At first glance, a link between what handbag you choose and how well you endure hot, sticky summer weather seems counterintuitive. You don’t wear a bag, you carry it, so what difference does it make? Well, as anyone who’s been stuck in the heat hauling a giant leather tote or satchel knows, it can make a lot of difference. A bag might not cover you, but it definitely spends a lot of time against your skin and body, and especially when you’re outdoors, even that bit of contact can be majorly annoying as temperatures rise.

I’ve been a long-time lover of Rebecca Minkoff. Both the brand and the person behind the brand are a force to be reckoned with. Rebecca started her business around the same time we did, and being able to watch her grow over all these years has been such a joy. I can’t go a day without seeing someone walk down the street with a Morning After Clutch and I don’t go a week without wearing one myself.

At PurseBlog, 3.1 Phillip Lim is one of our personal favorite handbag lines. Lim’s bags are modern, aesthetically impeccable, and best of all, rarely cost more than $1000. If you’re looking for an incredibly chic bag that doesn’t boast logos or completely empty your bank account, there might be no better source than Lim’s line of minimal totes, satchels and clutches.

The contemporary handbag market is so full, so absolutely glutted, that it’s always extra impressive when a piece truly stands out. With the price of leather and hardware design what it is, finding a way to be creative at a reasonable price point grows more difficult by the day. That’s why I’m so obsessed with the Anndra Neen Cage Purse – even though similar bags have existed in the past, Neen’s take is unique both on the current contemporary market and at the $650 price point.

The beginning of summer may seem like an odd time to buy a backpack – after all, they’re most often associated with school, which is just now drawing to a close – but the season calls for bags that are casual, lightweight and hands-free. Outdoor music festivals, days in the park, picnics, maybe even a light hike: all of these activities would benefit from having your man well-equipped with a great backpack, if only so that you can leave your own accessories at home and spend the day truly hands free.

Last week, we rounded up the best accessory gifts for all the recent college grads in your life. In the comments, one of you asked us to make some suggestions for high school grads, and because we like to consider ourselves a full-service blogging operation here, we felt compelled to oblige. Almost any huge life change – graduation, moving to a new city, having a baby – impacts the way a woman interacts with the things that she carries every day, and I like to think that the best way to ready someone for a change like that is to get her the sartorial equipment she needs in order to settle in to her new life.

Yesterday, it came to my attention that today is spring graduation at my alma mater, the University of Georgia, which marks four years since my own advent to the real world. At the time, I was carrying a 2007 Balenciaga bag that I had bought with my own money (from my very glamourous college job selling appliances and TVs at Best Buy), and I remember panicking a little bit when met with the prospect of what I should carry to a job interview.

The Kate Spade girl is my kind of girl. She is fun, flirty and doesn’t take herself too seriously. She loves color and truly loves to use her accessories to spruce up her outfits. I’ve been loving what Kate Spade has been putting out there the past few seasons, and I just found a classic bag in two bright hues that satisfies my need for a colorful bag this spring and summer.

We’re all familiar with diaper bags; they’re a staple of new motherhood and an omnipresent companion during the early part of a child’s life. We’ve covered the difficulty of finding a stylish diaper bag in the past, but finally, companies are starting to get it together and realize that moms want options that are made out of materials other than pink paisley nylon.

I’ve been staring at the Kate Spade Wicker Armadillo Shoulder Bag for over two days now, trying to figure out what to say about it. Words are my thing, always have been, and usually the problem is that I have too many. In this case, though, I’m having trouble coming up with anything that seems even vaguely appropriate. Except that whoever designed this bag has some, err, cojones.