Totes

Sometimes, a little bit of bad taste is the best thing that you can add to an outfit. There’s nothing worse than looking too perfect, too precious, and like you’re trying way too hard. Personality is to be embraced and celebrated in personal style, not avoided.

Admittedly, the Valentino Paillette-Embellished Tote is what you might consider a heaping helping of bad taste. And you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. In fact, I can’t think of one compelling reason that you would be. But it makes me smile anyway, and sometimes, isn’t that what’s important?

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Can we talk about the Givenchy Maxi Nightingale Tote for a second? We get the chance to look through dozens of pictures of celebrities every day in order to create BagThatStyle, and in the last two weeks, this lovely bag has shown up more with more celebs than any other bag that I can recall since we started the site.

Hilary Duff, Vanessa Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale have all been spotted with the bag within days of each other, with little fashion fanfare to encourage them to be seen carrying it. So what’s the deal?

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Alright, who skinned Snuffaluffagus? And who told Prada that it was ok to make a bag out of a beloved Sesame Street character? Have they no shame?

Ok, so I doubt any childhood icons had to die to make the Prada Visone Tote , but that doesn’t make it any less unattractive.

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Talk about a departure from the expected. When I think of Marni, I think of clean lines and geometric shapes, but this Marni bag is entirely different. Fur. Yes, an entire bag covered in alpaca fur from the designer who typically brings us the cleanest colors, lines, and looks.

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There are a lot of things that I love. I love Alexander McQueen. I love black and white patterns. I love challenging design. I love it when function and art collide and something interesting results.

But I don’t love the Alexander McQueen Houndstooth Tote.

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I don’t care how hip or insider-y or snobby the Nina Ricci brand has become since handing of the design help to Olivier Theyskens in 2006, I’m not paying $2,700 for the Nina Ricci Calf Tote.

Every fashionista has a line of price ridiculousness which they cannot force themselves to cross, and Theyskens has found mine. Everyone needs a functional black leather tote in their lives, that much I’ll agree with – it’s a wardrobe standard that most people can appreciate, even if fashion (and bags in general) are not a huge part of their lives.

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Is the Jimmy Choo Diego Straw Tote new, as it’s “pre-order” status on Saks.com would seemingly indicate? I’ve certainly yet to encounter it, and I check online retailers for new bags every day. And if it is brand new, then why is it just showing up now? August, really? People are surely still taking vacations to the beach now, but hasn’t the time for buying straw bags sort of passed?

Particularly for buying a straw bag that will cost, after tax, over $1000. That seems like a beginning-of-the-summer purchase, if you’re inclined to spend so much money on a straw bag at all, and most people contemplating big bag purchases seem to be looking forward to the next season and thinking about black leather, studs, and industrial details, not cutesy straw. The timing of this bag seems incredibly ill-advised, and since the design isn’t particularly strong, I’d bet that it’s destined for a long life on the sale rack. Buy through Saks for $975.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Lanvin bag that I wanted to carry everyday. Same for a brown bag – that color just doesn’t jibe well with my mostly black wardrobe, and as a result, I’m not commonly attracted to bags of that color since I know I won’t get much wear out of them. For some reason, though, those two things combine in the Lanvin Amalia Quilted Cabas Tote to make a bag that I’d love to wear.

A huge portion of the bag’s appeal is the milk chocolate leather. The bag is made entirely of lambskin, which looks so soft and tactile that I can’t help but want to reach through my screen and grope the bag. The surface is largely unobstructed by other design elements, and the result is a smooth expanse of leather that looks like it might actually taste like a Hershey bar if you licked it. Not that I’m advocating that you lick your bags, of course. But wouldn’t it be cool if it did? Even in it’s current state, I’d take this bag in a heartbeat. Buy through Luisa Via Roma for $1561.

Despite the beauty of the last Nancy Gonzalez bag that we reviewed, the combination of exotics and non-exotics didn’t exactly inspire all of our commenters. Using multiple materials is difficult to pull off, for sure, but what about using two exotics? Is the whole more than the sum of its parts? I think it is for the Nancy Gonzalez Python/Crocodile Tote. And just look at the end result…

This may be one of my favorite Nancy Gonzalez bags of all time, which says a lot, given my penchant for exotics. This particular shade of blue-undertoned grey is fantastic for highlighting scale and texture differences on exotic skins and bringing out their natural patterns and variations, which is exactly what a well-designed exotic bag should do. Python is the main event here, making up the front and back of the bag, while the sturdier crocodile skin forms the bag’s gussets. I’d be interested to see what the bag would look like if the material usage was flipped, but either way, it’s still beyond gorgeous. The neat rows of studs that run on either side of the bag’s front panel are the perfect finishing touch and something slightly out of character for the designer – I hope we see more of it in the future. Buy through Saks for $3100.

I both love and hate the Nancy Gonzalez Crocodile Striped Tote. I love it because it is, without a doubt, pretty much gorgeous. The color is listed as tan, which would normally be boring, but the subtle olive green undertones that run through it are enough to make the color something that you don’t see everyday while still maintaining its neutrality. The pale, unobtrusive color does wonders to highlight what’s really important about this bag – the structure. This is the second bag we’ve seen today that has juxtaposed exotic leathers and suede, and the effect here is simultaneously just as successful and totally different. The crocodile mixed with the softer, tactile suede gives the sewn-together strips a depth of visual interest and texture that is absolutely brilliant; I really can’t say enough about it.

What bothers me, though, is that the beauty of the crocodile skin is somewhat lost in the strips of leather and suede. My feeling, as I have explained before, is always that a bag made out of an exotic leather should use that leather’s natural texture to its greatest advantage. In tiny strips, it’s basically impossibly to do that. Stamped croc would have probably been a more cost-effective and appropriate material to use here, even though I’m not generally a proponent of stamping anything on high-end handbags. The price is somewhat reasonable for a bag that does use a great deal of exotic leather, though, so when that’s combined with the bag’s sleek beauty, I can’t hate it too much. Buy through Saks for $2750.