Totes (Page 3)

Is it really almost April? You could have fooled me. There was a time earlier this month when it felt like spring was a foregone conclusion and the last gasp of winter chill had passed, but that feeling was wrong. Much of the East Coast has been unseasonably cold for the past few days, and the reality of the weather just doesn’t match with the bright, optimistic colors contained in the packages of spring clothing that have been arriving at my doorstep for the past week. Surely this cold snap will pass, and when it does, I want to be ready with a bag like the Felix Rey Sardinia Basket Tote.

I’ve mentioned my personal rule that prevents me from buying a straw bag that costs more than $200 before, but this bag comes so close to the cutoff line that I think I’ll give it a pass. Unless, of course, you guys want to be so kind as to help me hunt down a less expensive version with the same kind of tight, nubby weaving.

I thought Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring for us this year. He was wrong and/or the joke is on us. This morning I awoke to snow-covered buildings and tonight the temperature continues to steadily drop. I’m keeping my mind on the tropics in order to stay mentally warm.

Growing up in Florida we had a lemon and lime tree in our yard and these fruits always remind me of bright sunshine-y days. When I first spotted the Stella McCartney Fruit-Print Falabella Tote, my mind went to my childhood backyard and I was happy. But then I took another glance at the bag and wondered who would ever carry it.

The Stella McCartney Falabella Tote first gained favor over a year ago when celebrities as varied as Rihanna and Kate Hudson began sporting the simple, biker-chic faux leather bag with every kind of outfit you could imagine. Many variations on the Falabella theme have followed, and now that we’re on (by my count) the third season rotation of these chain-trimmed purses, one has to wonder when McCartney will run out of ideas.

I can’t tell the future, but unfortunately, inspiration didn’t run out before someone suggested making a crochet version of the bag, which you can see at left. Or, come to think of it, maybe it did, because this iteration isn’t exactly inspired.

There’s perhaps nothing so tragic in fashion as looking at a bag that you know for a fact to be real and thinking that it looks fake. Sadly, that was exactly the reaction I had to the Valentino Sequin-Embellished Rosette Tote. Perhaps this motif has reached its logical end for the brand – it may be time for Valentino to start mining a different theme, considering how successful it was with birds last week.

It seems as though there are few animal-derived materials from which a designer has not attempted to make a handbag at some point. We’ve seen a zillion different versions of leather and fur, comprising almost any animal you can somehow raise on a farm, plus eel and stingray. Missoni makes a bag partially comprised of the skin from chicken feet. There is nothing new under the sun.

Except for maybe horsehair. It’s been used for centuries to make bows for string instruments, but Akris appears to have cornered the modern market on luxury horsehair purses with their line of Akris Ai Tote Bags. As far as I’ve been able to find, other brands have used horsehair to accent their designs, but this is the first bag in a while to use the material as the main attraction. The upside is that using the material doesn’t harm the animals in any way; the downside, unfortunately, is that the medium version costs a whopping $4400.

Have you ever seen a bag in person, talked yourself out of buying it and then obsessed over it for months on end afterward, at which point it has become sold out and you can no longer get it? That’s the tragic story of me and the Celine Boston Tote.

I thought I had successfully put the bag out of my mind, but after seeing Leighton Meester carry hers two weeks ago and Tommy Ton’s great photos of Celine bags on Jak & Jil Blog (from whence the above picture came), my obsession is back to full power and it shows no signs of abating.

Much has been made over fall’s leopard trend (in fact, much has been made by us), but it’s been difficult to crown a clear winner when trying to decide on the best leopard bag of the season. When we did a decidedly non-comprehensive roundup of some of the season’s spotted bags two months ago, many people liked the YSL option that cost a very unfortunate $3500.

I’ve found a bag that I like even more than that one, and for nearly a thousand dollars less. The only problem is that I’ve only “found” it in a philosophical sense – the Mulberry Neely Tote is sold out everywhere that I can think to look, including Mulberry’s website. It appears as though the brand has successfuly capitalized on the Alexa’s popularity and created yet another it-bag.