In The Press

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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Image via Conde Nast Portfolio

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!
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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!
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Yesterday and early this morning we brought you some of the world’s most extravagant handbags. Some are drop dead gorgeous while others make you wonder why you would spend one cent on them. The information came from an amazing article written in Forbes magazine and online by Hitha Prabhakar. I had the pleasure of speaking with Hitha and sharing some of my thoughts for the article. Thanks to Hitha and Forbes! Read the full article after seeing the quoted part below!

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!
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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.

Recently there was a great article in Forbes about the World’s Most Extravagant Handbags. Yours truly was interviewed for the article and is quoted in it. I will post the article later, but will be taking you through some the most extravagant handbags according to Forbes today. At the end of the day, I will post the whole article for you to read and enjoy!

Thanks to Hitha Prabhakar for the great interview!

Listed in great company, we were covered on a story that introduced many to the Fashion Blog Stars. We feel lucky to be considered one of the best, and we hope to keep up our reputation!

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