chanel to more affordable Coach. Click on one (or more) you want to borrow, choose rental by week or by month, and it ships that day or the next. Keep it as long as you like; your credit card will be charged for each extra week or month. After renting, if you want the bag you can buy it, usually at a discount from retail price. Otherwise, send it back and get another one.

“People are trying to replicate celebrity culture — it’s this idea that I can have the bag of the moment for the moment,” says fashion journalist Lesley Scott, who blogs at FashionTribes.com.

Indeed, many women feel guilty about or bored with their bag collections and hate the clutter in their closets, Smith says. “This is a great way for them to enjoy more luxury and still feel good about it.”

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

It’s amazing the girls you can meet on the Internet. It’s a democracy that brings together collectors, fetishists and everyday enthusiasts from around the globe to share their knowledge about, say, meerkats or Churchill. Now even lovers of the world’s most expensive handbags are geeking out.

Purseblog.com is a two-year-old site whose 58,000 forum members chat about Marc, Louis, Jimmy et al. The site’s most elite forum is, naturally, Hermès, where women with handles like H_addict and BirKineSS post their latest purchases, rhapsodize over their dream sacs and go into so much detail about leather and hardware you’d think it was a Dungeons & Dragons site.

Read the rest of the article after the jump!

“Cyclamen only comes in epsom and chèvre,” reads a typical post, “and there are no chèvre Evelynes.”

There’s also a real-time component to the community, like the New Yorkers who hit the Madison Avenue store every Friday; the group that went to Las Vegas, dining at restaurants like the Olive Garden to save money for their higher shared purpose; and the Asian contingent that met in Singapore.

During an early spring weekend, almost 30 of the faithful converged on Manhattan to put a face to the avatar. But first they shopped — some members recognizing one another from their purses. (“I knew that was your Lindy!”) The perky blond Southerners stuck together, as did the women in black, while locals couldn’t help flaunting their relationships with the S.A.’s, or sales assistants, the true keys to the kingdom. (Forum regulars have been scolded by their S.A.’s after posting their purchases, angering the have-nots.)

After scouring the store, SoCal and traceyd adjourned to La Goulue for Champagne. (Out of embarrassment, all of the women interviewed requested that only their screen names be used.)

“We met in the Chloé room,” said SoCal, an attractive 30-something brunette in jeans, heels, a tailored jacket and a crocodile collier de chien bracelet — or C.D.C., as the ladies refer to it. Traceyd, an impeccably maintained Upper East Side boho with a taste for ethnic jewelry, had posted, “Should I give my 16-year-old a Paddy?”

Like others in the forum, traceyd had traded up to Hermès, selling her 50-plus “It” bags to focus on Birkins, which start at $7,000: “I thought if I had a Birkin, that’s all I needed. But it wasn’t.” She now has three Birkins, as well as eight other styles. But, she added, Hermès has made her more selective: “I’ve bought less crap in other areas of my life.”

Though they’d never met F2F, they knew a lot about one another, encouraged by threads like “Do you ever not long for anything else?”

“The people on the blog think the Hermès girls are the most snobby,” SoCal said. And while she acknowledged that the Hermès demographic is older and more educated, she asserted that they’re not a bunch of “trust-fund girls,” just powerful women who happen to have a fetish.

I asked SoCal what she does. “I’m a tenured professor of psychology,” she said with a laugh.

And traceyd is a successful screenwriter. They were joined by an anesthesiologist, a surgeon, a pharmacist, a lawyer, a corporate risk management consultant, another psychologist and a designer from Australia the next evening, at an Upper East Side town house. They weren’t all draped in scarves and enamel bracelets; one wore sweats. In fact, the more they spoke, the more it became clear that they were collectors, not shopaholics — another rabbit hole entirely.

“That’s a 28 in noisette!” one said, checking a Kelly from across the room.

“It’s havane, not black!” another said, showing off her C.D.C. “It matches my ebène Massai!”

But soon their conversations turned to work, parenting, hobbies, the war.

“It’s beyond bags,” said shopmom411, a Berkeleyite whose posts are accompanied by the Epictetus quote “Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.” She added, “This group has opened up my world in a way that nothing else ever has.”

Someone shouted, “Heather’s getting a divorce. What scarf should we buy her?”

For this sisterhood, which is planning a pilgrimage to Paris in ’08, their purses transcend status. “It’s a way of life,” explained Ninja Sue, who bought her 12th bag that day.

Shopmom411 said, “We saw all these women with Birkins on Madison, and I don’t think any of them appreciate what they have.” The gang clucked in disbelief. “Some of us have more bags than the really wealthy people,” she said. “We’re just average ladies with a passion.”

Article via New York Times

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.

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!

It’s never too early to start thinking about your holiday wish list.

Sure to top it this year? Chanel’s “Diamond Forever” tote (pictured left). In December, the company will debut 13 of these diamond and alligator handbags just in time for the holiday shopping crunch. Each is a stepped-up version of the classic Chanel shoulder bag, with the iconic Chanel “Cs” encrusted in a staggering 334 diamonds (a total of 3.56 carats) set in 18-carat white gold. The alligator skin is farmed and treated with a matte finish.

The total cost: $260,150.

While few may actually end up owning this bag, the demand for other high-end handbags has skyrocketed. Online retailer eluxury.com saw sales of luxury handbags (those over $500) increase 11% last year.

“People want to spend their money on frivolous things,” says Pamela Danziger, author of Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need and founder of luxury goods research company Unity Marketing. “[And] handbags definitely fall into that category.”

Scarcity is also driving desire for these totes. Something that is hard to obtain or impossible to find will be more valuable, says Meaghan Mahoney, editor of the daily news and handbag review online site purseblog.com.

“A handbag [such as] the Chanel Diamond Forever bag is more of a collector’s item than something you use on a daily basis,” she says. “Like an exquisite car or a rare painting, it’s the limited availability and high demand that make this handbag more valuable.”

Read the rest at Forbes

A bigger sized picture of this gem attached to the Purse Forum thread linked below!

Recently I was interviewed by the lovely Megan Angelo at Conde Nast Portfolio. She put together an amazing and information filled article on the new luxury fakes in the designer market. It is an interesting read and there are great quizzes to test your knowledge of fakes on the right hand side of the page. The fact of the matter is that those in the world of creating knock offs are getting more and more skilled. Ask a friend if they have been duped into buying a fake, and I bet at least 75% have. Luckily, we all keep learning more and the companies themselves are trying to fight the fake peddling market also.

Via Conde Nast Portfolio.

Read the informative article below!

It was August 2005, less than a year after Antik Denim’s launch, and the jeans manufacturer already had friends in all the right places. Leggy celebs Teri Hatcher, Kylie Minogue, and Cameron Diaz had been photographed in the company’s signature Western-inspired styles. At Kitson, the L.A. shop that pipelined Ugg boots and Von Dutch caps to popularity, $250 Antiks were zipping off the shelves.

But the company was about to discover the downside of infiltrating the in crowd. Antik reps were weaving through the annual Magic fashion trade show in Las Vegas when they came upon a distressing sight: a Chinese manufacturer proudly displaying exact copies of their designs.

“We freaked out,” says Samuel Bellahsen, legal counsel for Antik’s parent company, Blue Holdings. “We made a civil seizure and closed the booth.”

The counterfeiters who flood street markets and websites with fake fashion once preyed solely on Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada—luxury Goliaths owned by multibillion-dollar corporations. But now they’re mimicking this-minute trends from niche designers and forcing companies like Blue Holdings, which did $49 million in sales in 2006, to set aside part of their budget for scrubbing out impostors.

“We’ve spent an enormous amount of resources to fight it,” says Blue Holdings C.O.O. Scott Drake. “These guys that do it, they do it and then lay low for a while, and we think we’re okay.”

Just the day before, Drake got word that ersatz Antiks had turned up among $230 million worth of faux merchandise that police found in a raid of Queens and Brooklyn warehouses. The jeans had been retailing on Manhattan’s Canal Street—historically, a knockoff hotbed—for $45 a pair. “I sigh because it’s a never-ending battle,” he says.

It’s not profits they’re fighting for. Most high-end designers will tell you that phonies don’t significantly detract from sales, simply because their customers don’t make a habit of frequenting sidewalk vendors. They’re more concerned with how fakes chip away at a brand’s cachet—how customers could be lost when they see someone else in a bad imitation of their pants and are turned off for good.

Hoping to keep such instances to a minimum, Blue Holdings retains the watchdog services of a nationwide network of antifraud law firms. (The company declined to name the organization.)

As Hellahsen explains, Blue Holdings paid the firm a $50,000 flat fee to scour flea markets and the internet for takeoffs on their designs. The lawyers then use that money to purchase any fakes they can find—actually buying the goods is usually the only way to track the sellers to a real address. Once Blue Holdings confirms that the designs are counterfeit, the lawyers notify the sellers of impending legal action. “Usually, these are individuals, small people, and 95 percent of the time they pick up the phone, call our law firm, and apologize,” Hellahsen says. The lawyers then arrange for an out-of-court settlement, which the firm collects.

Still, the best defense against scam artists, designers agree, is chameleonic change. “If we make a new jean and ship it on July 1, that product will be on the street by the end of August,” says Drake. So Antik has accelerated its design cycle, introducing new pocket motifs at a faster rate. They also abolished their old trademark patch—an easily imitated swatch of brown leather—and replaced it with a black-leather swatch embossed with a delicate silver tree print. Such changes help to put distance between loyal customers and the wannabes. “At one time, whatever fakes you found in Soho, I could be shipping a similar product at the same time,” says Drake. “That no longer happens.”

But as designers are stepping up their game, so too are counterfeiters, says Luann Ensminger, chief of the commercial fraud unit for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which conducted June’s New York raids. She says that the majority of fakes are produced overseas, out of U.S. law enforcement’s jurisdiction, in factories that also produce legitimate goods. Counterfeiters bribe factory owners into letting them use their facilities overnight.

The expanded access has helped counterfeiters broaden their repertoire. Looking over the list of trademark-holder victims from the raids, Ensminger saw “the big boys: Chanel, Coach, Louis Vuitton, but also Baby Phat, Seven for All Mankind, Rocawear, and Red Monkey.” Pat Reilly, a spokesperson for I.C.E., added, “I had to google some of the brands because I’d never heard of them.”

And counterfeiters’ newly sharpened sense of what’s up-and-coming extends far beyond denim. Two ubiquitous purses on Canal Street this summer bear the names of Jimmy Choo, the designer better known for his pricey stilettos, and Kooba, a fledgling handbag brand favored for its simple and durable leather styles. One vendor said that she had completely sold out of a shipment of bogus versions of Kooba’s giant Natasha tote in two weeks.

Both Kooba and Jimmy Choo declined to comment for this story, reflecting a tendency among designers to keep mum on the subject. “It’s an awkward topic,” says Jennifer Pinto, head of public relations for Juicy Couture, another wildly imitated brand. “The only thing I can tell you is that we’re constantly reinventing ourselves and evolving.”

Meaghan Mahoney, one of the two founding members of the Purse Blog, which chronicles and reviews handbag trends, says that faking bags from Kooba and Jimmy Choo is a savvy move by counterfeiters. “These designers are having their bags be seen on countless celebrities and are finding a more secure place in the market, but they’re still not known to everyone,” she says. “Louis Vuitton is one of the most counterfeited brands in the world, and so many people know to expect this. Counterfeiters hope that the younger crowd will be deceived into buying these bags in the hope that they’re getting a real Kooba.”

Even the rareified world of co-branded luxury items, in which two high-end names collaborate on a product, has fallen prey to fraud. Some of Canal Street’s priciest wares right now are $55 replicas of the Breitling for Bentley watch collection. The real thing retails for anywhere from $5,850 to more than $100,000. Breitling manufactures fewer than 200,000 pieces a year and sells them in only 60 to 70 percent of their 340 authorized U.S. retailers. Yet Lisa Roman, head of marketing at Breitling, says that fakes popped up everywhere within a year of the four-year-old collection’s debut. “Our biggest foe is the internet, on which we don’t authorize any sales,” she says. “We take it as a sign of flattery, but it diminishes the integrity of the brand.”

Across the board, small designers agree that constantly shifting is the key to escaping, if not exterminating, copycats. Caleb Westbay, vice president of sales for Ed Hardy, which makes the popular tattoo-inspired T-shirts and trucker hats that overtook Canal Street almost as quickly as they did Melrose Avenue, says, “It sucks, and we take it seriously. But if we move fast enough, they can’t keep up with us.”

This past Friday Vlad and I were invited to attend an ultra posh party at the glamorous Sagamore Hotel in South Beach, Florida on behalf of Glam. Not sure what to expect, but knowing we had to look South Beach ravishing, Vlad was dressed head to toe in Theory along with Tod’s shoes while I (snuggly) pulled off a stunning David Meister dress. The posh party was held in the Penthouse Suite of the Sagamore Hotel, which overlooks South Beach, and was attended by a a great crowd, including Dr. Lee Gibstein, Olivia Chantecaille, Beth Shapiro from Marchesa, Stylist Ann Caruso, Sagamore Owner Jennifer Sazant, Iron Chef winner Michelle Bernstein, and many more. Vlad and I were totally taken off guard though to find out that a majority of the attendees were at the party to celebrate a fine weekend with Vivre. If you are not familiar with Vivre, it is a posh online store and catalog which sells knock-out designer goods. In one of the bungalow’s poolside, Vivre had a small makeshift shop set up for people to browse and buy goods. I was eying some beautiful Nancy Gonzalez croc bags and gorgeous jewels and jems, while being a little put off at my recent spending that was keeping me from purchasing something. If we were not lucky enough to be invited to this party, we also had the pleasure of meeting of meeting Vivre’s CEO, Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti. Although she was pressed for time, giving one interview after the next, Eva had a brief moment to meet with Vlad and I. This woman is a fashion guru, a business genius, and a stunning lady. We were so happy to get the chance to meet her and so many others!

Read more details about the party and view more pictures below!

Sounds too good to be true right? Wrong, there was so much more. I grew up in South Florida, I know they throw parties that people only dream of. This party had everything, from the location to the treatments. The penthouse suite had a flat screen TV (like that mattered) and mod white leather couches. You could simply snap your finger while laying on the couch, and poof, there was someone to give you a foot rub. The Penthouse Terrace offered the most pristine view of both the pool and ocean. What was offered to us? Here is where you will get really jealous. Botox courtesy of Dr. Gibstein, a Bal Harbour based plastic surgeon. I opted for no Botox, but spoke with Dr. Gibstein who told me that my lips never needed an injection. Talk about a boost of confidence. Vlad dined on the huge array of bagel, lox, and cream cheese while others feasted on made-to-order omelette’s on the terrace. Other options were Beach Body Ready Scrubs, Mojito Manicures + Pedicures, Caviar Pearl Facials, and Brazilian Waxing. You could choose to have many of the treatments either outdoors or indoors.

So you want to know how we really felt about the party? Great! Vlad and I really felt like the party was an eye opener. When we arrived at the posh gathering we did feel a little out of place. Vlad and I only knew each other, but we were determined to mingle. Sitting outside in a lux outdoor chair while sipping on our drink, we felt like the smelly kids. People popped outside and sat across from us, but then immediately went back inside. I did a quick sniff of myself, thought I smelled ok, and then overheard a conversation why no one was outside. Whew, it was not because of Vlad and I, it was because after Botox you need to stay out of the sun. A Botox party is truly the next posh party; for a weekend with the girls, Bachelorette party, or even recommended for a divorce party. This was a totally trendy party. Vlad and I still feel like we have young skin, although I began to closely look in the mirror and found a line or two on my forehead, but that is besides the point that I felt like running back to Dr. G and asking for a touch up! Vlad and I fit perfectly in at the bungalow showing of Vivre products. The gals in the bungalow were really shocked at Vlad’s knowledge of all the bags. He sure made me proud. We ended the party with a touch of sun, humid-struck hair, but feeling very snazzy nonetheless.

Special thanks to Glam for inviting us to such a fabulous party!

See all of the pictures on the Purse Forum here (including a shot of Vlad and I after the party, with not so great hair and lots of squinting which will undoubtedly result in needing Botox sooner than later)

World’s Most Extravagant Handbags
Hitha Prabhakar

Not to be outdone, Louis Vuitton had fashionistas scrambling recently for the $42,000 Tribute Patchwork handbag introduced on the runway last fall. Dubbed “the most expensive handbag ever” by industry experts and media outlets, the four available this year in U.S. stores sold out, but 20 can be found in Louis Vuitton boutiques throughout Europe and Asia.

“If something is hard to find or impossible to get, it makes it more valuable,” says Meaghan Mahoney, editor of purseblog.com, an online community devoted to handbags. “In addition to paying the high price, you are also getting something that no one else will have.”
What hangs in our closets depends on the creativity of these 10 men and women. Click here to see who made our list of fashion industry tastemakers.

That’s true for the Tribute. “It may not be most attractive bag,” Mahoney continues. “It’s made of 15 different patterns of Vuitton handbags all sewn together. But only 24 of them exist.” Translation? It’s unsightly, but prized.

Despite media claims that the Tribute is the costliest handbag on the market, we found several much more expensive. Adding to the princely price tags? Diamonds and rare animal skin.

Read the full article after the jump!

Got $100,000 to burn? How about investing in a diamond-encrusted metallic alligator skin clutch favored by Hollywood’s A-listers? Better act fast, though. With six-figure totes such as these flying off shelves like crinkly hot cakes, it’s a wonder there are any reptiles left.

“People want to spend their money on frivolous things,” says Pamela Danziger, author of Why People Buy Things They Don’t Need and founder of luxury good research company Unity Marketing.

So much so that Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which includes brands such as Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, said during the company’s earnings conference call in February that ready-to-wear fashion and leather goods accounted for much of the company’s 12% growth last year. Online shopping site eluxury.com saw a 13% increase in sales of handbags over $500 in 2006.
In Pictures: World’s Most Extravagant Handbags

Not to be outdone, Louis Vuitton had fashionistas scrambling recently for the $42,000 Tribute Patchwork handbag introduced on the runway last fall. Dubbed “the most expensive handbag ever” by industry experts and media outlets, the four available this year in U.S. stores sold out, but 20 can be found in Louis Vuitton boutiques throughout Europe and Asia.

“If something is hard to find or impossible to get, it makes it more valuable,” says Meaghan Mahoney, editor of purseblog.com, an online community devoted to handbags. “In addition to paying the high price, you are also getting something that no one else will have.”
What hangs in our closets depends on the creativity of these 10 men and women. Click here to see who made our list of fashion industry tastemakers.

That’s true for the Tribute. “It may not be most attractive bag,” Mahoney continues. “It’s made of 15 different patterns of Vuitton handbags all sewn together. But only 24 of them exist.” Translation? It’s unsightly, but prized.

Despite media claims that the Tribute is the costliest handbag on the market, we found several much more expensive. Adding to the princely price tags? Diamonds and rare animal skin.

Bejeweled Bags
Accessorizing handbags with precious stones is not uncommon. The Gadino, from Norwegian designer Hilde Palladino, boasts white gold and diamonds. Cost: $38,470.

The Lana Marks Cleopatra Clutch in alligator ($100,000) comes accessorized with 1,500 black and white round diamonds. Only one clutch is made for retail each year. Marks also makes a yearly limited edition Cleopatra for one actress to carry down the red carpet. Call it a lucky charm–two have won Academy Awards in recent years while possessing the bag: Charlize Theron in 2004, and this year Helen Mirren, who carried hers right up to the podium.

Rare Skins
When it comes to alligator, ostrich or snakeskin, handbag designers go to extreme lengths to find the rarest. Santiago Gonzalez, chief executive of Nancy Gonzalez handbags, has traveled from the Australian outback to Hong Kong to find skins that seldom come to market.
Crazy for cashmere? Click here for five ultra-luxe ways to stay warm in style–for big spenders and thrifty alike.

“What people don’t understand,” he says, “is that it takes a certain amount of area on the skin to make a bag.” That means that since uniformity of scale is prized, even if a reptile with rare skin is found, if too small, the search continues.

The Nancy Gonzalez Porousus Bag, made with uncommon ring lizard skin, costs $30,000. Designer Devi Kroell uses alligator skins whose scales are similar in size–a rarity–to create a $29,000 bag.

A Purse Is Worth A Thousand Words
Of course, an expensive handbag speaks volumes about the lucky person who carries one. The most vocal? The world’s most expensive.

Some argue no bag compares to the Hermes $148,000 Birkin in croc porosus lisse. What makes this bag so expensive–by far the costliest in the world–is not just the type of skin used, but the nine carats of diamonds set in white gold and placed on its clasp and lock. This bag is custom made.

Fair Fashion
Lovely leather aside, with animal rights activists up-in-arms over fashionistas in fur, might we not soon see the day when lizard lovers will have been intimidated against buying bags that once swam or slithered?

“As much you would think there would be a huge backlash, there won’t be,” says Danziger. “It goes back to the basic rule of supply and demand. The more rare and scarce something is, the more people want it. In the case of overly expensive handbags, people will still covet them because it’s an uncommon find.”

In the race for Forbes’ Most Extravagant Handbags, it comes to be no surprise that Hermes takes the cake. The Hermes Birkin in Croc Porosus Lisse is no boring ‘ole standard issue 35cm Birkin, but made on special order only. The limited bag is set with over 10 carats of shiny diamonds, and with a price tag of nearly $150,000 I am quite confident that the number of orders on this beauty are quite limited as well.

Many thanks to Hitha Prabhakar, Megs was very excited to be interviewed by Forbes for the article! Read the full story here.

Thanks to Hitha Prabhakar for the great interview!

Here is the excerpt about our site:

Given the importance of the handbag in the life of contemporary woman, it’s fitting that there are a number of blogs dedicated to paying tribute to this vital accessory.

These two are possibly the best, each wielding an inordinate amount of power when it comes to predicting – and promoting – the ‘it-bag’ of the season. Boasting millions of visitors each month, these are the sites that are attracting a lot of advertising from bag e-tailers, keen to tap into their obsessive users and their seemingless bottomless wallets.

Sometimes gushing (“Miu Miu does it again, tickling us silly with another adorable bag! Ok, the bows might be a little cutesy but if you’re a sophisticated girly girl, this bag was made for you because you know you can pull this off with a sleek and flirty outfit.”) and sometimes downright damning (“…look at these pockets hanging off the bag, do they not remind you of fat bloated cow tongues dangling at the butcher? Or perhaps the designers at Bulga have serious issues with saggy breasts.

We said we liked functional outer pockets on a bag but that doesn’t mean we want half a dozen pockets that are a.) not cute and b.) not useful”) these self-appointed critics can make or break a bag – and possibly the brand behind it.

Read the rest at Daily Mail

I don’t even know where to start. We are both extremely honored, excited and ecstatic to having been chosen on my.yahoo.com as the featured RSS content feed for Yahoo’s incredible newsfeed aggregator. It took me a little to realize where the vast surge of traffic came from….. just wow.

Thanks to the good folks at Yahoo! and all the people who like what we do and support us by visiting us daily. You guys rock and we promise we will continue to rock your world, too!

Megs + Vlad