The contemporary market is full of cute little crossbody bags, and for good reason – not only are they functional weekend pieces for the market’s young customers, but because of their diminutive sizes, they’re at the lower end of the brand’s price range, which helps entice new customers to check out the brand’s wares. The problem, though, is that not all designers are particularly creative when it comes to these pieces – there are a lot of zipper-topped rectangles out there right now.

If you haven’t taken a look at Furla handbags recently, it might be time to take note. We were lucky enough to attend the Furla Fall 2013 Handbag Preview recently, and the attainably priced line is looking more luxe than ever. Fine leathers, rich, bright calf hairs, metal embellishments here and there – the collection strikes just the right note between trendy and traditional, yielding a set of bags that won’t drain your bank account while still looking current for seasons to come.

For a trend that’s going to be very easily identifiable as “so last season” in a year’s time, holographic bags are expensive. With brands like Celine, Stella McCartney and Proenza Schouler leading the way into a more iridescent future, getting the look for a price that feels commensurate with the trend’s staying power (or probable lack thereof) has been challenging.

We introduced you to the Juicy Couture Beach Print Clutches last month, and the combination of a fun photo print and an affordable price tag meant that they were quite well-received. After all, who doesn’t want to carry a little bit of summer with them wherever they go? Even if you can’t be at the beach, at least you can gaze upon one of these fun beach print bags.

Not only do we love a scrappy upstart in the handbag world, but we also love a bold jewelry line, which means that Mawi Fall 2013 Handbags are right up our alley. The London-based brand was originally launched a decade ago as a jewelry upstart, and based on the clutch above, we’re betting you can guess what kind of jewelry Indian-born designer Mawi makes – big, statement-making, incredibly shiny.

Contemporary bag designers walk a very precarious line every day. The people who buy their bags pay attention to fashion and lust after bags that cost well into the four figures, and if buying one of their bags feels like a huge step down in style and quality, customers will go elsewhere. Customers will also go elsewhere, though, if a contemporary brand spends too much money on fancy leather and hardware, thereby driving up the prices of its bags.

A few weeks ago, I realized I hadn’t bought a new bag in a while. Don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely love bags; at this point, though, my collection is expansive and I’m surrounded by bags every single day, both of which help curb my consumerism. However, I started to get an itch and realized it was because I wanted a new bag.

Despite the fact that we obviously love super-pricey designer bags, the PurseBlog team also firmly believes in the notion that a bag doesn’t have to be back-breakingly expensive in order to be totally lust-worthy. We try to highlight as many attainably priced bags as possible around here, and today, we have some big news from one of our absolute favorite contemporary bag (and shoe!) brands.

In the grand scheme of things, growing up in Georgia made me pretty lucky when it came time for summer vacation. We were an eight hour drive away from both Disney World and the beaches of Destin, Florida, which meant that we spent plenty of time getting sunburned and sandy. I recently went back home to visit my parents, and during a shopping excursion with my mom, I ran across the Kate Spade Beach Club Beth Totes.

If you’ve tried to track down a MICHAEL Michael Kors Selma Satchel in the past few months, then you already know that the bag is one of Kors’ biggest bag hits ever – the best colors vanished from stores almost immediately, and pretty soon, even neutrals were scarce. We’ve noticed new shipments of the tote, which we’ve loved from the outset, arriving in stores recently, so now’s a good time to start looking again if you’ve wanted one of these very well-priced bags.